Superintendent offered School Board deep look into stats, college credits
Last month, the School District of Osceola County announced incredibly positive news about the graduation rate from last school year.
In 2024-25, the district reported its overall graduation rate for traditional public and charter high schools for the 2024-2025 school year was a new alltime high of 91.1%. The rate increased by 2.3 percentage points over the prior year, 6.3 percentage points since 20222023 and nearly 10 points in the decade since 2015-16. All high schools in Osceola County (non-charter and nonalternative) earned a graduation rate above 93%, which exceeded the state average. Several Charter, magnet and online schools like NeoCity Academy, Osceola School for the Arts (OCSA), Professional Technical High School (PATHS), and Osceola Virtual School reported 100% graduation rates.
School District Superintendent Dr. Mark Shanoff hasn’t simply sat on his laurels regarding those numbers. At last week’s School Board meeting, he took to the podium to take a deeper dive into the statistics and offer up some “Why?” and “How?” answers to “Who?” and “What?” topics.
“Yes, we celebrate that 91.1 percent of our students graduated,” he said. “But we also recognize that 8.9% did not. That is something we continue to work on.”
Then on Tuesday, the district shared the number of 2025 graduates who earned at least one accelerated credential jumped to 72.8%.
Shanoff lauded the work of administrators like Assistant Superintendent of High School Curriculum Dr. Chundra Evens and Director of High School Curriculum Tia Brown.
“They ensured principals kept their eye on the ball throughout the year and no student was left without an ability to graduate,” he said. “Students absolutely have to have a diploma; the idea of a certificate of completion is not acceptable. We’re very excited about the progress we’ve made. The culture in the district now is, we expect you to graduate, no matter who you are. It’s not a goal, it’s an expectation that students will walk across the stage and receive that diploma.
He said that with the COVID-19 era now basically in the rearview mirror, the Osceola district is starting to thrive much like other districts, possibly explaining state-wide gains—Florida’s Department of Education also reported in January that the statewide high school graduation rate reached an all-time high of 92.2% for the 2024-25 school year.
“The state has put some of the requirements back in that were relaxed during the pandemic,” Shanoff said. “The state average is not where we want to be, we want to be No. 1.”
He cited “Pockets of really good work that we need to replicate at other places,” like Liberty High School’s 12% jump in the graduation rate of English Language Learners (ELL), a 19% rise among students with exceptionality at Gateway High of 5% increases overall at Gateway, Celebration High and Osceola Virtual School.
“There are opportunities for growth, that’s why we’re acting with a sense of urgency when it comes to ESE,” Shanoff said.
Students’ performance is now being tracked as they enter the second semester of freshman year, setting them up with a plan that now more than ever includes higher-level classes like Dual Enrollment, Advanced Placement (AP), Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses that offer college credit in high school.
“It’s not by accident we have a continued rise of graduation rates and students taking and passing advanced course work,” he said. “Our students can do it, you just have to show them the path. If we put students in front of rigorous course work and say, ‘Yes, you can do it,’ and they see that he can, it starts to spread. And now you can see it, and I’m proud of our team and the teachers on the front line.”
