TACOMA, Wash. — Ahnalyse Glenn-Leufroy of Silas High school can’t wait for senior year to end and already has plans after high school.
“I think, most likely, I’m going to end up as some sort of teacher, probably in science. So I’m gonna try to major in education,” she said.
As a soon-to be Silas High alum, Glenn-Lewfroy is proud of the example her school is setting throughout the school district: the graduation rate sits at 97.1%.
“They actually care about us graduating and getting there,” she said. “I really hope other schools can get up to that point.”
Meanwhile, Tacoma Public Schools has hit a historic record: the district’s overall graduation rate is 91.1%, the highest that it’s ever been. The school district’s graduation rate has remained on a steady incline since 2015.
Like many districts across the country, graduation rates dipped slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic, but rallied within two years.
Silas High School Principal Bernadette Ray said the key is to make sure kids have a pathway forward after graduation.
“What is your plan when you leave high school?” she asked. “That plan may change when you’re 22, or 42, or whenever, but you have some idea of what your next step is.”
She also said educators aimed to take the experiences students had while away from school to build on the skills they learned.
“I have students that were managers at work,” Ray said. “Students that were taking leadership roles at home and in the community because they weren’t coming to school full-time, and so they gained a lot of skills in that. So in addressing that gap, there’s also a lot of greatness that we’re finding in students that’s pretty cool to see.”
District Superintendent Josh Garcia said making sure students stayed engaged during a global pandemic required all hands on deck, and explored every option.
“We were knocking on doors, handing out computers, making sure that we were finding those freshmen that weren’t getting up online. We had food services folks having to deliver meals in a different way, we had school principals making phone calls,” Garcia said. “It was multi-pronged, I would never describe it as easy, but it was definitely worth it.”