Wiscasset High School no longer occupies the basement of Maine’s graduation rates. In newly released state figures, the school’s 2014 graduation rate of 73.47 percent outranks six other Maine high schools.

Wiscasset High’s rate has climbed a full 10 percent in one year, in the figures from the Maine Department of Education; the school’s graduation rate for 2013 was 63.33 percent, the lowest in the state.

The school’s 2014 dropout rate, meanwhile, was 6.45 percent, down from 7.28 percent in 2013, Principal Cheri Towle said. Graduation and dropout rates are calculated differently, and do not necessarily correspond.

The school has made an even greater gain in its five-year graduation rate, which reached 80.7 percent in 2014, up from 60.3 percent in 2013, Towle said.

“That’s huge,” she said. “I think it just shows that Wiscasset is heading in the right direction.”

Having a student assistance team has helped the school retain more of its students for a fifth year to finish their high school education, Towle said April 9.

“As we continue to offer more pathways for our students and provide additional supports for all, we aim to meet the different needs of all of our students,” she said.

The school is also working to help raise students’ aspirations and help them see the importance of getting their high school diplomas in order to reach their goals, Towle said. Those efforts include the school’s Career Day. 

“(It) exposes students to different career interests and raises their aspirations to complete their high school diploma and go beyond,” Towle said.

Another measure is a planned April 16 round of bus trips for all of the Wiscasset School Department’s students in grades eight through 11, to visit a college or university.

Groups will be heading to multiple Boston schools, the University of Southern Maine, University of New England, Central Maine Community College and Thomas and Colby colleges, according to information Towle provided.

The newly released graduation rates pertain to the final school year that Wiscasset was in Regional School Unit 12. District Superintendent Howie Tuttle on April 10 described the rates as exciting news. “I know that (then-WHS Principal) Deb Taylor and her staff, with support from RSU 12, really worked hard to improve the graduation rate, particularly the five-year graduation rate,” Tuttle said. “So I find that very exciting,” he added.

Statewide, the five-year graduation rate came in at 88.78 percent in 2014, according to an April 7, Maine Department of Education press release.

Maine’s four-year graduation rate grew slightly from 86.36 percent in 2013, to 86.48 percent in 2014, according to the release. The calculations are based on the number of students who entered ninth grade in the fall of 2010 and graduated on time in 2014.

Wiscasset High was one of 70 schools that bettered their four-year graduation rate in 2014, and one of 76 that improved their five-year graduation rate, according to the department’s website at www.maine.gov/doe.