Education Week - June 2, 2016 - Diplomas Count - 32

HIGHLIGHTS
n More than 8 in 10

public high school
students in the United
States are graduating
with a diploma.
n Historically
disadvantaged
groups still lag:
19 percentage points
separate the graduation
rates for American
Indian students and
higher-achieving
Asian students.
n Gains for Englishlearners and students
with disabilities
outpaced those of the
nation as a whole.

U.S. Graduation Rate
Reaches a New High
But black, Latino, and American Indian students continue to lag behind
their white and Asian peers. By The Education Week Research Center

G

raduation rates are on the rise again.
According to the most recent data from the
U.S. Department of Education, the on-time
graduation rate for the nation's public high
schools has reached another all-time high.
Eighty-two percent of the class of 2014 graduated
with a regular high school diploma within four years,
as measured by the Education Department's Adjusted
Cohort Graduation Rate, or ACGR. The graduation rate
rose by a full percentage point from the prior year and
by 3 percentage points since 2011, when the department
first started requiring states to calculate and report
graduation rates using this method. Graduation rates
in roughly half the states reached or exceeded the 85
percent mark for the class of 2014.
The consistent upward trajectory captured by the ACGR
in recent years mirrors results from other measures that
track trends in the high school graduation rate over longer periods of time.
Although the graduation rate for the nation as a whole
has improved over the years, progress has been far from
uniform, and critical gaps remain.
Where students live still very much matters when it
comes to their chances of graduating with a diploma in
four years. Thirty percentage points separate the states
with the highest and lowest on-time graduation rates for

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32

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Education Week Diplomas Count * June 2, 2016

the class of 2014. Iowa leads the nation, with 91 percent
of its students graduating on time. At the other extreme,
only 61 percent graduated on time in the District of Columbia, which is considered a state for the purposes of
this analysis.
Graduation rates are on the rise in most states. From
2013 to 2014, rates increased in 35 states, while holding
steady in nine states and decreasing in six. (Data for the
class of 2013 were not available for Idaho.) Delaware and
Alabama made the biggest strides, increasing on-time
graduation rates by 7 percentage points and 6 percentage
points, respectively. The biggest loss was in Oklahoma,
where graduation rates fell 2 percentage points.

Racial, Poverty Gaps Continue to Narrow
An even stronger picture of progress emerges when
taking a longer view. Since the class of 2011, the nation's
overall on-time graduation rate has risen by 3 percentage points. And all but three of the states reporting data
posted gains over that period. Changes over time could
not be calculated for Idaho, Kentucky, and Oklahoma because ACGR data were not reported for 2011.
Consistent with long-term trends, members of the
class of 2014 from historically disadvantaged racial and
ethnic groups are much less likely to finish high school.
On-time graduation rates for white students, at 87 percent, outpace those for their American Indian, 70 percent; black, 73 percent; and Latino, 76 percent, peers by
considerable margins. With an 89 percent graduation
rate, Asian students graduate at the highest rates.
That said, gains among lower-performing groups have
been particularly strong in recent years, helping to narrow racial and ethnic achievement gaps.

Other Groups Join in Gains
The federal agency also releases results for students
based on their English-proficiency and disability status.
The on-time graduation rate for both English-language
learners and students with disabilities is 63 percent for
the class of 2014, a level 19 percentage points lower
than the average for the nation as a whole. Improvements for those groups have also outpaced the U.S. average, with gains of 6 percentage points since 2011 for
English-learners and 4 points for students with disabilities. n
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Education Week - June 2, 2016 - Diplomas Count

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