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Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2006

NCES 2008-053
September 2008


Table 13.  Averaged freshman graduation rates of public high school students and change in rates, by state: School years 2001–02 to 2004–05
 
  Averaged freshman graduation rate (percent)   Change in rates from
2003–04 to 2004–05
State 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05  
United States  72.6 73.9 75.01 74.7   -0.3
             
Alabama  62.1 64.7 65.0 65.9   0.9
Alaska  65.9 68.0 67.2 64.1   -3.1
Arizona  74.7 75.9 66.8 84.7   17.9
Arkansas  74.8 76.6 76.8 75.7   -1.1
California  72.7 74.1 73.9 74.6   0.7
             
Colorado  74.7 76.4 78.7 76.7   -2.0
Connecticut  79.7 80.9 80.7 80.9   0.2
Delaware  69.5 73.0 72.9 73.1   0.2
District of Columbia  68.4 59.6 68.2 68.8   0.6
Florida  63.4 66.7 66.4 64.6   -1.8
             
Georgia  61.1 60.8 61.2 61.7   0.5
Hawaii  72.1 71.3 72.6 75.1   2.5
Idaho  79.3 81.4 81.5 81.0   -0.5
Illinois  77.1 75.9 80.3 79.4   -0.9
Indiana  73.1 75.5 73.5 73.2   -0.3
             
Iowa  84.1 85.3 85.8 86.6   0.8
Kansas  77.1 76.9 77.9 79.2   1.3
Kentucky  69.8 71.7 73.0 75.9   2.9
Louisiana  64.4 64.1 69.4 63.9   -5.5
Maine  75.6 76.3 77.6 78.6   1.0
             
Maryland  79.7 79.2 79.5 79.3   -0.2
Massachusetts  77.6 75.7 79.3 78.7   -0.6
Michigan  72.9 74.0 72.5 73.0   0.5
Minnesota  83.9 84.8 84.7 85.9   1.2
Mississippi  61.2 62.7 62.7 63.3   0.6
             
Missouri  76.8 78.3 80.4 80.6   0.2
Montana  79.8 81.0 80.4 81.5   1.1
Nebraska  83.9 85.2 87.6 87.8   0.2
Nevada  71.9 72.3 57.4 55.8   -1.6
New Hampshire2  77.8 78.2 78.7 80.1   1.4
             
New Jersey  85.8 87.0 86.3 85.1   -1.2
New Mexico  67.4 63.1 67.0 65.4   -1.6
New York  60.5 60.9 65.3  
North Carolina  68.2 70.1 71.4 72.6   1.2
North Dakota  85.0 86.4 86.1 86.3   0.2
             
Ohio  77.5 79.0 81.3 80.2   -1.1
Oklahoma  76.0 76.0 77.0 76.9   -0.1
Oregon  71.0 73.7 74.2 74.2   0.0
Pennsylvania  80.2 81.7 82.2 82.5   0.3
Rhode Island  75.7 77.7 75.9 78.4   2.5
             
South Carolina  57.9 59.7 60.6 60.1   -0.5
South Dakota  79.0 83.0 83.7 82.3   -1.4
Tennessee  59.6 63.4 66.1 68.5   2.4
Texas  73.5 75.5 76.7 74.0   -2.7
Utah  80.5 80.2 83.0 84.4   1.4
             
Vermont  82.0 83.6 85.4 86.5   1.1
Virginia  76.7 80.6 79.3 79.6   0.3
Washington  72.2 74.2 74.6 75.0   0.4
West Virginia  74.2 75.7 76.9 77.3   0.4
Wisconsin  84.8 85.8 86.7  
Wyoming  74.4 73.9 76.0 76.7   0.7
— Not available.
1 The national estimate of 75.0 percent for 2003–04 does not include data from two states with missing diploma counts: New York and Wisconsin. When the national estimate is adjusted to account for missing information for these two states by using the 2002–03 rates for these states, the adjusted national rate for 2003–04 is 74.3 percent.
2 New Hampshire included homeschooled students in reported membership in 2000–01. This could inflate the denominator for the AFGR in 2002–03, 2003–04, and 2004–05 slightly.
NOTE: The averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR) is an estimate of the percentage of an entering freshman class graduating in 4 years. For 2004–05, it equals the total number of diploma recipients in 2004–05 divided by the average membership of the 8th-grade class in 2000–01, the 9th-grade class in 2001–02, and the 10th-grade class in 2002–03. Ungraded students were allocated to individual grades proportionally to the reported enrollments by grade.
SOURCE: Seastrom, M., Hoffman, L., Chapman, C., and Stillwell, R. (2005). The Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate for Public High Schools From the Common Core of Data: School Years 2001–02 and 2002–03 (NCES 2006-601), table 1; Seastrom, M., Hoffman, L., Chapman, C., and Stillwell, R. (2007). The Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate for Public High Schools From the Common Core of Data: School Years 2002–03 and 2003–04 (NCES 2006-606rev), table 1; Sable, J., and Garofano, A. (2007). Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005–06 (NCES 2007-352), table 4.