Graduation Inequities Abound at Roosevelt

Several RARE Board members heard students’ concerns at a Black Student Union (BSU) meeting in February 2026.

Some things are not right at Roosevelt.

Students of Color, particularly African American students, are graduating at lower rates, disciplined at higher rates, and dropping out at higher rates than white Roosevelt students, and also of Students of Color across the Seattle School District.

In a statistical breakdown of graduation, discipline, attendance, and dropout rates along racial lines reported by the Seattle School District, Roosevelt Students of Color fared significantly worse in all categories than their counterparts in the district as a whole.

These troubling statistics appeared in a document released by the district called the Seattle School District Report Card 2024-2025.

Graduation Rates

They showed that during the previous school year, 94.1% of the RHS senior class graduated. That number beat the district on the whole by eight percentage points. However, broken down by race, Roosevelt lagged significantly: 96.1% of  white students graduated; 84.2% of Asian students graduated; 84.4% of Hispanic students graduated while only 75% of Black students graduated.

District-wide, those graduation numbers, with the exception of white students who dropped to 90.8%, were much higher than graduation rates at Roosevelt: 90.4% for Asian students and 84.2% for Black students. Bucking the trend, Hispanic students fared better at Roosevelt by 14.2%.

Disciplinary Incidents

Conversely, 12.1% of Black Roosevelt students were involved in disciplinary incidents compared to .8% of white students, 2.2% of Asian students, and 4.2% of Hispanic students.

District wide those numbers dropped considerably: 6% of Black students were involved in discipline matters, half the rate of Black discipline rates at Roosevelt. Asian students’ discipline incidents were a mere .6%, and Hispanic students’ discipline rates were about 35% lower district-wide than at Roosevelt.

Drop Out Rates

Not surprisingly, these numbers foreshadowed a higher than district average for drop-out rates of Black students at Roosevelt.

With the exception of Hispanic students who dropped out at a 9.4% rate compared to an astonishing 17% district-wide, drop-out rates followed a similar pattern with Roosevelt’s Black students dropping out at a rate well over twice that of Black students district-wide. For Asian students at Roosevelt, the dropout rate was three times that of the district numbers.

Several RARE Board members were alerted to the issue of Roosevelt’s poor record on Black graduation rates during the 5th Bi-Annual RHS Affinity Club Pizza Party last November.

In a discussion after the event with Debra Diederichs, a RHS support staff member, she noted that students were promoted after their freshman year regardless of their credits accumulated. At graduation time, many students—particularly Black students, who are disproportionately affected—do not have the required number of credits to graduate. Ms. Diederichs cited the number of credits earned in 9th grade, or the lack thereof, as a critical factor in graduating three years later.

In this critical area, the number of Black 9th graders at Roosevelt on target to graduate fall far below the percentage of the entire district’s Black 9th grade population, with only 54.5% Black students on target to graduate compared to 66.8% for the district.

Trending opposite and upward, 96.2% of white 9th graders at Roosevelt on track to graduate exceeded the district’s percentage by 3.7%

BSU Members Share Experiences and Observations

These troubling numbers prompted several RARE Board members to accept an invitation to attend a Roosevelt Black Student Union meting on February 25, 2026.

RARE Board members attending were RARE Chair Joe Hunter, Michelle Fields, Dr. Bea Butler, and Bruce Johnson.  Also attending were Roosevelt counselor Courtney Judkins, librarian Andrea Redmond, Debra Diederichs, and RHS PTSA Racial Equity Committee Chair, Kim Bernier. More than two dozen BSU students attended.  All present were open to hearing about the problems students faced as well as talking about possible solutions.

Regarding the disproportionately high number of Black students involved in disciplinary matters, many of the students said the teachers are far more likely to call security on Black students than others when disagreements occur. They feel that teachers view Black students as aggressive. Some students felt that some teachers often gave up on their Black students.

Students were encouraged to email their counselors to report and document cases of perceived unfair or discriminatory treatment. It was suggested that the administration work with teachers whose histories include frequent conflicts with Students of Color. Students felt that they were not the only ones that should be held accountable.

The issue of lagging attendance among Black students was discussed. District-wide, the average of Black students with fewer than 2 absences a month is 65.5%. At Roosevelt it is 44.2%. (For white students it’s 83.3% and 75.4% respectively.)

As for reasons for this added disturbing statistic, one student said that teachers lecture too long. Another student felt that all she heard in history class was about “one old white man after another.” Some said that teachers make no effort to connect with Black students. Some say that the statistics are misleading because often teachers do not make the change on their attendance system from an A to a T when students enter class tardy.  There was a concern that teachers give inaccurate and delayed information for make-up work.

Regarding solutions to the attendance problem, all agreed that educating students about the impact of absences and tardies should be improved. It was suggested the counselors avoid assigning Black students to teachers who have a history of conflicts with Students of Color.

Certainly, all students benefit when curricula relate to their lives and their interests. They show up to class and interact more when they are welcomed. They work better with teachers who don’t misread particular communication styles.  They graduate at higher rates if alerted when they veer off track.

The lower than district-wide graduation rates at Roosevelt is telling of a high school that is not working for all of its students.

Improvement needs to be made.

The numbers, though disturbing, do not show the intelligence, the potential, and the worth of the students left behind. Roosevelt, and its feeder schools, can tap and grow all that potential by recognizing the problems and working towards more equitable solutions.

The Black Student Union meeting didn’t solve the problems at Roosevelt that the District’s Report Card showed in stark, alarming numbers.

But problems can’t be solved without acknowledging that they exist.

The BSU meeting was a step in the right direction.

RARE Board members were honored to be part of that conversation and plan to keep the conversation going, as talking often leads to action.