SLU Evaluation Reveals Access Making Big Impact

“Over the past 10 years, the nationwide high school graduation rate has ranged from roughly 79% to 86%,” said Gary Ritter, Dean of the School of Education at Saint Louis University, at this year’s Celebration Dinner. “For Access students, however, that rate has hovered between 96% and 99%!” Even more impressive, Ritter noted, was the Access graduation rate for Black and Hispanic students compared to students in both St. Louis Public Schools (mid-60s) and more affluent districts like Ladue, Clayton, and Parkway (mid-to-high 80s). In both cases, Access students were graduating at a rate well above both the national average and that of the region’s public and charter schools. Our two-year program evaluation is ongoing, and we look forward to presenting more exciting findings in the months to come.