New Report Suggests Causes, Solutions for Graduation Rate Gaps

The sixth annual Building a Grad Nation report, released last week, showcases an encouraging trend. According to the most recent data, the United States is still on track to achieve a 90% high school graduation rate by 2020. The 2013 graduation rate of 81.4% was a record high.

More importantly, though, the newest edition of the report identifies significant correlations between graduation rates and five demographic factors. Low-income students, minority students, and students with disabilities graduate at lower rates than their peers in other demographic groups. On the positive side, many large school districts experienced notable gains in graduation rates, and the numbers from large states were also encouraging. The report discusses the importance of each of these factors for creating and implementing policies which will further boost the graduation rate.

Building a Grad Nation is a joint project of the Alliance for Excellent Education, America’s Promise Alliance,, Civic Enterprises, and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University.

For more in-depth analysis of the new report and its significance, check out this great article at the Education Writers Association.