Q&A of the Day – Is Florida’s Record Graduation Rate Inflated?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: Hey Brian, just heard your commentary about how Florida has such successful school programs. I wanted to let you know that I know several school teachers here in Palm Beach County, and they have numerous incentives to get kids through the program and help them graduate whether they're qualified to graduate or not. I think that the graduation success rates in Florida are inflated due to these incentives to push kids through. I think that you should at least mention that that happens in our public schools.
Bottom Line: Recently we learned that Florida posted a record high graduation rate for the 2024-2025 school year of 92.2% - which shattered the previous record high of 90.1% that came during the pandemic. As we’re talking about the potential for inflated graduation rates that could be the result of “pushing kids through” the system – that's a highly instructive place to start the conversation.
Before diving into how rigorous Florida’s high school graduation requirements are to obtain diploma, and whether the standards have perhaps been watered down leading to higher graduation rates, simply comparing the requirements between Florida’s previous record high for graduation and what’s happened most recently provides instant insight that meritorious improvement is indeed at least a meaningful part of the equation.
Each of the previous two record high graduation rates in Florida (90% in 2019-2020 and 90.1% in 2020-2021) were achieved during the two COVID years when Florida’s high school graduation exam wasn’t administered or required for high school graduation. Therefore, empirically, independent of other potential factors or changes, Florida’s current record high graduation rate was achieved while having actually raised the standards/requirements over the two previous record high years. As for other considerations that address today’s topic, let’s dive in and see what’s changed over time that might impact graduation rates.
In evaluating changes which impact Florida’s graduation requirements, it’s the changes surrounding Florida break from the Common Core curriculum to the B.E.S.T. standards that Governor DeSantis championed and was able to successfully usher through the state legislature. Here are the changes that could impact graduation outcomes:
- Transition from FSA to FAST/B.E.S.T. Assessments: Florida replaced the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) with the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) progress monitoring system and Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) standards. This affected how statewide assessments (Grade 10 ELA, Algebra 1 EOC) were administered and used for graduation.
- Mandatory Financial Literacy Course: A financial literacy course became required, often as part of social studies or electives.
- Civic Literacy Requirement: Students in U.S. Government courses must take the Florida Civic Literacy Exam.
Comparatively, Florida’s graduation requirements had increased not only from the COVID years, but also from the prior standards that had been in place under Common Core. All signs point in the direction that on balance Florida’s graduation rate, in an apples-to-apples comparison to previous times, is generally based on successful improvements in outcomes as opposed to being driven by passing kids through school.
There was an effort in Florida’s legislative session last year to end Florida’s
requirement to pass the Algebra 1 EOC and Grade 10 ELA (FAST/B.E.S.T.) assessments to earn a standard diploma – however it didn’t pass in last year’s session.
Today’s topic also sent me down the path of comparing Florida’s graduation standards to the requirements in other states. There’s way too much data to rhetorically parse through, however here’s what I found:
- Credit Requirement: Florida’s 24 credits is among the highest total credit requirements nationally
- Exit/Assessment Exams: Florida is one of only six states requiring standardized exit-type assessments tied to graduation
- Multiple Diploma Pathways: Like most states, Florida offers alternate pathways (IB, AICE, AP with test scores) that can also fulfill graduation requirements
When you stack all of Florida’s requirements together and compare them to other states (starting with the fact that 44 states no longer require a standardized test for graduation), what we see is that Florida is in the top four states for high school graduation standards, with New Jersey, Texas and Virginia being the other three. In fact, there’s a case to be made that Florida’s standards are the most rigorous in the country currently.
Effectively what this analysis illustrates is why it is that Florida has ranked 1st or 2nd for K-College Education over the past three years. On balance, it’s not smoke and mirrors. This isn’t to say that there aren’t certain circumstances where kids aren’t perhaps pushed along in a way that isn’t completely based on merit, however there are certain aspects of the requirements that simply can’t be faked, a la, the standardized testing. As always there are two sides to stories and one side to facts. The facts support Florida’s education story generally as being one that’s a legitimate success.