Wyoming Department of Education releases the graduation rate for 2021

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - On Wednesday, the Wyoming Department of Education released their graduation rate for 2021at a virtual conference.

Despite the pandemic, the Wyoming graduation rate has continued to increase for the 8th year in a row.

“Especially the last couple of years, to make sure that we are continuing to graduate more students than the year before really speaks to how highly we value education in this state. That is work by families and teachers and school staff,” said Kari Eakins, Interim Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The class of 2021 had an 82.4 percent graduation rate, the highest rate Wyoming overall has ever achieved, which has grown since 2013 when the rate sat at 77.6 percent.

Two districts graduated students at 100 percent they were, Sheridan and Washakie. Seventeen districts in Wyoming graduated seniors at a graduation rate of 90 percent or above.

Eakins says they are proud that the WDE continues to grow the graduation numbers and will continue this trajectory with some of the infrastructure money to create more supportive programs to improve online learning.

During the pandemic, the WDE realized some underserved students needed better access to additional resources.

“For some families, it’s not an option. They are in too remote of a location to have virtual education or even some of that supplementary tutoring stuff that can happen online to have that available to them. So that creates kind of a homework gap where when they are not at school they have as many resources as other students,” said Eakins.

Students among the rural, first nations, ESL, and homeless demographic struggled with tech, connectivity, and access to programs during the pandemic.