About 96 percent of the Chesterfield County students who began the 2010-11 school year as seniors graduated, according to a report the School Board will receive at its monthly meeting tonight.
The preliminary statistics show that 4,333 students earned diplomas. The school system counted 4,531 seniors in September for the Virginia Department of Education's annual enrollment survey.
The group included three National Merit Scholarship finalists, five National Achievement Competition finalists and 28 International Baccalaureate graduates. More than 2,100 students said they are going to pursue a four-year college degree.
U. Omarh Rajah, the School Board member from Matoaca District, congratulated the students who succeeded but said the school system needed to continue its focus on making sure the other 4 percent graduate, too.
"It's always unfortunate when a child does not make it," he said. "We have to do more to get that number up to 100 percent."
He said he thinks the school system's expanding online-learning program will be a useful tool, but he also suggested taking a more proactive role in making sure students who struggle in middle school have ample help in high school. He suggested a special freshman orientation for those students and their parents.
"We need to let them know we want them to succeed," he said. "They should be part of the solution, and we need to make sure they know that."
The graduating class came to about 89 percent of the number of students who were sophomores three years ago. In September 2008, Chesterfield counted 4,859 students in the 10th grade.
Henrico County counted 3,412, graduates in the 2010-11 school year, 90 percent of the 3,801 seniors counted in September. Richmond's preliminary numbers show 1,228 graduates, about 95 percent of the 1,291 counted in September.
Hanover County has not released its statistics.
Based on the September numbers, Hanover is likely to have had the highest percentage of its seniors graduate. It had 1,491 seniors, 98 percent of the 1,518 students who had been sophomores in 2008-09.
Each of the school systems' numbers were lower when factoring in the 2007-08 freshman class, but the freshman class can include students who aren't true freshmen and who don't count as part of that year's official class cohort.
By that count, Hanover again led the way, with 94 percent of 1,584 freshmen making it to their senior year. Henrico was second at 87 percent (3,801 of 4,368), followed by Chesterfield at 85 percent (4,531 of 5,120) and Richmond at 60 percent (1,295 of 2,150).
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