St. Cloud and Sartell High School Graduation Rates Increase, Sauk Rapids’ Drops

(KNSI) – St. Cloud’s graduation rate improved by five percent, while Minnesota’s graduation rate slipped a little. The Minnesota Department of Education released the graduation rate data on Wednesday.

District 742 reported a graduation rate of 69%, with 565 students getting their high school diplomas during the 2020-2021 school year. That’s an improvement from the 2019-2020 school year, when 64.1% of students graduated. Data shows the Sartell-St. Stephen School District’s graduation rate improved to 97.5%, with 307 seniors graduating in 20-21 compared to 95.6% in 19-20. The Sauk Rapids-Rice School District’s graduation rate declined by 2.1%, going from 87.3% in 19-20 to 85.2% during the 20-21 school year.

The statewide graduation rate dropped by 0.5% from 2020. According to the MDE, the drop is due to the impact of the pandemic on students.
The 2020-21 school year was the first full school year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The graduation rate for the class of 2021 was 83.3% (57,137 students. MDE officials say the slight decrease in graduation rate is driven by a 0.3% increase in the dropout rate and a 0.2% increase in the unknown rate.

Over the last several years, Minnesota’s four-year graduation rate has been trending upward, rising from 82.5 for the class of 2016 to 83.8 for the class of 2020, and dropout rates have decreased.

You can review the statewide education data by clicking here.

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