State high schoolers score record graduation rates

California high school graduation rates went up for the seventh year in a row, marking a new record high, with notable gains made by English learners as well as African American and Latino students, state education officials said Tuesday.

Just over 83 percent of high school seniors graduated in 2016, up nearly one percentage point from the year before.

The graduation rate for English learners improved to 72 percent, up 2.7 percentage points from the prior year, while African Americans gained 1.8 points to 72.6 percent. The rate for Latinos rose to 80 percent, up 1.5 points, from 2015 to 2016.

“We still have a long way to go and need help from everyone — teachers, parents, administrators, and community members — to keep our momentum alive so we can keep improving,” said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson in a statement.

All told, there were nearly 407,000 students who started high school in 2012 and graduated four years later, according to the state data.

During the same period, 9.8 percent of the students dropped out, a decline of 0.9 percentage points. Just over 6 percent of the 2016 cohort of students were considered neither dropouts nor graduates, with many still enrolled in school.

In San Francisco, graduation rates were also at all-time highs, with 86.5 percent of seniors receiving a diploma, compared with 84.9 the prior year.

African American students continued to lag behind their white, Asian and Latino peers, however, remaining at a stagnant 71 percent in 2015 and 2016. The rate has gone up and down in recent years, and is now 14 percentage points higher than it was in 2010.

“We’re happy to join with the entire State of California in celebrating the fact that more of our youth are graduating from high school than ever before while completing more college preparatory coursework,” said interim Superintendent Myong Leigh. “While all student groups have made gains, the rates for African American, Latino and Pacific Islander students over the past seven years have increased at a greater rate than that of other groups, thereby narrowing the achievement gap.”

In Oakland, the graduation rate continued to lag far behind the state average, with 64.9 percent of students graduating, but was still up 1.5 percentage points. In 2016, 1 in 5 students who had started high school had dropped out — still a significant improvement from a 24 percent dropout rate the year before.