High school graduates earn higher annual incomes, commit fewer crimes, and have lower rates of substance abuse than those without a high school diploma. Yet, a student is lost from the graduation pipeline every 13 seconds of the school year. The result is a public high school graduation rate of 70.6 percent for the class of 2005, according to the EPE Research Center’s Diplomas Count 2008. Additionally, graduation rates vary widely by state, with New Jersey on the high end at 83.3 percent and Nevada at the low end at 45.4 percent, a difference of 38 percentage points. To learn more about these disparities, and to find graduation rates for every school district in the country, explore EdWeek Maps.
State Graduation Rates for Class of 2005
NOTE: Graduation rates calculated by the EPE Research Center using the Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI) method.
SOURCE: Diplomas Count 2008
