New Data: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Releases 2016–17 National and State-level High School Graduation Rates

From the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES):

National and state-level high school Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rates (ACGR) for the 2016–17 school year were released today by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The national ACGR for all students was 84.6 percent, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from 2015–16.

The 2016–17 ACGR for all racial and ethnic subgroups increased from the previous year:

80.0 percent for Hispanic students (a 0.7 percentage point increase from 2015-16)
77.8 percent for Black students (a 1.4 percentage point increase)
88.6 percent for White students (a 0.3 percentage point increase)
91.2 percent for Asian/Pacific Islander students (a 0.4 percentage point increase)
72.4 percent of American Indian/Alaskan Native students (a 0.5 percentage point increase)

In other demographic subgroups, the 2016–17 ACGR was:

78.3 percent for economically disadvantaged students (a 0.7 percentage point increase from 2015–16)
66.4 percent for limited English proficiency students (a 0.4 percentage point decrease)
67.1 percent for students with disabilities (a 1.6 percentage point increase).

Calculating the ACGR

The ACGR calculation identifies a “cohort” of first-time 9th graders in a particular school year and adjusts this number by adding any students who transfer into the cohort after 9th grade and subtracting any students who transfer out, move to another country, or pass away. To learn more about the ACGR and how it differs from another calculation—The Average Freshman Graduate Rate—read this blog post.

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