WASHINGTON ― The nation’s high school graduation rate reached a record 83.2 percent, continuing a steady increase that shows improvement across all racial and ethnic groups, according to federal data released Monday.
President Barack Obama welcomed the higher rate as “good news.” But the gains come against a backdrop of decreasing test scores on national math and reading tests.
Education Secretary John B. King Jr. acknowledged worries about sagging achievement. “A higher graduation rate is meaningful progress, but certainly we share the concern that we have more work to do to make sure every student graduates ready for what’s next,” he said.
Obama visited Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, a magnet school in the District of Columbia, to tout the graduation rate for the 2014-2015 school year. “More African-American and Latino students are graduating than ever before,” he said.
Gains also were seen for disabled students and those from low-income families.
Obama also touted education gains in the District of Columbia, where he said the graduation rate had increased from 53 percent to 69 percent over five years.
He noted that Banneker graduates all its seniors. “It’s been a while since I did math, but 100 percent is good. You can’t do better than that,” Obama told the audience, which included King, former Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Mayor Muriel Bowser, students and others.
