Banning, Beaumont High Schools' Graduation, Dropout Rates Revealed

Both major high schools in Banning and Beaumont saw a greater percentage of students graduate in recent years than the state average, according to data released Wednesday by the state.

Statewide, more than three quarters, or 76.3 percent, of students who started high school in 2007 graduated with their class in 2011, according to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.  That’s an increase of 1.5 percentage points from 2010.

At Banning High School, the rate was 88.6 percent in 2011, the most recent year for which this data is available.  In 2010, it was 81.2 percent.

At Beaumont High School, 93.1 percent of students who started in 2007 graduated in 2011.  That rate was also up, from 86.8 percent in 2010.

“Every graduate represents a success story in one of the most effective job and anti-poverty programs ever conceived, our public schools,” Torlakson said. “These numbers are a testament to the hard work of teachers and administrators, of parents and, most of all, of the students themselves. While they are a great illustration of all that is going right in California schools, they should also remind us that schools need our support to continue to improve so that every student graduates prepared for college, a career, and to contribute to our state’s future.”

This is only the second year the state has tracked groups of students from 9^th through 12^th grades to determine this graduation rate, providing data to compare year-over-year improvement.

Dropout Rates

Also studied by the state were dropout rates.  Overall in California, the dropout rate was 14.4 percent in 2011. The remaining 9.3 percentage points are made up of students who are neither graduates nor dropouts (i.e., still enrolled in school, non-diploma special education students, and those who took a high school equivalency exam).

According to the state data:

• 22 of the 220 students who started 9^th grade at Banning High School in 2007 dropped out by 2011, or 10 percent.
• That number is less than the dropout rate from the previous year’s class, which was 16.6 percent—or 37 of the original freshman class size of 223.
• For Beaumont High School, only 3.3 percent—or 17 of 508—of students who enrolled in 2007 did not graduate with their class in 2011. 
• That number is also less than in 2010, when 38 of 491 of those who started in 2006 had dropped out by 2010, or 7.7 percent.