Arlington school officials expect to record the highest on-time-graduation rate since data began being reported nearly two decades ago, based on preliminary data shared June 12 with the community.
Superintendent Francisco Durán estimated that Class of 2025’s on-time graduation will reach 95% when final figures are tabulated and reported in the fall.
That would be up from 93.3% for the Class of 2024 and marks ongoing, if sometimes uneven, improvement since state officials began reporting the on-time-graduation rate by school division and individual school.
“There’s a lot to celebrate, but there’s always much work to do,” Durán said in presenting a year-end report to School Board members.
“On-time graduation” is a state standard that is met if a student receives a diploma within four years of entering high school.
For Arlington’s three primary public high schools — Wakefield, Washington-Liberty and Yorktown — the estimated 2025 on-time-graduation rate stands at 97.8%.
As of mid-June, the school system had recorded 1,991 high-school graduates, a figure that will rise as additional students complete required summer work.
It was one of the largest graduating classes in county history, Durán said.
State reporting on on-time graduation goes back as far as 2008. That year, Arlington’s rate was 82.5%, a figure that drew outrage from some in the community, given that Arlington has a per-student spending rate highest in the region and likely highest in the commonwealth.
The arrival of Superintendent Patrick Murphy in 2009 brought a focus to improving the rate, which surpassed 90% in 2014 and has not been below it since.
The rate peaked in 2021 at 94.4% and varied between 93.3% and 93.5% in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Also in Durán’s report, based on preliminary data for the Class of 2025:
- Nearly 70% of graduating students earned advanced-level diplomas
- 84% of students completed at least one college-level course through the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs or dual-enrollment opportunities with Northern Virginia Community College
- 89% plan to further their education in some form
- 57% earned college scholarships, a significant year-over-year jump, with the cumulative value approaching $100 million
The General Assembly in 2004 approved funding for the Virginia Department of Education to more comprehensively track data related to every student’s progress toward graduation.
Two years later, following a recommendation from the National Governors Association, the legislature directed state education officials to compile on-time-graduation rates and dropout data, and begin reporting them publicly starting with the Class of 2008.
In addition to reporting data statewide, by school district and individual school, figures also are broken out by a variety of demographic categories.
On another front, county and state leaders since the pandemic have launched efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism, defined as any student away from the classroom more than 10% of the time.
In a February absenteeism update, Arlington school officials said efforts were making progress but still had hurdles to surmount.
Board members set organizational meeting: School Board Chair Mary Kadera announced on June 12 that the Board will hold its 2025-26 organizational meeting on Tuesday, July 8.
At the meeting, current vice chair Bethany Zecher Sutton is expected to succeed Kadera as chair. Board members will lay out priorities for the coming school year, and take various administrative actions required following the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.
