Pendleton graduation rate drops

By Terry Murry on Friday, January 21st, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

PENDLETON – The four-year high school graduation rate at Pendleton High School dropped dramatically for the 2020-21 school year. It went from 90.36 percent the previous year down to 78.53 percent. The school district grad rate, which includes students at Hawthorne High School and Nixyaawii Community School dropped from 80.18 percent to 75.52 percent.

Interestingly, both Hawthorne and Nixyaawii saw their graduation rates improve in spite of the pandemic. Superintendent Chris Fritsch said the large drop was in one demographic group.

“We’re probably going to have to do a little bit deeper analysis to see why the White students as a group dropped 7.5 percentage points,” Fritsch said.

Native American students’ graduation rate improved by 12 percent to 84.62 percent. Students with disabilities also saw a 12 percent graduation rate increase to 74.36 percent. Students with a low socio-economic background also saw a 10 percent jump to 77.36 percent.

Fritsch said high school teachers are hard at work to correct the downward trend monitoring freshmen and sophomores to make sure they are on track and to intercede if they are not.

“We’ve got some things in place that I think we can get back on track with our overall rates in the future,” he said. “We want to work hard and we want to make sure we’re working smart as well.”