National High School Graduation Rate Hits a Record High

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. high school graduation rate has hit a record high of 83.2 percent, according to new data released Monday. President Barack Obama announced the news while speaking to students at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in D.C.

The new report released by the National Center of Education Statistics covers graduation rates from the 2014-15 school year. Improvements were found in nearly every state and across demographic backgrounds.

Obama attributed the graduation rate increase and other improvements in schools nationwide to a variety of new programs from kindergarten to high school, along with hard work by students, teachers, administrators and communities.

The White House noted the high school graduation rate has "risen steadily" since Obama took office, increasing by four percentage points since 2010-11, the first year that states used a new measure of high school completion.

The District of Columbia made the greatest one-year progress between the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years, improving its graduation rates by seven percentage points.

"You're an example of a school doing it the right way," Obama told the students at Benjamin Banneker, where the graduation rate is 100 percent. "When I took office almost eight years ago, we knew our education system was falling short when it came to preparing students… you are the reason we've made progress."

The 2014-2015 graduation rates nationwide showed progress for all reported "subgroups." Black students and people learning English showed the greatest increase in graduation rates over the last five years, with the former group increasing from 67 percent to 74.6 percent, and the latter going from 57 percent to 65.1 percent.

The data also shows the gap in graduation rates between White and Black students narrowed from 17 to 13 percentage points over the course of the five years, while the gap between White and Hispanic students narrowed from 13 to 10 percentage points.

In his speech to the students Monday, Obama stressed that a high school education is not enough to succeed in the modern job market.

"You've got to get a little bit more than what you're getting in high school," he said. "In order for you to succeed in the marketplace, you've got to be able to think creatively, you've got to be able to work in a team."

Those skills come from some amount of higher education, and the president stressed how important it is for students to apply for grant and scholarship funding for college. "We've made it simpler than ever," he told the students.

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