Way to go, Class of 2016!

According to data released by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE),Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ (VBCPS) Class of 2016 achieved both the division’s highest On-Time Graduation (OTG) rate and lowest dropout rate since 2008, the first year the VDOE began using cohort-based calculations for these reports.

91.3 percent of the division’s 2016 graduates earned their diploma in four years. This is a 1.5 percentage point increase compared to last year and 7.1 percentage points higher than 2008. The VBCPS Class of 2016 also posted the division’s lowest cohort dropout rate at 4.7 percent, which is 2.3 percentage points lower than the Class of 2008.

Other VBCPS successes in this year’s data include:

• Seven of 11 of the division’s high schools have OTG rates above 90 percent.
• Seven of 11 of the division’s high schools achieved increases in the graduation rate as well as decreases in the dropout rate.
• The OTG rate for African-American students increased 2.5 percentage points compared to 2015 and is now at 88.2 percent while the dropout rate decreased to 5.8 percent.
• Economically-disadvantaged students showed the largest OTG rate increase of any student subgroup with a gain this year of 2.8 percentage points

For more information, see the school division’s press release.