According to the newly released Building A Grad Nation report, the United Sates has achieved a record-high average graduation rate of 81.4 percent for the third year in a row. The report, authored by Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University in partnership with America’s Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education, reveals that 29 of 50 states equaled or exceeded the national average of 81.4 percent, while six states reached 88 percent graduation rates or above. These finding are encouraging with regards to the organizations’ long-term vision, which is to bolster the national average to 90 percent by the year 2020.1

Although there is improvement overall, there are still challenges to overcome. Low-income students lag considerably behind the national average, with graduation rates around 73.3 percent. Graduation rates for Hispanic/Latino students and African American students (75.2 percent and 70.7 percent, respectively) have improved since 2006, but still lag significantly behind those of White (86.6 percent) and Asian (88.7 percent) students. Rates for students with disabilities are the lowest at around 61.9 percent, signaling a need to reduce the challenges disabled students face in school, both socially and administratively.

The report outlines policy recommendations, media coverage, in-depth state-by-state statistics, commentary, and more. Hopefully, we will continue to see improvements in graduation rates until the 2020 goal is met, and beyond!

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#GraduationRates in America are record high, but challenges remain | New @First_Focus blog post http://bit.ly/1HMsZwk
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