Ventura County Outperforms State in High School Graduation Rate
County’s Dropout Rate also Better than State

Nearly 86 percent of Ventura County high school students graduated in the 2016-17 school year, which is better than the statewide graduation rate of 82.7 percent for the same period. That’s according to newly released data from the California Department of Education (CDE). Ventura County’s graduation rate also exceeded the overall state figures in all but one of the major student subgroups as seen in the chart below.

Ventura County’s dropout rate was also better than the state as a whole. For the 2016-17 school year, the county had a dropout rate of 6.8 percent compared to 9.1 percent for California overall.

One area where Ventura County trails the state is in the number of high school graduates meeting eligibility requirements for the University of California and California State University. In 2016-17, 46.2 percent of Ventura County high school graduates met the requirements, compared to 49.9 percent of graduates statewide. Local school districts are working to increase the number of graduates who are UC and CSU eligible. For example, the Oxnard Union High School District this year decided to align its graduation requirements with the requirements for UC and CSU admissions.

Because of changes in the way CDE calculates the graduation rate, the 2016-17 numbers cannot be meaningfully compared to prior years. The state is no longer counting students who receive an adult education high school diploma and students who pass the California High School Proficiency Exam as regular high school graduates. However, students who transferred to adult education programs or community college are still counted in the pool of potential high school graduates. Due to these changes, which are the result of a federal audit, CDE is strongly discouraging comparison of the new figures to those from past years.

Additional information about Ventura County graduation and dropout rates can be found in the attached document. You can find graduation and dropout rates for particular schools and districts on the California Department of Education's DataQuest website.

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About the Ventura County Office of Education

The Ventura County Office of Education provides a broad array of fiscal, training and technology support services to local school districts, helping to maintain and improve lifelong educational opportunities for children, educators and community members. VCOE also operates schools that serve students with severe disabilities and behavioral issues, provides career education courses, and coordinates countywide academic competitions including Mock Trial and the Ventura County Science Fair. Learn more at: www.vcoe.org.