The percentage of Louisiana high school students graduating in four years reached an all-time high last year, at 74.6%, the Louisiana Department of Education announced this morning.
The 2014 graduation rate represents a 1.1 percentage point increase from 2013 and a 3.2 point increase from 2011. The rate has now increased for four straight years, the education department says, noting the rate a decade ago was nearly 10 percentage points lower.
In the class of 2014, nearly 1,600 more students graduated than did in the class of 2013. Of the nearly 1,600 additional students graduating last year, more than 1,200 are minorities and more than 1,230 are from low-income backgrounds. Graduation rates for students of color improved by 2 percentage points, the department says, nearly doubling the state’s overall improvement.
A pair of Capital Region school districts was among those with the best graduation rates in the state last year. West Feliciana Parish had the third-best rate, at 92.3%, while Zachary Community Schools was No. 10, at 88.5%. DeSoto Parish recorded the state’s best graduation rate, at 94.5%.
“This increase in the number of students graduating from high school in four years is a great sign for our state and a true testament to the hard work and devotion teachers, principals, and families across Louisiana,” says State Superintendent John White in a prepared statement. “The increases realized by our districts and schools are more evidence our state cannot afford to go backwards.”
The education department has more details. Last week, the department announced just shy of 23,000 recent public high school students in Louisiana enrolled in college, also an all-time high.
