Henrico Schools touts 98% graduation rate for CTE-completers

Henrico students who completed at least one sequence of Career and Technical Education classes graduated high school on time at a rate of more than 98% last year, Mac Beaton, director of workforce and career development announced at the last Henrico School Board meeting.

“That's something to celebrate,” Beaton said.

Among Henrico County Public Schools’ 1,666 CTE senior completers, only 28 didn't graduate on time in 2020. The Virginia on-time graduation rate defines graduates as students who earn Advanced Studies, Standard, IB, or Applied Studies Diplomas for students who entered the ninth-grade for the first time together and were scheduled to graduate four years later.

The unofficial number of CTE completers for 2020-21 is 1,504, but there’s no way of identifying the on-time students until the state report comes out in December, according to Tiffany Hinton, HCPS’ director of assessment, research and evaluation.

“It does deserve an applause,” said Henrico School Board member Alicia Atkins, who represents the Varina District. “I'm so glad that you are acknowledging that every way that you can, especially right now, because we need to hear some of the great things that are happening in our schools.”

A CTE-completer is considered a student who completes at least one sequence of CTE classes – for example Electricity I and Electricity II – or two years of military science classes. Many of these students are enrolled at comprehensive schools, and not at one of HCPS’ Advanced Career Education Centers.

There’s several factors in CTE students’ success, according to Beaton.

“When students are in CTE courses, they start to gain confidence in the ability to succeed. The hands-on approach leads to problem solving skills,” he said. “The answer is not the goal. It's the process to the answer.”

Henrico’s class of 2020 CTE students earned 3,661 industry based certifications with a 76.38% pass rate. Students don’t need these certifications to graduate, but rather they’re the “icing on the cake,” Beaton said. These tests are the same ones that adults in the workforce have to pass — for example, many in the auto industry have to keep their ASE certifications up to date.

“For a student to be successful in school or for us as adults to be successful, we've got to be connected and have a passion for it,” Beaton said. “We say this in a light-hearted way — our students will tolerate their English, math and science classes to get to their CTE class, because that's what keeps them motivated.”

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Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen's education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.