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.
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.
English learner students are the only group in Pennsylvania whose chronic absence gap has fully closed, matching the statewide rate at 20.4%.
York City SD dropped from 63.4% chronic absence to 36.8% in two years, the second-largest improvement in Pennsylvania. The recovery crossed every subgroup.
The Black-white chronic absence gap in Pennsylvania grew from 8.2 to 11.9 percentage points. English learners are the only group that closed their gap.
