Michigan’s 4-year graduation rate up, but so is the dropout rate
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Loading... - Joyah Leong
- 27 Feb 2023
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Michigan’s four-year high school graduation rate rebounded slightly last year after a pandemic-related decline, and the Detroit district recorded a big gain.
But that progress was tempered by an increase in the state’s dropout rate, which had declined the previous two years.
The state posted new graduation and dropout rates for the Class of 2022 on Friday morning.
The graduation rate was 81.01%, a small increase from 80.47% for the Class of 2021. That’s still below the pre-pandemic rate of 81.41% in 2019.
The dropout rate for the Class of 2022 was 8.19%, up from 7.65% the year before. In 2019, it was 8.36%.
“Improving graduation rates, a return to pre-COVID rates in many cases, are positive signs that our schools are beginning to emerge from the adverse impacts of the pandemic,” said State Superintendent Michael Rice in a statement.
Rice noted that graduation rates for Black students rose more than any other racial/ethnic group, increasing 2.53 percentage points to the pre-pandemic level of 70.13%. Gaps remain between graduation rates for Black and hispanic students and students in other racial groups.
Michigan has seen a decade of mostly steady progress in its graduation rates — the four-year rate in 2012 was 74%. In 2020-21, the first full year of instruction after the start of the pandemic, the state lost ground for the first time in five years.
“We still have a long way to go to get kids back to where we need them to be following the most significant disruption to education that we’ve ever seen,” said Robert McCann, executive director of the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, which represents 123 school districts.
The four-year graduation rate represents the portion of students who entered high school in 2018 and graduated in 2022. The state also calculates five- and six-year rates, recognizing that some students need more time to graduate. Dropouts are students who leave school permanently at any time in high school. Read More…
