The graduation rate for the nation’s class of 2014 reached a record 82 percent, an increase of 1 percentage point from the previous year’s rate, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education.
Graduation rates for several student demographic groups rose, but not for American Indian and Alaskan Native students, for whom rates remained virtually flat. Significant gaps remain, particularly between black and Hispanic students and their white counterparts, although those gaps have shrunk recently.
In a statement, GradNation—a coalition of groups pushing to increase the national graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020—praised the 82 percent rate, but noted that, if the rate increases at its current trajectory, the country will miss that goal, the first time the United States has gotten off track in four years.
