Story by Kevin McNamara – WATN Memphis
Memphis-Shelby County Schools has increased its graduation rate for the third year in a row, but those numbers still lag behind the statewide average.
Numbers released on Wednesday by the Tennessee Department of Education put MSCS at a 83.4% graduation rate for the 2023-24 school year, up from 81.5% last year.
Overall, high schoolers in Tennessee graduated at a 92% rate.
“It takes a lot of work. There’s so many subgroups and so many different groups of kids, and so when you really do a deep dive into it, it’s a matter of reaching those that are really in need,” said Patrick Basnett, spokesman for the Professional Educators of Tennessee.
The 1.9% increase in the graduation rate for the 2023-2024 school year represents progress made by most traditionally disadvantaged subgroups with the most noticeable change experienced by Multilingual Learners as their state rate increased from 56.9% in 2023 to 69.8% in 2024, reflecting a 12.9% increase.
Elsewhere in the Memphis metro area, Germantown Municipal School District and Millington Municipal schools both improved their graduation rates compared to last year as well.
