Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007

NCES 2009-064 September 2009

Table 13. Averaged freshman graduation rates of public high school students and change in rates, by state: School years 2001–02 to 2005–06

State	Averaged freshman graduation rate (percent)							Change in rates from 2004–05  to 2005–06
	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04		2004–05	2005–06
United States	72.6	73.9	75.0	1	74.7	73.2	2	-1.5
Alabama	62.1	64.7	65.0		65.9	66.2		0.3
Alaska	65.9	68.0	67.2		64.1	66.5		2.4
Arizona	74.7	75.9	66.8		84.7	70.5		-14.2
Arkansas	74.8	76.6	76.8		75.7	80.4		4.7
California	72.7	74.1	73.9		74.6	69.2		-5.4
Colorado	74.7	76.4	78.7		76.7	75.5		-1.2
Connecticut	79.7	80.9	80.7		80.9	80.9		0.0
Delaware	69.5	73.0	72.9		73.1	76.3		3.2
District of Columbia	68.4	59.6	68.2		68.8	‡		—
Florida	63.4	66.7	66.4		64.6	63.6		-1.0
Georgia	61.1	60.8	61.2		61.7	62.4		0.7
Hawaii	72.1	71.3	72.6		75.1	75.5		0.4
Idaho	79.3	81.4	81.5		81.0	80.5		-0.5
Illinois	77.1	75.9	80.3		79.4	79.7		0.3
Indiana	73.1	75.5	73.5		73.2	73.3		0.1
Iowa	84.1	85.3	85.8		86.6	86.9		0.3
Kansas	77.1	76.9	77.9		79.2	77.6		-1.6
Kentucky	69.8	71.7	73.0		75.9	77.2		1.3
Louisiana	64.4	64.1	69.4		63.9	59.5		-4.4
Maine	75.6	76.3	77.6		78.6	76.3		-2.3
Maryland	79.7	79.2	79.5		79.3	79.9		0.6
Massachusetts	77.6	75.7	79.3		78.7	79.5		0.8
Michigan	72.9	74.0	72.5		73.0	72.2		-0.8
Minnesota	83.9	84.8	84.7		85.9	86.2		0.3
Mississippi	61.2	62.7	62.7		63.3	63.5		0.2
Missouri	76.8	78.3	80.4		80.6	81.0		0.4
Montana	79.8	81.0	80.4		81.5	81.9		0.4
Nebraska	83.9	85.2	87.6		87.8	87.0		-0.8
Nevada	71.9	72.3	57.4		55.8	55.8		0.0
New Hampshire3	77.8	78.2	78.7		80.1	81.1		1.0
New Jersey	85.8	87.0	86.3		85.1	84.8		-0.3
New Mexico	67.4	63.1	67.0		65.4	67.3		1.9
New York	60.5	60.9	—		65.3	67.4		2.1
North Carolina	68.2	70.1	71.4		72.6	71.8		-0.8
North Dakota	85.0	86.4	86.1		86.3	82.1		-4.2
Ohio	77.5	79.0	81.3		80.2	79.2		-1.0
Oklahoma	76.0	76.0	77.0		76.9	77.8		0.9
Oregon	71.0	73.7	74.2		74.2	73.0		-1.2
Pennsylvania	80.2	81.7	82.2		82.5	—		—
Rhode Island	75.7	77.7	75.9		78.4	77.8		-0.6
South Carolina	57.9	59.7	60.6		60.1	—		—
South Dakota	79.0	83.0	83.7		82.3	84.5		2.2
Tennessee	59.6	63.4	66.1		68.5	70.6		2.1
Texas	73.5	75.5	76.7		74.0	72.5		-1.5
Utah	80.5	80.2	83.0		84.4	78.6		-5.8
Vermont	82.0	83.6	85.4		86.5	82.3		-4.2
Virginia	76.7	80.6	79.3		79.6	74.5		-5.1
Washington	72.2	74.2	74.6		75.0	72.9		-2.1
West Virginia	74.2	75.7	76.9		77.3	76.9		-0.4
Wisconsin	84.8	85.8	—		86.7	87.5		0.8
Wyoming	74.4	73.9	76.0		76.7	76.1		-0.6
— Not available. ‡ Reporting standards not met. (Too few cases for a reliable estimate.) 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. 2 The national estimate of 73.2 percent for 2005–06 does not include data from two states, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, which did not report data, and the District of Columbia, for which reporting standards were not met. This is an important consideration when comparing the 2004–05 and 2005–06 national rates. Removing these states and the District of Columbia from the 2004–05 national counts results in a national rate of 74.6 percent, while prorating the 2005–06 rates to estimate the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina data results in a 2005–06 rate of 73.4 percent. 3 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 2005–06, it equals the total number of diploma recipients in 2005–06 divided by the average membership of the 8th-grade class in 2001–02, the 9th-grade class in 2002–03, and the 10th-grade class in 2003–04. 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; Stillwell, R. and Hoffman, L. (2009). Public School Graduates and Dropouts From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005–06 (NCES 2008-353rev), table 1.