The four-year graduation rate, or the percentage of students who graduate within four years of entering high school, is one key metric used to look at the success of the District in supporting students toward the goal of high school graduation. In this brief we present Philadelphia public high school graduation rates from 2014-15 to 2024-25 and examine the trends in this metric by sector, high school admission type, CTE programming, and student demographic groups.

Key findings include:

• In 2024-25, the four-year graduation rate across all Philadelphia public high schools was 80.6%, with differences between sectors:
  • The graduation rate at District schools was 84.4%.
  • The graduation rate at Charter schools was 88.5%.
  • The graduation rate at Alternative schools was 33.9%.
• District graduation rates for CTE students have been consistently higher than those of non-CTE students since 2016-17, culminating in a 10 percentage-point difference between the two groups in 2024-25 rates.
• The 2019-20 ninth grade cohort had a six-year graduation rate of 84.5%:
  • 19.1% students who were not classified as graduated at the end of their fourth year graduated by the end of their sixth year.
  • 50.9% students who were classified as “continuing” at the end of their fourth year graduated by the end of their sixth year.