Eleven of Anne Arundel’s 15 high schools have graduation rates higher than 90%, data released Tuesday by the Maryland State Department of Education shows.

“I love seeing the success, but it’s not just success for me. It’s for our whole school community, all of our stakeholders, our students, our teachers, our community, all of our dependents,” said Ryan Durr, principal of Meade High School, whose graduation rate in 2024 rose 3.16%.

Last year, Anne Arundel County launched Project Graduation, which provides credit recovery options through digital learning centers and other opportunities for second-chance learning.

“This data is evidence that the work we have put into efforts like Project Graduation and our intense focus on helping every single student get what they need to Belong, Grow and Succeed is paying off,” Superintendent Mark Bedell said in a news release. “We will celebrate the results of this work with the realization that much more work lies ahead of us.”

Anne Arundel’s overall graduation rate last year was 88.5%, roughly matching the statewide rate. The four-year graduation rate statewide was 87.6%, the highest since 2017.

Several of the schools that did not clear 90% still saw significant improvements from 2023. North County had the greatest gain in the county with a 6.61 percentage point increase to reach 84.94%, and Annapolis High School rose 4 percentage points to 84.33%.

“I’ve never seen a staff so committed to students,” said Audra Whayland, principal of Annapolis High School. “I really feel honored, honestly, that I have the opportunity to serve as principal because I know our students have all this potential, and to see it come out is amazing.”

“We did a lot of intentional and very hard work last year,” said Sara Thomas, North County’s principal. “People think that because we have such high poverty at North County, they can’t do as many great things as other schools and other students, but our students take a challenge and run with it.

Anne Arundel also saw a widespread decrease in achievement gaps. The graduation rate for students with disabilities rose nearly 7%, the rate for multilingual learners was up nearly 5% and the rate for students receiving free and reduced-price meals rose nearly 3%. The graduation rate also increased 2.5% for both African American and Hispanic students.

The only traditional high school with a graduation rate below 90% that did not improve was Glen Burnie High, which had a rate of 84.94%, dropping three points from the year before.

“This work reflects exactly what our community expects: that we close gaps while continuing to increase scores and rates across the board,” Bedell said. “There is more work to be done to get where we want to go, but these gains are very, very significant, and they build on numerous other gains we have seen in things like MCAP [Maryland’s standardized test for measuring student achievement] and Advanced Placement scores as well as PSAT enrollment.”

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