Continuing a nearly decade-long upward trend, the nation’s on-time high school graduation rate hit a record high of 82.3 percent for the Class of 2014. This is a tremendous milestone.

But two issues mar the achievement. First, for the first time in four years, the nation is not on track to reach its goal of a 90 percent on-time graduation rate by 2020. The rate needs to increase by 1.3 percentage points to remain on track; this year’s increase was .9 percentage points.

Second, in spite of significant increases for some groups, the nation continues to suffer from severe gaps in graduation rates affecting students of color, students from low-income families, students with disabilities and English-language learners.

• 33 states graduate less than 70 percent of their students with disabilities; six of those states graduate less than 50 percent of students with disabilities.
• 11 states graduate less than 70 percent of Hispanic/Latino students.
• 17 states graduate less than 70 percent of African American students.
• 16 states graduate less than 70 percent of low-income students. In those states, researchers estimate that nearly 191,000 low-income students did not graduate on time with a regular diploma.
• 35 states graduate less than 70 percent of English-language learners; seven of those states have ELL graduation rates under 50 percent.
• 10 states graduate less than 70 percent of all five subgroups. They are Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington.

The Data Brief keeps pace with the release of graduation rate data by the National Center for Education Statistics and lays a foundation for the more comprehensive analysis in the annual Building a Grad Nation Report to be published in spring 2016.

• Iowa became the first state to pass the 90 percent goal with a 90.5 percent graduation rate.
• 29 states in all equaled or exceeded the national average of 82.3 percent.
• 15 states have graduation rates between 70 and 80 percent.
• New Mexico, the lowest ranking state, remains more than 13 points behind the national average with 68.5 percent of students graduating.

• The number of dropout factories – low-performing schools that promote less than 60 percent of students from 9th to 12th grade – and the number of students attending these schools have declined. There are now about 1,000 of these schools, compared to 2,000 in 2002. About 1 million students attend these schools, at least 1.6 million fewer than in 2002.

• Six states increased their graduation rates by six points or more in the past four years. In three states, graduation rates have declined over the past four years.

• Nationally, 89 percent of non-low-income students graduate on time compared to 74.6 percent of low-income students – a 14.4 percentage point gap.
• The graduation gap between low-income and non-low-income students ranges from a high of 25.6 percentage points in South Dakota to a low of 4 percentage points in Indiana.
• 15 states graduate less than 70 percent of their low-income students.

• 72.5 percent of African American students graduated in 2014.
• African American students have exceeded the national rate of improvement, making yearly gains averaging more than 1.3 percentage points since 2011.
• The gap between graduating White and African American students is 14.7 percentage points.
• 17 states graduate less than 70 percent of their African American students.

• 76.3 percent of Hispanic/Latino students graduated in 2014.
• Hispanic/Latino students have exceeded the national rate of improvement, making yearly gains averaging more than 1.3 percentage points since 2011.
• The gap between graduating White and Hispanic/Latino students is 10.9 percentage points.
• 11 states graduate less than 70 percent of their Hispanic/Latino students.

• Nationally students without identified disabilities graduate at a rate of 84.8 percent, compared with just 63.1 percent of students with disabilities – a gap of more than 21 percentage points.
• 33 states graduate less than 70 percent of their students with disabilities; seven of those states graduate less than 50 percent of students with disabilities.

• Appendix A: Four-Year Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rates (ACGR), by State and Subgroup, 2013-14
• Appendix B: Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) Change from 2010-11 to 2013-14, by State
• Appendix C: Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) Gaps, by Subgroup and State, 2013-14
• Appendix D: Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) Gap Change, by Subgroup and State from 2010-11 to 2013-14
• Appendix E: Estimated Non-Low-Income Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR), Low-Income ACGR, Gap between Low-Income and Non-Low-Income, and Gap Change, by State, from 2012-13 to 2013-14
• Appendix F: Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) by State, Percent Low-Income, ACGR Low-Income, ACGR Estimated Non-Low-Income,Gap between Low-Income and Non-Low-Income, and Gap Change, by State from 2011-2014
• Appendix G: Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR, 2013-14) for Students with Disabilities (SWD) versus Non-SWD
• Appendix H: Number of High Schools by Different Levels of Promoting Power, 2002-2014
• Appendix I: Change of High Schools with Promoting Power of 60 Percent or Less by Locale, 2002-2014
• Appendix J: High Schools and Student Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity with a 2014 Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) below 67 Percent
• Appendix A to J inclusive

• 2013-14 Overall Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) Map
• State 2014 ACGR for Low-Income Students and Non-Low-Income Students Maps
• Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR, 2013-14) for Students with Disabilities (SWD) versus Non-SWD Students Table
• High Schools and Student Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity with a 2014 Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) below 67 Percent Table
• Estimated Non-Low-Income Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR), Low-Income ACGR, Gap between Low-Income and Non-Low-Income, by State from 2012-13 to 2013-14

For the release of the 2016 Building a Grad Nation data brief , we are encouraging conversation about the progress we are making and the urgent work that remains. Please join the conversation by using the hashtag #GradNation.

Help spread the word (just click to launch and edit it in Twitter):

JUST RELEASED: Download the 2016 Building a #GradNation Data Brief by @CivicEnterprise & Everyone Graduates Center. http://bit.ly/1nxXYaq

• Press release
• Media Contact:
  Daria Hall
  202.657.0621
  [email protected]

About GradNation: The GradNation campaign – led by America’s Promise Alliance, the Alliance for Excellent Education, Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University – mobilizes individuals and organizations to raise the on-time high school graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020, with no school graduating fewer than 80 percent of its students on time. GradNation also aims for dramatic increases in postsecondary enrollment and graduation.