Graduation rates at Pittsburgh Public Schools continued to increase in 2024, surpassing goals previously set by the district.
Last year, 86.9% of high school seniors graduated from Pittsburgh Public, Superintendent Wayne Walters said at Tuesday’s education committee meeting. That surpasses the district’s goal of an 83.6% graduation rate for that year as well as the 85.8% goal set for 2027.
And it continues growth seen over the past three years. In 2021, 81.5% of PPS seniors graduated, followed by 83.8% in 2022 and 86.1% in 2023. Those numbers were first presented by Mr. Walters during a December education committee meeting.
“Graduation rates reflect our commitment to fostering well-rounded, prepared individuals ready to succeed in an ever-changing world,” Mr. Walters said Tuesday.
Each student subgroup also saw increased graduation rates last year.
Black students improved from 74.6% in 2021 to 85.4% in 2024; students with individualized education plans jumped from 67.8% in 2021 to 75.9% in 2024; English learners increased from 69% to 78.2%; students who are economically disadvantaged saw rates rise from 74.4% to 84.8%; and white students’ scores jumped from 89.7% to 91.1%.
Of seniors set to graduate, 84% are meeting goals based on credit accumulation.
Still, disparities remained between district schools regarding credit accumulation. Buildings such as Perry and CAPA “are leading the way,” Mr. Walters said, with 94% and 96%, respectively, on track to graduate. But at the Student Achievement Center, 54% are meeting credit requirements for graduation, while 72% are meeting the requirements at Westinghouse.
“These gaps in performance require our immediate attention and targeted interventions to ensure every student regardless of which school they attend can meet graduation requirements,” Mr. Walters said. “There’s still time for us to strengthen this by the end of the year.”
In addition to credit accumulation, students can also demonstrate postsecondary preparedness through the state’s Act 158 monitoring, which features five paths to meet state high school graduation requirements including Keystone proficiency and composite, career and technical education, alternative assessment and evidence-based pathways.
As of April 1, 78% of PPS students had met the Act 158 graduation requirement, an increase from 71% reported in 2024.
The update came months after Mr. Walters first presented graduation rates to the board. At the time, he highlighted three main strategies including standardized communication and engagement, a structured documentation process and graduation mentorship.
For the first goal, district officials developed graduation-focused marketing materials to ensure students are reminded of graduation requirements. Structured check-ins also were implemented for all seniors to provide students and families with updates on credit progress and intervention opportunities.
But the district did run into some challenges. Marketing materials were not always given to absent students. The development of a structured tracking system for student-counselor engagements is still in progress and officials need to improve family engagement.
To help, officials plan on implementing a follow-up process to ensure all students receive necessary materials, communication efforts are being improved to better engage families and administrators will collaborate with counselors to monitor student outreach efforts.
The second strategy included implementing a graduation tracker in grades 9-12. But challenges arose with consistent use of the tracker across all schools.
The district is now launching Counselor Connect, a program that will provide students with graduation progress and status, as well as real-time academic insights, identify any barriers to graduation and focus on family engagement.
The third strategy around graduation mentorship included the development of a mentoring plan to target struggling seniors with a focus on historically underserved students.
Challenges encountered with that strategy include having students fully engage with their mentors. Many seniors, Mr. Walters said, face “unique challenges” such as work and family obligations that impact attendance.
Currently, 218 students are not on track to graduate. Of those, 178 do not have enough credits while 40 have not met Act 158 requirements. To better motivate students and to account for their schedules, the district is shifting from a group celebration model to individual acknowledgements.
Several school directors praised the district’s efforts to improve graduation rates, including Sylvia Wilson who pointed to the new use of Counselor Connect.
“This tracker,” Ms. Wilson said of Counselor Connect, “obviously will start in the ninth grade so that by the time anyone is really getting behind someone will be able to intercede a lot sooner than their senior year.”
She continued, acknowledging that many parents don’t know the graduation requirements.
“Maybe they only find out when they find out that their child is not ready to graduate because they don’t have their credits,” Ms. Wilson said. “And then they want to know, ‘Why not? What happened? Why didn’t somebody tell us sooner?’ ”
The new program, she said, “will prevent a lot of those sad times at the end of the year.”
First Published: April 9, 2025, 2:06 a.m.
Updated: April 9, 2025, 12:16 p.m.
