Salem Schools Boast Higher Graduation, Lower Drop-Out Rates

SALEM, MA — District-wide efforts to increase graduation rates, decrease drop-out rates and cut down on the number of students chronically absent are showing positive results, according to Superintendent Steve Zrike.

Zrike said the four-year graduation rate at Salem Public Schools of 80.6 percent is the best for the district since 2018, while the drop-out rate of 2.8 percent is the lowest since that same year.

He also praised the efforts to target chronic absenteeism that the district began in the wake of spikes in that rate coming out of the COVID-19 health crisis.

"While we are still not at our strategic goals of a graduation rate of 88 percent and a dropout rate of 2 percent, we are making important progress towards our north star," Zrike said. "Special thanks go to our staff, students and their families for the hard work to ensure that all of our students graduate with their diplomas and so many other credentials, certificates and credits."

Zrike said the number of students who missed 10 percent or more of the school year has dropped to 22.9 percent — a drop of 3.8 percent year over year and the lowest mark since the 2018-19 school year.

Zrike credited increased engagement with families as a factor in the lowered absences with district staff having contacted and worked with more than 400 families to determine and try to work with the root causes of high absences — including anxiety, concerns with bullying, transportation issues and/or previous trauma.

"Absences and tardies negatively affect your child's academic performance, as well as their ability to make positive connections with peers and school staff," Zrike said in launching the absenteeism initiative in September 2022. "A chronically absent student — missing more than
18 or more school days in a year — is much less likely to be on grade level and thus significantly more likely to drop out or not graduate from high school in four years."

He said this week that the district's goal is to get the absenteeism rate down to 18 percent by 2026.

"All the home visits, academic interventions, counseling sessions, phone calls and afterschool supports have gone a long way towards ensuring our students' success," Zrike said. "I'm looking forward to continued and sustained improvement."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)