State’s graduation rate among nation’s worst

Florida has one of the lowest high-school-graduation rates in the nation.

For the first time ever, the federal government has released states’ graduation rates all calculated the same way.

The data show that in the 2010-11 school year, Florida’s rate of 71 percent put it among the nation’s low performers.

It was tied with Louisiana and below Mississippi — usually the worst, or near it, on any academic ranking of the states.

Only Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, D.C., had worse graduation rates than the Sunshine State.

Iowa had the best rate, at 88 percent.