Alabama education officials got good news Thursday about the graduating class of 2023: More students are graduating high school, and are doing so prepared for college and jobs.
The percentage of students graduating on-time, defined as graduating four years after being a first-time high school freshman, rose to 90%, up from 88.2% for the class of 2022. And the percentage of all students who are ready for college or a career was up, too: From 79% in 2022 to 84% in 2023.
Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey told board members that $10 million in state funding lawmakers provided to beef up college and career readiness offerings in schools made a difference.
“CCR grants came from a discussion of board members around this table,” Mackey said, “that if we’re going to require all of our students to have a CCR to graduate, we need to support our schools to get there. So let’s go ask the legislature for money.”
Lawmakers funded the grants last year, he said, and it looks like they’ll fund them for this year, too. The current supplemental education appropriation, HB144, shows a $17 million appropriation for the grants.
Assistant Superintendent Melissa Shields told board members that the state sends funding and support to high schools with large amounts of at-risk students.
Some schools are offering “twilight school,” or classes in the evenings, for students who need to work during the day. Others are offering childcare for students who are also parents, Shields said.
Instructional Services Coordinator Sean Stevens said the grants help schools implement new programming and push students forward.
“We were able to prioritize [grants] based on those schools that had a 15-point gap between their graduation rate in their college and career readiness rate,” Stevens said. “Many of those schools were able to receive close to $400,000.”
Schools used the grants in many different ways, he said.
“Those grants have been able to fund students going on college tours, business and industry tours and provided test prep for students and preparing the teachers in the building to help students with test prep.”
Grants were also used to pay for scholarships for dual enrollment and training for teachers to teach dual enrollment and Advanced Placement courses, he said.
Beginning with the class of 2026, all students must earn one of the following credentials that indicate the graduate is college or career ready in order to get a diploma:
- A benchmark score on the ACT college entrance exam,
- A qualifying score of three or higher on an Advanced Placement exam,
- A qualifying score of four or higher on an International Baccalaureate exam,
- Earning college credit while in high school,
- Earning silver or gold status on the ACT WorkKeys exam,
- Completing an in-school youth apprenticeship program,
- Earning a career technical industry credential listed on the compendium of valuable credentials of the Alabama Committee on Credentialing and Career Pathways,
- Attaining career and technical education completer status, or
- Being accepted into a branch of the military before graduation
District- and school-level graduation rates are not yet publicly available, according to education officials. Click here to see college and career readiness rates for the class of 2022.
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