- February 17, 2025
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Twenty years ago, just 59% of high school seniors in Florida walked across a graduation stage with a diploma in hand.
That number has since surged to a record-high 89.7% for the 2023-24 school year, and the results are mirrored for Manatee County students as well.
Manatee County wasn’t in as bad of shape as the rest of the state 20 years ago, graduating 75.3% of its students, but that number is up to 85.7% as of this past school year — up 3.4% from the previous year and was its highest mark for a school year in which statewide assessments were not waived.
School officials said each school faces its own unique challenges, but that it’s undeniable monumental progress has been made in the School District of Manatee County.
No school in Manatee County had more success graduating students this past year than Lakewood Ranch High School.
The Mustangs graduated at a 96.5% rate in 2024, an exceptionally high number considering 2,450 students attend the school.
Principal Dustin Dahlquist is no stranger when it comes to the barriers to graduation, and his previous struggles are being put to good use.
Once at Palmetto High School — a D-rated school at the time —Dahlquist became familiar with pinpointing what it takes to get students back on track.
“I know what the struggle is in other places,” said Dahlquist, who spent 18 years at Palmetto High, and made stops at Southeast High and Buffalo Creek Middle. “We’ve taken some of those things we’ve learned in other places and applied them here. That’s how we’ve gotten from 92, 93, 94% to 97.”
Dahlquist said he is blessed to lead a school filled with students who are high-achievers, but no high school is without some students who fall behind.
Individualized attention has been key.
Dahlquist said counselors at Lakewood Ranch High School have implemented annual meetings with each student in the spring semester over the past few years to see if they’re on track to graduate.
Then, a graduation team identifies at-risk students and comes up with a plan to address the problem, whether that be better attendance or credit recovery.
If a student needs to catch up, there are several different pathways for them to receive their diploma on time.
Credit recovery classes are offered both before and after school, and tutors are made available so students can pass state-mandated testing.
If that’s not enough, senior students can take summer classes and tests to meet requirements.
Southeast High School hosts an area-wide summer graduation ceremony at the end of July for students who wrap up their graduation requirements during the summer.
Lakewood Ranch has a graduation rate significantly higher than the rest of Manatee County and the state, but Dahlquist said he and his staff still aren’t satisfied.
“Once you get to 94 or 95% of the graduation rate, it comes down to individual work to get those last few points,” Dahlquist said. “The other side is we’re not satisfied at 97%. I don’t know if we can (get to 100%) or not, but we’re going to try.
“Is it acceptable for someone to go from K-12 and not graduate? It’s reality, however, we’re going to continue to work on ways. Maybe there was something we didn’t do their freshman year or something got lost along the way their sophomore year. If you get to 97, you have to get to 98.”
Over the past decade, Lakewood Ranch has hovered anywhere from 92% to this past year’s mark of 96.5% —the best graduation rate in school history.
It’s not as if Lakewood Ranch is the only school in the county making strides.
Several schools contributed to the county’s increased graduation rate this past year, with a few making eye-popping changes.
Southeast High jumped to 89.2% (up 12.7%), Bayshore High climbed to 81.4% (up 9.1%), Palmetto High went to 90.7% (up 5.9%) and Manatee High increased to 85% (up 4.4%).
Braden River had a marginal 1.7% increase, but it’s now at 92.4% — third-best in the district behind Lakewood Ranch and Parrish Community (95.1%).
Though that may not seem like much of a difference on the surface, it’s been a battle just to stay above 90% at Braden River.
The school was graduating students at a 92% rate in 2019, but the coronavirus pandemic had a drastic effect — pushing that rate down to 90% in 2021 and 87% in 2022.
Administrators said they had a hard time transitioning their students back to a traditional classroom setting, if they could track them down.
It’s taken some concentrated effort to get back to normal, and see that be reflected in the school’s graduation rate.
“Some of those are classic, but seem to be more heightened after COVID,” Braden River Principal Wendell Butler said of the reasons why some students don’t graduate at his school. “I’ve found it boils down to students having to make life choices sometimes. If they have to worry about a roof over their head, food on the table, or things of that nature.
“If they have to help out with family financial obligations because of having to rebound, especially after COVID, the students are going to choose the immediate need over that long-term desire of trying to graduate. Especially if that impacts them in their 10th or 11th grade year and they might not get to that 12th grade year.”
Braden River has found its way back above the county and state graduation rate via a method similar to that of Lakewood Ranch.
Butler said that the school has assembled a ‘graduation team’ over the past few years to track students from Day 1 to graduation day — looking at attendance, behavior, credits, grades and testing.
“We always know our at-risk students. If they are in that category of at-risk, is it one risk factor or multiple? We have a solution for one of each of the four at-risk factors,” Braden River assistant principal Laura Gonzales said.
Gonzales said the four at-risk factor categories are GPA, credits, and the state-mandated math and English assessments.
Sometimes graduating a student is beyond the control of teachers, counselors or administrators.
If a student leaves a high school and intends to transfer to a different school, it’s up to the original high school to make sure they enroll. If that doesn’t happen, then that’s one more student who didn’t graduate — leaving the school with no way to combat the issue.
That makes achieving a 100% graduation rate something most schools can’t control,. But school officials said creeping closer to it, even in small increments, can make a world of difference.
“The disparity between not having a high school diploma and graduating with a high school diploma, in terms of your potential earnings over your lifetime, it’s astronomical,” Dahlquist said. “There are many jobs you’re just not going to qualify for. When they’re coming from the eighth grade they’re not really thinking about graduation. They’re thinking about what they’re going to do in high school.
“It takes us a little longer to get some of those students across that stage.”