DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Iowa’s high school graduation rate increased slightly for the class of 2013, making it the third straight year the rate has climbed, the state Department of Education announced Thursday.
The department also released numbers showing fewer students dropped out of school.
Iowa’s four-year graduation rate increased to 89.68 percent, up from 89.26 percent in 2012.
“I certainly think an increase in graduation rate is good news,” said Jay Pennington, bureau chief of information and analysis services at the department. “It’s a testament to the hard work of high school officials focused on getting all kids to complete high school.”
Although federal rankings haven’t been released, officials note that Iowa’s graduation typically ranks near the top in the nation. Pennington said the state will likely be at that level again.
“It shows that there’s a focus on the quality and importance of education in the state of Iowa,” he said. “It’s just not whether kids complete; it’s whether they’re prepared for life beyond high school.”
Of Iowa’s 316 school districts that have high schools, 54 percent saw increases, 4 percent had no change and 42 percent experienced decreases. Council Bluffs reported the greatest graduation rate increase and registered 84.74 percent of the class of 2013 graduating in four years.
“We’re very, very pleased. It is our No. 1 goal,” said Martha Buckner, superintendent of Council Bluffs Community School District. “It’s very affirming that the hard work is making a difference.”
In 2005, Council Bluffs Community Schools registered the lowest graduation rate in the state. Since then, Buckner said, programs stressing the importance of graduating have been implemented at various grade levels, and the district has seen steady increases over the last eight years.
“We have been, every single year since then, implementing more and more attention to every child,” Buckner said.
Statewide graduation rates increased for all but one subgroup of students, with Native American students seeing the most significant change, a 10.5 percent increase. African-American students saw a decrease of 0.29 percent.
“It’s hard to say specifically why,” Pennington said. “While it was a decrease, it was a decrease of less than 0.3 percent. Certainly we’d like to see that headed in the other direction.”
Pennington also noted that the dropout rate for African-American students decreased by about 2 percent, which he said means more of those students are engaged in their high school education than in previous years.
The overall dropout rate in 2012-2013 was 2.82 percent, a decline from the previous year’s 3.2 percent.
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