Last week, state education officials rolled out the 2024 California School Dashboard, featuring color-coded gauges and other visuals to show how districts and schools are performing.
Along with the dashboard’s public release, the state also produced a number of updated data reports, including the latest graduation and chronic absenteeism rates.
They revealed that Orange County’s four-year high school graduation rate climbed to nearly 92 percent for the 2023-24 academic year, marking a 2.1 percentage point increase from five years earlier. That puts our county well above the statewide average, which rose from 84.5 percent in 2018-19 to 86.4 percent in 2023-24.
Meanwhile, the proportion of OC graduates meeting University of California and California State University requirements increased slightly from 55.3 percent in 2018-19 to 57.3 percent in 2023-24. Statewide, the percentage rose from 50.5 percent to 51.9 percent over the same period.
Chronic absenteeism down
Orange County also made significant progress in reducing chronic absenteeism. In 2023-24, the county’s chronic absenteeism rate dropped to 15.2 percent, down from 19.2 percent in 2022-23 and a high of 21.1 percent during the pandemic disruptions of 2021-22. The improvement mirrors statewide trends, where the chronic absenteeism rate fell to 20.4 percent in 2023-24, marking a significant decline from 30 percent in 2021-22.
While equity gaps persist, data shows that the county’s chronic absenteeism rates improved across nearly all racial and ethnic groups, as well as vulnerable student populations, including foster youth, students with disabilities and English learners.
Hispanic or Latino students, who make up Orange County’s largest student group, saw their absenteeism rate drop from 27.9 percent in 2021-22 to 20.2 percent in 2023-24. African American students also experienced a notable decline, from 25.9 percent in 2021-22 to 22.7 percent in 2023-24.
Academic honors on the rise
With its improved graduation rates, Orange County also saw gains in special diploma honors.
For example, the number of graduates earning the State Seal of Biliteracy — recognizing proficiency in multiple languages — increased from 7,267 in 2018-19 to 7,871 in 2023-24, representing 21.6 percent of all graduates.
Likewise, recipients of the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma, honoring academic excellence across core subjects, rose from 11,701 to 14,291 during the same span, accounting for nearly 40 percent of graduates in 2023-24.
Summary and detailed reports, with data broken down by school, district, county and state levels, are available at the California Department of Education’s DataQuest website.