Chesterton High School recorded its best-ever graduation rate as 99.1% of the members from the class of 2025 have received diplomas.
Duneland School Corporation Superintendent Chip Pettit listed the high school graduation rate among the district’s achievements in a report Monday to the School Board.
Chesterton High School averages around 500 senior students per year. There were 481 who graduated in June and Pettit said some finished up during the summer months.
The graduation rate has been rising. Chesterton High School had a 92.73% graduation rate in 2020.
“We’re very, very happy with the work that our teachers, counselors and principals have done,” Pettit said.
Pettit also gave credit to the Rise Academy program, an alternative program, for helping to improve the high school graduation rate.
Another major achievement for Duneland schools was finishing first in Northwest Indiana and eighth in the state on ILEARN tests, which measure English/language arts and math skills for third through eighth graders. It was the second year in a row that Duneland has placed eighth in the state on ILEARN.
Pettit said that 95% of the third graders within the Duneland School Corporation passed the IREAD-3 examination, which tests reading skills. That represents an improvement from an 88% pass rate for third graders in 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jackson Elementary School students led the way as 100% of the third graders who took the IREAD test passed it in the 2024-25 school year.
School Board President Brandon Kroft complimented Pettit for his leadership, especially Duneland’s first-place finish in the region on the ILEARN examination.
One of the major goals set by the school board for Pettit was to raise the Duneland School Corporation’s test score performance.
Kroft said along with the staff, it took a commitment of financial resources, as the community passed a referendum, which is up for renewal in November, to provide the necessary resources for the curriculum.
The school board also held a brief public hearing to formally begin the collective bargaining process with the Duneland Teachers Association.
Bobbi Hall, president of the teachers association, said the commitment of her organization is not only to get a fair contract, but to strengthen the learning conditions for students. She said that the district has made progress in improving teacher wages over the past few contracts, which helps to retain the staff.
“We want to keep our teachers who will continue to keep our district number one in the region,” Hall said.
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.