Holla! The U.S. Department of Education just released a new report, “Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2009–10: First Look.” Researchers used a uniform method of calculating the graduation rate, called the Average Freshman Graduation Rate or AFGR, to provide apples-to-apples graduation and dropout figures for all U.S. states, territories, and the District of Columbia.
North Carolina ranked 34th in AFGR for Hispanic students (67.4 percent) and 20th in AFGR for African-American students (69.5 percent). The national average graduation rate for Hispanic students was 71.4 percent; the national average for African-American students was a dismal 66.1 percent.
The ranking is a bit misleading because states with few Hispanic and African-American students, e.g., Vermont, North Dakota, and Maine, had significantly higher graduation rates than states with larger minority populations.
Among states with at least 5,000 Hispanic graduates, don’t mess with Texas. The state was second only to California in the total number of Hispanic graduates (120,985 and 174,088, respectively), but Texas still achieved an impressive 77.4 percent graduation rate.
Among states with at least 10,000 African-American graduates, Tennessee was the big winner. The state had a 75.6 percent graduation rate and tied for 8th highest rate in the nation in this category.
One final note: All 43 of the states that reported a graduation rate between the 2002-03 and 2009-10 school years increased their rate. Even the District of Columbia raised their graduation rate (slightly) during this period! While North Carolina’s 6.8 point increase is laudable, it is also consistent with national AND regional trends. Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida added at least four percentage points to their graduation rates over the eight-year period.
