TY FOR TCAPS

“In today’s world, if you don’t have a high school diploma, it’s just awfully hard to get ahead and not live in poverty,” Traverse City Area Public Schools Superintendent John VanWagoner said. 

Our recent graduation rates*:

• 2019/20: 91%
• 2020/21: 87%
• 2021/22: 86%
• 2022/23: 84%**
• 2023/24: 88%**

* 4-year graduation rates

**Graduation rate for our economically disadvantaged students in 2022/23 = 68%. In 2023/24 = 74%

Celebrations & Opportunities

There are lots of good things happening​ at TCAPS when it comes to our graduation rates:

• Junior kindergarten/Head Start programs (better graduation rates start in preschool)
• North Ed Career Tech Center (several hundred TCAPS kids attend CTC which had a 95% graduation rate in 2023/24)
• T​itan/Trojan Integrated Experience for our freshmen and sophomores at Traverse City Central High School and Traverse City West Senior High School.
• Compass Learning Center at Traverse City High School
• Research-based curriculum (like ​the new English language arts curriculum that the school board will consider tomorrow)

And lots of opportunities to get better, of course:

• Clear goals​ on what closing our student achievement gaps and raising outcomes for all kids looks like (​Curriculum ​Committee discussed ​last month, and ​the March 18th s​tudy ​session will also​ consider)
• Equitably ​allocating resources ​based on student need to help achieve these goals (​Finance ​Committee discussed​ last month)
• Trade​s-like programs earlier​ – like in middle school ​(this was also discussed at Curriculum Committee last month)
• Ex​panding our learning time (after-school and summer​ programs) for kids who need it most
• Revisiting our educational equity ​listening tour findings (from last year)

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Story by Craig in the Ticker today.