Iowa’s High School Graduation Rate Continues to Climb

Iowa’s high school graduation rate has increased for the fifth year in a row while dropout rates continue to fall, according to figures released last week by the Iowa Department of Education.

State data show 90.8 percent of students in Iowa’s Class of 2015 graduated within four years. Graduation rates increased for all but two subgroups of students in the Class of 2015.

Iowa has led the nation in recent years in high school graduation rates and last year became the first state with a graduation rate above 90 percent. U.S. Department of Education data for the Class of 2015 are not yet available.
 
Iowa’s statewide graduation rate has increased 2.5 percent over a five-year period, from 88.3 percent for the Class of 2011 to 90.8 percent for the Class of 2015.

Four-year Graduation Rate
Iowa graduation rates are calculated with a formula established by the U.S. Department of Education. Unique student identification numbers allow school districts to carefully account for all ninth-grade students as they move through high school. At the state level, the method helps determine when a student graduates, even if the student has switched districts in Iowa during high school.

• Graduation and dropout rates for individual school districts can be found here.
• Six-year trend data can be found here.
• One-year trend data can be found here.