“We are encouraged with the positive graduation numbers for the Porterville Unified School District,” PUSD Superintendent Dr. John Snavely said. “We appreciate the important work our teachers and staff members perform on a daily basis and the numbers point out that we continue to provide a quality education for all of our students. In the current global climate, we expect all PUSD students to have the greatest advantage for access to post-secondary learning opportunities, which include college, technical schools and the workplace.”
PUSD has a higher graduation rate than the Tulare County benchmark (85.4%) and the California 82.3% rate.
“We believe having graduation rates higher than those of Tulare County and the State of California demonstrates that our Pathway and Linked Learning opportunities for our students are helping to keep students engaged in their education and, therefore, helping to keep students attending school through graduation,” Snavely said.
The district saw improved numbers in various programs. Out of 1,328 socioeconomically disadvantaged students, PUSD graduated 85.3% (1,133 students) compared to a 76.0% graduation rate in 2009-10. The Migrant Education program graduated 89.7% of its students in 2014-15 with the Special Education program graduating 88.8% and the English Learners program graduating students at an 82.6% rate.