Milwaukee graduation rates suffer more than other schools statewide during pandemic
More Wisconsin students were chronically absent and graduation rates took a slight hit in the 2020-21 school year, according to new data from the state Department of Public Instruction reflecting public schools.
DPI had already shared standardized test scores from the 2020-21 school year, showing statewide drops in performance, but the data released Tuesday was the first look at attendance and graduation rates in the first full school year of the pandemic.
In Milwaukee, where families have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and public schools were entirely virtual for most of the school year, the four-year graduation rate suffered more than the state average. It dropped from 67.4% in 2020 to 63.8% in 2021.
Milwaukee Public Schools also saw a greater decline in attendance, with students attending an average of 84.9% of their school days in the 2020-21 school year. In the previous four years, the rate was 87% to 88%.
Disparities in graduation rates widen
As the pandemic exacerbated economic and health disparities nationwide, the DPI data showed widening gaps for marginalized students.
The statewide four-year graduation rate for the class of 2020 was the highest it's been in five years at almost 90.5%. That dropped to 89.5% for the class of 2021, about the same as it was in 2018 and still higher than the 2017 graduation rate.
Disparities in graduation rates widened. While the rate only dropped by 0.3% for white students, it dropped by 1% for Hispanic students, 4.2% for Black students, 0.8% for Asian students, 6.7% for American Indian students and 4% for Pacific Islander students. The rates for most students of color had been making gains in prior years.
Gaps also widened for students based on their family's income. The four-year graduation rate dropped 3.1% for students considered economically disadvantaged, dropping only 0.1% for other students. For homeless students, it dropped 2.8%.
English language learners were also left behind. While this demographic made huge gains in previous years, growing their four-year graduation rate from 65.1% in 2017 to 76.9% in 2020, the
rate for 2021 fell to 75.8.
The graduation rate for students with disabilities fell for the first time in at least four years, from 69.8% to 69.2%.
The female student graduation rate was higher than state average; the male rate was below.
Not surprisingly, different districts went in different directions. In the Appleton Area School District, the fouryear graduation rate dropped from 87% to just under 85% — the lowest in five years. The Green Bay Area Public School District fell from 89% to 87%, but that is still higher than the rate in the years just before the pandemic which hovered around 86%.
The Oshkosh Area School District saw an increase in its graduation rate by about three percentage points from 87.7% to 90.3%.
1 in 6 students chronically absent in Wisconsin public schools
The more than 850,000 Wisconsin students of all grade levels in public schools saw a slight drop in attendance during the 2020-21 school year as chronic absenteeism among students increased. The dropout rate — which had been steadily decreasing in the years leading up to the pandemic — held steady from the previous year.
From the 2016-17 school year to 201920, the statewide attendance rate held steady around 94% varying by no more than a tenth of a percentage. Last school year broke that trend, bringing the attendance rate down to 93%.
Attendance rate is calculated by dividing the actual days present by the possible days of attendance across all students, according to DPI.
A racial breakdown of the data shows that white and Asian students saw higher-than-average attendance while other students of color missed more days. Black students had the lowest attendance rate at 82.5%.
At the same time, about 16% of students were considered chronically absent — those who attended less than 90% of the days they were enrolled. That’s up from 12.9% the previous two years.
Disparities were especially widened among these students. About 44.8% of Black students and 25% of Hispanic students were considered chronically absent, up from 35.1% and 18.9%, respectively, the previous year.
Between 2016-17 and 2019-20, the statewide dropout rate steadily decreased. Last year, the rate held steady at 1.1% of students across the state.