In 2006-07 Evans’ graduation rate was 50 percent. The school and community partners began working collectively to break down the barriers obstructing students’ potential and create a supportive school culture where students could academically thrive.
In 2010, UCF co-founded the successful Community Partnership School™ model, a partnership with Children’s Home Society of Florida and Orange County Public Schools at Evans High School. All community schools share the same focus – to assess and meet the unique needs of the school community. However, they vary in their approach to engaging partners and organizing resources. “Community school” is a term used to define an approach used to improve the success of students, families, and a community through collaborations between a school and a community partner(s).
These efforts have paid dividends as we congratulate Evans High School, Florida’s first Community Partnership School (CPS). Evans had the highest increase in graduation rate of all Orange County Public Schools in 2019-20, up 10.8 percentage points, from 86.8 to 97.6. Evans became a CPS in 2010, and in the decade that followed, graduation rates increased by 35 percent.