Roaring Fork schools are outpacing Colorado’s 10-year high graduation rate.

Colorado high schools’ overall graduation rate for 2020 is 81.9%, the highest ever rate for the past 10 years, according to the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). However, a press release from Jan. 14 stated that the graduation rate for the Roaring Fork School District exceeds this average at 84.5%.

Rob Stein, Superintendent for RFSD, said the numbers don’t mean very much unless one looks at the different student populations for each school or district in order to best evaluate them.

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“The rate being higher than the state actually doesn’t mean very much at all, and the reason is that what matters is you have to look at the populations of our school district versus the populations of the state,” Stein said.

The important thing for the RFSD board to see is that graduation rates did not drop drastically, something that was cause for concern since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

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“It’s a relief to me that we didn’t see more kids drop out, we didn’t see fewer kids graduate given what happened mid-year last year,” Stein said.

The press release also stated that the RFSD student dropout rate shifted from 2% in 2019 to 2.4% in 2020. Although there is a slight increase, this number is still within the 2-2.5% range RFSD saw over the past five years.

“If kids didn’t graduate in time we want to hang onto them until they’re ready to graduate…so a (graduation that takes) 6-7 years is still awesome for us,” Stein said.

Stein said RFSD’s main priority is to keep students on track and help them when they can. He provided examples of “universal built-in support” for all students, but particularly those who fall into the economically disadvantaged subgroup.

“Also being more flexible with students like giving them asynchronous opportunities to participate if things like work or competition for bandwidth in the household for the internet become complete dealbreakers.”

Stein said he thinks RFSD stands apart from other school districts across the state due to their strong commitment to student engagement. He mentioned the district’s crew system that helps keep track of groups of about 15-20 students so that needs can be met with more precise attention when challenging circumstances present themselves to students, or situations they do not have control over.

“We’re watching eagerly to see what happens for the rest of this year and to see that all of our students graduate, and we continue to provide lots of support for every student. Next year’s numbers when they come out in the fall around graduation rates will be really telling about how we did.”

jpeterson@postindependent.com