The high school graduation rate for the class of 2014 in the Jefferson Parish Public School System (JPPSS) is 71.9 percent, according to recent data released by the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE). This figure is the highest graduation rate for the district in more than a decade, and represents an increase of 2.5 percentage points when compared to figures from the class of 2013, more than double the state average growth of 1.1 percentage points over the same time period.
“This improvement in our graduation rate is extremely encouraging for JPPSS and demonstrates that we are headed in the right direction,” said acting superintendent Michelle Blouin-Williams. “Our goal is to continue this progress, ensuring that our students not only get to high school ready to learn, but also that they receive a rigorous and relevant high school education that will prepare them to graduate on time and be successful in their lives beyond high school.”
Among the JPPSS high schools that posted above average graduation rates are Grand Isle School, Fisher Middle/High, and the district’s three advanced academies. Grand Isle graduated 90 percent of its students, giving it the highest rate of the district’s open enrollment high schools; Fisher’s rate was 88.6 percent. Haynes Academy and Thomas Jefferson High School maintained a graduation rate above 95 percent, and Patrick Taylor Academy’s rate was 100 percent.
The 2013-14 graduation rate represents the percentage of students who began high school as freshmen in 2010 and graduated with a regular diploma in four years. The graduation rate for JPPSS has steadily increased since the 2006-07 school year, when the district graduated 60.4 percent of its students.