Louisiana education officials say a record 23,517 public high school students who graduated in 2017 enrolled in college in last fall.
That’s an increase of more than 500 students from the previous year—and more than 3,000 students since 2012—the Louisiana Department of Education announced on Tuesday.
The department said school systems in Calcasieu, Lafayette, Livingston, Orleans and Bossier parishes account for more than half the increase in recent years. Those parishes represent 22% of graduates but 31% of the increase in college enrollment from 2012 to 2017.
The number of college-going high school graduates deemed economically disadvantaged increased by 56% over those five years, and the number of college-bound minority graduates increased by 16%.
