Fast Facts: High school graduation rates (805)

High school graduation rates

Question:
What information do you have on public high school graduation rates?

Response:

This Fast Fact examines the percentage of U.S. public high school students¹ who graduate on time, as measured by the adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR). To calculate the ACGR, state education agencies first identify the “cohort” of first-time 9th-graders in a particular school year. The cohort is then adjusted by adding any students who immigrate from another country or transfer into the cohort after 9th grade and subtracting any students who subsequently transfer out, emigrate to another country, or die. The ACGR is the percentage of students in this adjusted cohort who graduate within 4 years of starting 9th grade with a regular high school diploma or, for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, a state-defined alternate high school diploma.² The U.S. Department of Education first collected the ACGR in 2010–11.³

The U.S. average ACGR for public high school students increased from 79 percent in 2010–11 to 87 percent in 2019–20.⁴ On average, the ACGR increased by about 1 percentage point per year over this period, including from 2018–19 to 2019–20.

In 2019–20, the ACGR ranged from 73 percent in the District of Columbia to 92 percent in Iowa and West Virginia. Thirty-six states reported ACGRs from 80 percent to less than 90 percent.⁵ Of the 48 states and the District of Columbia that had data available in both 2018–19 and 2019–20, ACGR differed by about 1 percentage point or less between these years in 37 states.

Adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR) for public high school students, by state: 2019–2020

The data in this figure are described in the surrounding text.

---Not available.
‡Reporting standards not met.
¹ Includes imputed data for Illinois and Texas.
NOTE: The ACGR is the percentage of public school 9th-graders who graduate within 4 years of starting 9th grade with a regular diploma or, for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, a state-defined alternate high school diploma. The U.S. average ACGR is for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. In 2019–20, some states may have changed their requirements for a regular high school diploma to account for the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. These changes are at the discretion of each state but may have resulted in less comparability in the ACGRs between 2019–20 and prior school years. In 2019–20, reporting standards were not met for Illinois, and Texas data were unavailable. The graduation rates displayed above have been rounded to whole numbers. Categorizations are based on unrounded percentages. Interpret Alabama data with caution. The Alabama State Department of Education has indicated that their ACGR data for some years were misstated. For more information, please see https://www.oversight.gov/report/ed/calculating-and-reporting-graduation-rates-alabama.

In 2019–20, the ACGRs for American Indian/Alaska Native⁶ (75 percent), Black (81 percent), and Hispanic (83 percent) public high school students were below the U.S. average ACGR of 87 percent. The ACGRs for Asian/Pacific Islander⁷ (93 percent) and White (90 percent) students were above the U.S. average ACGR. Across states, the ACGRs for American Indian/Alaska Native students

ranged from 53 percent in South Dakota to 93 percent in Alabama;^8,9 and
were higher than the U.S. average ACGR of 87 percent in at least 10 states.¹⁰ (Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, New Jersey, Indiana, Arkansas, Virginia, Missouri, Connecticut, and Maryland).¹¹

Across states, the ACGRs for Asian/Pacific Islander students

ranged from 74 percent in Vermont to 98 percent in Florida;¹² and
were higher than the U.S. average ACGR in the District of Columbia and in all states except Wyoming, Nebraska, Arkansas, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Vermont.

Across states, the ACGRs for Black students

ranged from 66 percent in Wyoming to 88 percent in Alabama; and
were higher than the U.S. average ACGR in 3 states (Alabama, Delaware, and Florida).

Across states, the ACGRs for Hispanic students

ranged from 64 percent in the District of Columbia to 93 percent in West Virginia; and
were higher than the U.S. average ACGR in 6 states (West Virginia, Florida, Indiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and Missouri).

Across states, the ACGRs for White students

ranged from 81 percent in New Mexico to 95 percent in New Jersey; and
were higher than the U.S. average ACGR in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

Across states, the ACGRs for students of Two or more races

ranged from 73 percent in Arizona and Minnesota to 92 percent in Virginia, Alabama, Maryland, and New Jersey;¹³ and
were higher than the U.S. average ACGR in 16 states and the District of Columbia.¹⁴

¹ Includes students in public schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
² Before 2017–18, the definition of ACGR included regular high school diplomas only.
³ The ACGR is considered the most accurate measure available for reporting on-time graduation rates. For more information, see Seastrom, M., Chapman, C., Stillwell, R., McGrath, D., Peltola, P., Dinkes, R., and Xu, Z. (2006). User’s Guide to Computing High School Graduation Rates, Volume 2: Technical Evaluation of Proxy Graduation Indicators (NCES 2006-605). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved March 18, 2021, from https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006605.
⁴ In 2019–20, reporting standards were not met for Illinois, and Texas data were unavailable. Therefore, neither state is discussed in this Fast Fact. However, the U.S. average ACGR for 2019–20 includes imputed data for both states.
⁵ Throughout this Fast Fact, counts of states are based on unrounded graduation rates.
⁶ Estimated assuming a count of zero American Indian/Alaska Native students for Hawaii.
⁷ Reporting practices for data on Asian and Pacific Islander students vary by state. Asian/Pacific Islander data in this Fast Fact represent either the value reported by the state for the “Asian/Pacific Islander” group or an aggregation of separate values reported by the state for “Asian” and “Pacific Islander.” “Asian/Pacific Islander” includes the “Filipino” group, which only California and Hawaii report separately.
⁸ The ACGR for American Indian/Alaska Native students was 50 percent or higher in the District of Columbia and Vermont. This value has been “blurred” to protect student privacy.
⁹ Throughout this Fast Fact, interpret Alabama data with caution. The Alabama State Department of Education has indicated that their ACGR data for some years were misstated. For more information, please see https://www.oversight.gov/report/ed/calculating-and-reporting-graduation-rates-alabama.
¹⁰ The ACGR for American Indian/Alaska Native students was 80 percent or higher in West Virginia. This value has been “blurred” to protect student privacy. Therefore, it is not possible to determine whether the ACGR in West Virginia is higher than the U.S. average and it has been excluded from this count of 10 states.
¹¹ Because data from Hawaii were unavailable, discussion of ACGRs for American Indian/Alaska Native students excludes Hawaii.
¹² The ACGR for Asian/Pacific Islander students was 95 percent or higher in West Virginia. This value has been “blurred” to protect student privacy.
¹³ The ACGR for students of Two or more races was 90 percent or higher in the District of Columbia. This value has been “blurred” to protect student privacy.
¹⁴ Data were not available for students of Two or more races in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Tennessee. Reporting standards were not met for New Mexico for students of Two or more races.

SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). Public High School Graduation Rates. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved May 24, 2023, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/coi/high-school-graduation-rates.

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