Dyz'Jhae Davis and Westside High principal Vincent Foster are all smiles after Davis received her Certified Nursing Assistant pin during a ceremony May 6, 2025. The 16 Westside students are the first to graduate with both a diploma and a CNA certification from the school's medical magnet program. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on January 14, 2026 at 3:14 pm
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The 8,053 students who earned diplomas from Duval County Public Schools last spring helped the district eclipse its graduation rate for the second straight year.
The Duval Schools’ 94.3% overall graduation rate in 2025, is a leap from the 90.9% of students who graduated from the district in 2024.
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Florida also witnessed a spike in its graduation rate. The 92.2% of Florida students who earned high school diplomas last year was a state record that Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday during his State of the State address in Tallahassee.
Across the state, 94% of white students; 89.2% of Black students; 91.6% of Hispanic/Latino students and 89.5% of students who receive free or reduced lunch earned their diploma.
Duval County Public Schools exceeded the statewide percentage in all four categories. The 98.2% of Asian students in Duval County who graduated in 2025 is equal to the statewide percentage.
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The Florida Department of Education defines at-risk students as those who scored below Level 2 — out of five levels — on both reading and math standardized testing while they were in eighth grade.
Meanwhile, students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch hail from households that are at or below federal poverty designations.
“Consistent, steady growth doesn’t happen by accident,” Superintendent Christopher Bernier said in a statement. “These results reflect intentional, dedicated work from all of Team Duval — from our pre-kindergarten teachers to our high school counselors. It’s the daily, patient, behind-the-scenes efforts of our teachers, counselors, administrators, students, and families that lead to big results. This is how Duval Delivers.”
At the start of the current academic year, Bernier outlined a goal of continuing to close the graduation and achievement gaps between white students and English Language Learners; white students and free and reduced lunch students; and white students and Exceptional Student Education students.
Statewide, 94% of white students earned diplomas last year, compared with 86.3% of English Language Learners and 89.1% of exceptional students.
In Duval County, 94.7% of white students earned diplomas, as well as 93.2% of English Language Leaners and 91.7% of exceptional students.
Westside graduation
For Vincent Foster, graduation is less about a data point and more about students transforming their lives through learning. The Westside High principal saw the school’s graduation rate increase six percentage points in 2025 to 93.8%.
“There is now more concentrated effort on meeting the needs of every student,” Foster says. “As we continue on in the evolution of education, you will find now that we have a very diverse population in all of our schools now. From our English Language Learners to our students with special needs, we are truly addressing the needs of every student in the building. We do that through programming like career and technical education and things that give a student a vision for what’s next after high school.”
Westside has academies in business and entrepreneurship and computer science. More than a dozen members of its Class of 2025 earned their Certified Nursing Assistant pin through the school’s nursing academy.
Foster says students brought the idea of a nursing academy forward shortly after his arrival at the start of the 2021-22 academic year. That led to a partnership between Duval Schools and Ascension St. Vincent’s that began in 2022.
“Relationships with the students are most important,” Foster says. “Having programs were students are (in a cohort) and they know they have to take four classes in that progression and they know in order to remain in the academy, they have to push and be above average in their other classes. It just gives them that boost. They know that when they leave here — and that’s always been my personal motto that I want everyone that we encounter to be better when they leave here than when they came — to have more opportunities.
Foster has believed in the power of education for more than 40 years. He attended Gregory Drive Elementary and the now-closed Jefferson Davis Middle School on the Westside before earning his diploma from Ed White High School.
Westside’s graduation rate declined from 89.6% in the 2021 academic year — when the Florida Department of Education did not require students to pass a standardized test to graduate high school — to 79.2% in 2022 when the testing requirement resumed.
Since that time, Westside’s graduation rate has increased yearly. The 94.3% of at-risk students and 91.8% of students on free and reduced lunch who graduated from Westside in 2025 exceed both the district and state average.
Foster lauds the entire Wolverine community for the turnaround.
“Our school community is big,” Foster says. “This has been a collective effort. It’s the tireless work of teachers and support staff in this building believing in these students.”
Across Northeast Florida
St. Johns County had the highest overall graduation rate in Northeast Florida. Its 97.1% graduation rate is an increase from the 95.5% of students who graduated in 2024.
Putnam County saw the biggest leap in Northeast Florida. Its graduation rate soared to 96.6% in 2025, compared with 91.2% in 2024.
In Clay County, 95% of students graduated. The 92.3% of Nassau County students who graduated is slightly better than 2024. Baker County witnessed 83.5% of its students earn diplomas, compared with 83.1% in 2024 and 76.4% 2023.
