editorial
NY’s high school graduation rate edges upward
BY CAROLYN THOMPSON
New York’s high school
graduation rate continued to
edge upward in 2019 ahead
of a review and possible revision
of diploma requirements,
education offi cials said last
Thursday.
The overall graduation
rate was 83.4%, up just short
of a percentage point from
the previous year, data from
the NYS Education Department
showed. The rate refl ects
slight increases across most
racial groups, as well as improvement
in each of the ‘Big
5’ cities of New York City, Buffalo,
Rochester, Syracuse and
Graduating seniors get reading for their future. Photo via Pixabay
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Yonkers.
The persistent achievement
gap between white students
and their black and Hispanic
peers again narrowed,
but still hovered around 15%.
Just over 90% of white students
who entered high school
in 2015 graduated by August,
compared with 75.3% of black
students and 74.5% of Hispanic
students.
The numbers represent students
who graduated in June,
as well as August.
New York City recorded a
77.3% graduation rate, up 1.4
percentage points. The rates
in Buffalo and Syracuse held
at just under 65%, while Rochester
posted a 63% graduation
rate, up from 59.3% a
year earlier. Yonkers reported
the highest graduation rate
among big cities, at 88%.
State education leaders in
November launched a twoyear
effort to rethink what
a New York state diploma
should signify and how to
earn one. After a fact-fi nding
phase, a commission is expected
to convene in September
to consider issues like the
role of existing exit exams and
whether alternative measures
of student achievement would
better serve more students.
“The narrowing of achievement
gaps is a step in the right
direction, but we can never
truly close achievement gaps
until we address opportunity
gaps,” Board of Regents Chancellor
Betty Rosa, who initiated
the review, said Thursday.
“To do this, we must ensure
that our education system is
proving opportunities for everyone,
especially our most
vulnerable students, which is
why the Board of Regents and
the Department (of Education)
are reviewing the state’s high
school graduation measures
and what a diploma from New
York should signify.”
Over the past decade, the
state’s graduation rate has increased
by 7.3%.
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