WESTFALL, PA — On the verge of a week of elementary and middle school student orientation leading to the August 31 opening of a new year, Delaware Valley officials on August 20 heard the annual review of the last graduates’ achievements.

According to the guidance department’s presentation, some 80% of the 2015 class will be going on to post-secondary education, this compares to an average of 85% over the prior five-year period.

Some 400 graduates’ college choices were not detailed by percentage, but a list of colleges included in part West Point, Brown, Colgate, Dartmouth, NYU, Drexel, Vassar, Temple and Penn State.

An additional 9% will move on to the military and non-degree programs.

Students accepted a total of $1.62 million in scholarships, the bulk of which ($1.33 million) were offered privately. Also included in the total were $125,000 in athletic scholarships.

Delaware Valley has been a leader in Advanced Placement (AP) college class work in recent years. Last year, the district offered 24 college classes, in which 522 students participated, resulting in 72 DV students being recognized as AP Scholars, 15 of those as AP Scholars with Honor, 35 as AP Scholars with Distinction and six as National AP Scholars.

A statistic known as the four-year cohort graduation rate was available for the 2014 class. On-time graduations are computed by comparing the graduating class size with a total of the original freshman enrollment, adding incoming transfers, and subtracting outgoing transfers. DV’s 2014 graduating class of 391 comprised a cohort of 94.28% of a possible 415 students. This rate, averaging over 90%, has steadily increased over the past three years.

The district’s 2014 drop-out rate was .77%, down from the five-year average of .83%.

Reviewing Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, DV showed steady increases over the period between 2012 and 2104 in all three test areas and 2014 SAT scores exceeding both state and national averages.