Tops 77%, up from 46% in ’05, though race gaps remain

City high school graduation rates continued to climb last year, reaching a record high for the sixth year in a row, state officials said Thursday.

More than 77% of students who started as freshmen and finished school in 2019 — about a 1% point bump from the previous year.

“New York City students continue to raise the bar and then exceed it,” said Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza. “… And this year we are seeing that success grow across every borough and every demographic.”

While the city’s rate still falls below the overall state graduation rate of 83%, the city’s rate increased more than the state’s did in 2019.

Stark disparities remained in the graduation rates for different racial groups.

Among white city students, 85% graduated in four years, compared with about 74% of their black peers and 72% of Hispanic kids. Asians had the highest grad rate, at 88%.

The gaps were even wider for an “advanced” diploma, which requires a student to pass more Regents exams. About 47% of whites got the advanced designation compared with 12% of blacks.

Carranza added that the city will focus on “narrowing the achievement gap and ensure that we are seeing both equity and excellence in action in our schools every day.”

Graduation rates in the city have risen dramatically since 2005, when only 46% of students got their diploma in four years.

Some of the growth is tied to the state’s expanded definition of how to earn a Regents diploma. Beginning in 2015, state officials offered an “alternative pathway” to graduation, allowing kids to substitute one of the five required subject-area Regents exams for different assessment areas including the arts and career and technical education.

The number of teens graduating through the alternate route has surged since the option became available, and it grew again by 15% last year, bringing the total number statewide to 13,201 students, officials said.

State Interim Education Commissioner Shannon Tahoe said the new pathways allow students different “ways they can demonstrate their proficiency.” She insisted the alternatives don’t water down the rigor of graduation requirements, and motivate students who may not otherwise stay in school.

State officials said they saw particular growth in the number of students who took advantage of the option to take an exam in a language other than English, which has only been available for two years.

English language learners and students with disabilities graduated at far lower rates than their peers, the data showed. In New York City, where about 60% of the state’s English learners attend school, only 41% of students learning the language graduated on time, a 6 percentage-point increase from last year.

The state’s Board of Regents is in the process of reevaluating New York’s graduation requirements, which are among the most stringent in the country.