Keystone State Education Coverage, Driven by Data
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Pennsylvania, grounded in Pennsylvania Department of Education data.
Reading SD's Hispanic graduation rate jumped 19 points to 77%, a series high, while Allentown's fell to 67% from a 2022 peak of 80%.
Pennsylvania's graduation rate ticked up after Act 158 created five pathways to a diploma, but without pathway-level data it is impossible to measure the effect.
Penns Valley's new superintendent says relationships come first as he enters a district with a long enrollment decline.
Female students in PA crossed the 90% graduation threshold for the first time in 2024 while the gender gap has remained stable at roughly 4 points for 13 years.
Of 19 PA districts with sub-70% graduation rates in 2024, 15 are charter or cyber charter schools, raising questions about accountability frameworks.
Fourteen large traditional Pennsylvania districts declined from 2011 to 2024. Wilkes-Barre Area fell the most; Erie fell the second-most.
Pennsylvania's special education graduation rate reached 76% in 2024, while its gap with all students narrowed from 12.9 to 12.0 points over seven years.
79 Pennsylvania districts reached record-high graduation rates in 2024 while 26 hit personal lows, with most districts graduating above 90 percent and the top-to-bottom gap slowly narrowing.
Ten Pennsylvania career and technical education centers with cohorts of at least 50 students posted a 97.9% weighted graduation rate in 2024, with two centers at or above 99%.
Pittsburgh's graduation rate hit 86.9% in 2024 after four consecutive years of improvement; district leaders point to lower student-to-counselor ratios and closer monitoring.
Pennsylvania's economically disadvantaged students graduate at 83%, and the poverty gap with all students narrowed 55% since 2011.
Philadelphia's graduation rate rose from 55% to 76% since 2011, the largest urban improvement in PA, driven by the 9th Grade Success Network.
Pennsylvania's white-Black graduation gap dropped from 23 to 11 percentage points since 2011 as Black students' rate soared from 65% to 81%.
Pennsylvania's four-year graduation rate reached 88% in 2024, but the state produced nearly 6,000 fewer graduates than in 2011 as cohorts shrank 10%.
Pittsburgh SD's chronic absence rate has come down from its 42% pandemic peak to 33%, with text-message reminders improving attendance for 60% of at-risk students.
