High school graduates are more likely to be employed and earn
higher salaries than high school dropouts. They are also less
likely to become single parents and less likely to rely upon
public assistance or become involved in the criminal justice
system than students who do not graduate high school.
For the 2007-2008 school year, Pinellas County’s
four-year cohort-based graduation rate increased to a new
all-time high of 74.4%, a 7.1 percentage point increase over the
prior school year and the largest year-to-year increase since
1998-99 when the current method of calculation was implemented.
The increase was larger than that of any Florida county of
comparable size and was primarily attributable to students
receiving GED’s and diplomas via alternate assessments.
Pinellas’ graduation rate remained slightly below the
state average (75.4%) and other similarly sized counties,
except Duval (65.9%).
All racial/ethnic groups achieved year-to-year gains in
graduation rates over the prior school year. Non-Hispanic
black students achieved the largest year-to-year gain,
increasing 11.7 percentage points to 56.4%. In comparison,
the graduation rates for white non-Hispanic and Hispanic
students were 80.5% and 64.1%, respectively.
