Region affected by graduation rate drop

Schools leaders say decrease not huge; blame virtual learning

High school graduation rates have dropped throughout the country over the course of the pandemic, and Blair County school officials said the region is not immune to the trend.

Four county schools' graduation rates dropped between the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic year, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. School leaders said the drops were not huge and can largely be blamed on virtual learning undertaken during the height of the pandemic.

The Williamsburg-Community Junior Senior High School experienced the steepest decline, going from 97.14% in 2018-19 to 88.89% the following school year, according to the data.

Altoona Area High School, Tyrone Area High School and Claysburg-Kimmel High School graduation rates also dropped -- AAHS went from 88.58% to 83.69%, Tyrone saw a slight drop, from 95.68% to 95.56%, and Claysburg-Kimmel saw its 100% graduation rate drop to 95.38%.

AASD Superintendent Charles Prijatelj said virtual learning contributed to academic struggles amid the pandemic.

"The hardest thing with virtual is accountability and attendance, and limitations of internet connections; it's a lot on the kids' shoulders," Prijatelj said. "It's not the same. (It's) much dryer and a less personable form of learning."

Prijatelj said virtual learning requires a high level of self-discipline on the part of students and it's not easy, especially for students with intellectual and learning disabilities.

"It magnifies it and the problems make supports more challenging and it makes it much more difficult to be successful," Prijatelj said. "It just makes the curve that much harder."

Prijatelj said it's imperative that students succeed amid these challenges so they can meet the demands of the post-school world.

"We're living in an era where kids need much higher skill sets just to stay competitive," Prijatelj said. "Talking about expectations of the workplace, they have to have these skills developed."

"We're doing everything we possibly can to ensure the quality of education for all students," Prijatelj said. "All districts in Blair County and across the state are doing a great job to make sure kids come out as strong, if not stronger, had the pandemic not happened."

AAHS had the county's only graduation rate below the state average in 2019-20.

"If our graduation rates were below state average, it wasn't because we weren't doing everything to get those kids what they needed," Prijatelj said. "I commend our teachers for how they are pulling this thing together because there's been a learning loss. They've been real troopers on closing gaps and giving kids what they need. We just need to continue to roll up our sleeves and get it done."

Three Blair County high schools' graduation rates increased between 2018-19 and 2019-20, according to PDE data.

Central High School's percentage increased from 94.89% to 99.28%, Bellwood-Antis High School went from 94.90% to 97% and Hollidaysburg Area Senior High School from 92.41% to 96.68%.

According to PDE press secretary Kendall Alexander, the data for the 2020-21 school year will be available in April.

HASD Superintendent Robert Gildea said despite the uptick in graduation rates for the district's 2019-20 school year, that rate dropped back to 93.5% for 2020-21.

"The fact that there was no statistically significant drop in our COVID graduation rates as compared to pre-COVID graduation rates can be credited to the determination and resiliency of our students and the extreme measures our teachers, counselors, support staff and administrators took to ensure our students had the support needed to persevere through a very challenging time," Gildea said.

Gildea said many factors contribute to a graduation rate, adding that it is important to keep in mind that each class is a different group of students with unique needs.

It is expected there will be some variability from year to year, he said.

Prijatelj said his staff has also been resilient, working hard to support students through unprecedented difficulty.

"We have a tendency with extenuating circumstances, we do what we need to do for kids to graduate," Prijatelj said. "We had to do a lot of work last summer to get kids caught up."

Those measures included an extensive summer school program to help students get the credits needed to graduate.

At Bellwood-Antis High School, seniors in the class of 2021 were given the opportunity to still receive a diploma if they didn't finish their credits before graduation, as long as they completed the needed credits that summer.

B-A principal Richard Schreier said his staff have gone above and beyond to support students during the pandemic.

"We did the summer program to help students falling behind reach the finish line of graduation with extra support," Schreier said. "We are all faced with those struggles of trying to make the best of a bad situation."

Bellwood-Antis leaders determined the essentials in the curriculum and focused on the most important content.

"We did a good job determining appropriate content and how best to teach and evaluate students in mastery of that content," Schreier said.

The district's ability to keep students in school as much as possible despite the pandemic was a key factor in ensuring a good graduation rate, he said.

Schreier said the high school's graduation dropped to 94.85% for 2020-21.

"We were in school a lot last year and started the year face-to-face, and with the exception of right after Thanksgiving to early January 2021, we were in person most days if not all," Schreier said. "We're big believers that learning happens best in the school building."

"We all had a learning curve, but students and teachers did a great job," Schreier said. Officials from the Claysburg-Kimmel, Spring Cove, Tyrone Area and Williamsburg-Community school districts did not reply to requests for comment.

Mirror Staff Writer Andrew Mollenauer is at 814-946-7428.