All three public school divisions in our readership area deserve praise for making significant improvements to the on-time graduation rate for high school students.

According to preliminary data, 80 percent of students at Southampton High School took four years to graduate from the school, a marked improvement over the 75.2 mark it earned last year.

Franklin High School also fared much better, graduating 71.53 percent of its students on time in 2009, up from 64.9 percent last year.

FHS also received another piece of good news: the school’s dropout rate fell to 18.98 percent, down from 23.7 percent last year.

Isle of Wight Public Schools declined to provide their preliminary numbers, but division officials said that as a county they improved as well on the on-time graduation and dropout rates.

While there still remains room for continued improvement, everyone in our public school divisions — students, parents, teachers and administrators — deserve credit for a job well done.

We look forward to printing more good news about our schools very soon.