RIDE Releases 2023-24 High School Graduation Rates
Published on Friday, June 06, 2025
Statewide results maintain 10-year high; first time visualization shows the impact of attendance on graduation rates
PROVIDENCE, RI – The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) announced today that the 2023-24 4-year cohort graduation rate for students who entered high school during the 2020-21 school year was 84.1%, maintaining a 10-year high from the 2022-23 school year. In addition to overall graduation rates, statewide dropout rates decreased, and while gaps in graduation rates amongst student subgroups still exist, multilingual learners, low-income students, and Hispanic students made notable progress in closing those gaps.
“The latest graduation results underscore that Rhode Island students continue to move in the right direction,” said Governor Dan McKee. “We continue to expand access to engaging, high-quality secondary education opportunities because we know they set up our students for college and career success. I look forward to continuing to work with all our partners to ensure our high schools equip our students with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive.”
“The latest data shows our students, educators and families are continuing to work together to ensure academic success,” said Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. “While the trends are encouraging, too many Rhode Island students are still struggling to stay in school and graduate, and we need to continue to collectively work together to ensure that all our students are prepared for lifelong success. The latest data reinforces our statewide commitment to continue to curb chronic absenteeism to improve academic outcomes.”
“The Council on Elementary and Secondary Education commends the students, parents, teachers, and school leaders who have worked hard to promote greater achievement in our high schools,” said Council Chair Patti DiCenso. “We’ve worked diligently to improve the high school experience and enhance our program offerings and are seeing real momentum. The Council remains committed to ensuring our students excel in the classroom, workplace, and beyond.”
For the first time this year, RIDE released visualizations that show the impact that student chronic absenteeism has on students successfully graduating. Students who were never chronically absent had a 4-year graduation rate of 96.2%, compared to a graduation rate of 58.9% for students who were chronically absent for all four years of high school. Rhode Island defines chronic absenteeism as missing 10% of school days, accounting for approximately 18 days or more of school. Since the state launched the Attendance Matters RI campaign, chronic absenteeism has decreased statewide by nearly 10% since the height of the pandemic.
These results also reinforce statewide efforts to reimagine the high school experience and prepare Rhode Island students for college and career success. These efforts have included the adoption of new readiness-based graduation requirements, significantly expanding career and technical education programs aligned to 21st century industries and expanding postsecondary course opportunities through programs like the All Course Network.
“There is so much more to do to prepare our students for lifelong success, and we need to keep that momentum going,” continued Commissioner Infante-Green. “However, for learning, nothing beats students showing up for class. Whether our students are preparing for their career or preparing for college, attendance matters, and we’ve implemented new graduation requirements to reimagine the high school experience and make it more engaging,” she concluded.
During the 2023-24 school year, the Providence Public Schools District’s (PPSD’s) 4-year graduation rate improved year-over-year by 2.6% points to 79.4%, and six of the ten schools that had the highest percentage point increase in graduation rates were from PPSD. For comparison, the 4-year graduation rate for PPSD in the 2018-19 school year, prior to the beginning of the State intervention, was 73.6%, and the 4-year graduation rate for the 2006-07 graduation rate for Providence Public schools was 58.3%. The Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex, one of the district’s new five redesign schools focusing on life sciences, had the highest increase of any school across the state with 2023 and 2024 4-year graduation rates.
Detailed information on graduation rates for Rhode Island students can be found at https://datacenter.ride.ri.gov/Data/Graduation and https://datacenter.ride.ri.gov/Data/AttendanceData.