National High School Graduation Rates Improve
After two years of discouraging news, the nation's high school graduation rate is improving, according to a new report released Tuesday by Education Week.
About 72 percent of public school students from the class of 2008 graduated on time, a 6 percentage-point increase from the 1997 rate, and a 3 percentage-point increase from the 2007 rate. The reported graduation rate is the highest it's been since the mid 1980s.
Improvement has been widespread. Graduation rates jumped in three fourths of states between 1998 and 2008, and a higher percentage of all racial and ethnic groups are graduating now than a decade ago.
Asian and white students still have the most success in high school—8 in 10 Asians and 78