Kimberly Rayl, a graduation coach for the East Triad in Cheyenne, helps students meet their graduation goals. Wyoming high school graduate numbers increased this year.
For the first time in four years, graduation rates increased at high schools in Wyoming and across Laramie school districts.
Jillian Balow, Wyoming’s superintendent of public instruction, said state-wide graduation rates increased by a small, yet important, one percent from the previous year’s figures. Graduation rates in Wyoming decreased over the last four years, starting at 81.3 percent in the 2008-2009 school year. The state is up to a rate of 78.6 percent in the 2013-2014 school year from the previous year’s 77.5 percent, thanks mostly to smaller districts like Rock River, Burlington, Casey and Cokeville. Balow said this might be due to parental involvement.
“My hunch is that in smaller schools we see a greater degree of parent involvement,” Balow said. “There are typically smaller class sizes, so we’ll be really looking, not speculating at what’s making the difference in those schools possible.”
Kimberly Rayl, a graduation coach at Cheyenne East High School, said her department focuses on emphasizing graduation to students, particularly to incoming freshman.
“In the last four years we have started really emphasizing graduation and intervene when we have students that are at risk of not graduating on time,” Rayl said.
Rayl also said prevention is the key to making sure students graduate high school.
“We want to create a culture that encourages and supports graduation from the beginning of our students’ high school experience,” Rayl said.
Cheyenne East has a graduation rate of 82.06 percent, but she said they are not satisfied with that number and will continue to increase their rate in the coming years.
Despite the slump in graduation rates in the past four years and the recent increase, some schools have seen consistently high graduation rates. Jim Kuhn, the principal of Powell High School, said that accessibility of online courses along with tutoring and work experience programs help Powell High School keep graduation rates up.
“We were around 84 or 85 percent when I first began working here and last year we were at 89 percent,” Kuhn said.
The close connection between Powell High and their nearby community college is also a strong factor, Khun said.
