Even as teaching and learning was upended last year with the start of the pandemic, the largest school district in western Massachusetts continued to see a decrease in dropouts.
According to data released by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Springfield Public Schools had an increase in the graduation rate and a decrease in the dropout rate in 2020 – the continuation of trends that started almost a decade ago when administrators made it a priority to keep more kids in school.
The dropout rate in Springfield last year was 3 percent, a 70 percent decline since 2012, which officials of the city’s schools said is the largest decrease in the state over that time period.
The statewide dropout rate in 2020 was reported at 1.6 percent. There has been little year-to-year change in the overall dropout rate for a decade.
Springfield’s graduation rate last year was 77 percent. That is a 20.4 percentage point improvement since 2012. The state graduation rate ticked up last year to 89 percent.
Superintendent of Schools Dan Warwick said no matter how you look at the numbers the improvement is “very significant.”
" I'm very very proud of our staff and thier commitment," Warwick said.
In an effort to keep more kids in school, Springfield pursued strategies that relied on data such as chronic absenteeism to identify in the early grades kids who could become dropout risks. To help them make it through high school and graduate the district offers a number of pathways that include online credit recovery courses, alternative programs to traditional learning, and night school.
"It is that reaching out to familes, staying connected, the personal relationship building, and being relentless--we don't give up on families," Warwick said.
Warwick said the schools work closely with social service agencies to support students’ emotional needs.
" Providing wraparound supports made a huge difference," Warwick said.
The city is also expanding pre-school enrollment. Warwick said in two years full-day universal pre-school will be available for children ages 3 and 4.
"The data showed how far our kids were behind coming into kidergarten and many times that is too steep a hill for them to climb" Warwick said.
In a report to the School Committee, Warwick highlighted the progress that has been made at the High School of Science and Technology. Once ranked as one of the worst high schools in the state, its graduation rate has gone from 39.9 percent in 2012 to 85.4 percent last year.
He said graduation rates have improved across the board for the district’s Black and Latino students and for English language learners.
"So those sub-groups which we watch so closely are where the biggest gains happened,' Warwick said. " I'm very very proud of our staff for executing our plan on that."
Mayor Domenic Sarno recalled that when he took office in 2008, barely half the children who had enrolled in the Springfield Public Schools would go on to graduate. He applauded the turnaround.
"That is good news and we want to do even better," Sarno said.
This month, elementary school buildings in Springfield reopened for in-person classes for the first time in more than a year.
During the remote-only school time, attendance averaged 92.5 percent, only slightly below the normal attendance rate of 92.9 percent.
