State graduation rate hits record
SACRAMENTO — California’s graduation rate increased for the seventh year in a row and is now at a record high, the state Department of Education announced Tuesday.
The graduation rate for the Class of 2016 was 83.2 percent, nearly 1 percentage point higher than the year before, with 4,917 more students receiving their high school diploma in four years, compared with the previous graduating class, education officials said. The state graduation rate has risen 8.5 percentage points since the Class of 2010 graduated 74.7 percent of students.
In addition, the graduation rate of almost every student subgroup rose, including English learners, which jumped 2.7 percentage points; African-Americans, which rose 1.8 percentage points; and Latino students, which increased by 1.5 percentage points.
Alameda County also saw its graduation rate rise from 85 percent to 85.6 percent. But other Bay Area counties saw slight decreases, including Contra Costa County’s graduation rate (from 89.3 percent to 88.9 percent) and Santa Clara County (from 83.6 percent to 83 percent). San Mateo County experienced a more significant decline, from 88.1 percent to 70 percent.
However, Allie Jaarsma, a San Mateo County Office of Education spokeswoman, said that the county’s decrease was due to a reporting error for Sequoia Union High School District that has its graduation rate at 47.4 percent. Her office is still working on verifying the correct numbers, she said.
Contra Costa County’s education office spokesman, Terry Koehne, said that from year to year, districts and counties will see small fluctuations in graduation rates, both up and down, but the county’s graduation rate is up 9 percentage points since 2010.
Also, the Santa Clara education office said it could not immediately comment because it was still analyzing the data.
Some have attributed the statewide surge in graduation rates to the elimination of the California High School Exit Examination two years ago, but the state Department of Education has said it’s partly the result of additional state revenues to schools, which have restored science, civics, arts and career-linked programs since the recession.
To view and download state, county, district and school graduation and dropout rates, go to the California Department of Education’s DataQuest.