This week, the Mississippi Department of Education announced that the state’s graduation rate improved significantly from 2011 to 2015, which places the state closer to the national average.
According to a release from MDE, districts showed a four-year graduation rate of 78.4 percent for the 2014-2015 school year, up from 74.5 in 2013-2014. The national graduation rate average for the 2013-2014 school was 82 percent, a recent statistic reported.
The 2015 graduation rate for Picayune School District is 76.2 percent, 79.3 percent for Pearl River County School District and Poplarville’s graduation rate is 81.1 percent.
Mississippi’s four-year dropout rate was 12.8 percent in 2014-2015, a decline from the 13.9 percent reported the previous year, the release states. The 2015 rates for graduation and dropouts are based on students who entered grade 9 for the first time in 2010.
“The lower dropout rate and higher graduation rates prove that many districts are working to encourage students to stay in school and they are focusing on attendance and targeting students at risk of dropping out,” State Superintendent of Education Dr. Carey Wright said in the release. “Those efforts, as well as the Mississippi Department of Education providing more technical assistance to districts and school counselors to help students explore multiple pathways to college and careers, have contributed to dramatic decreases in students leaving school and an increase in graduation.”
“However, there are districts in the state that still struggle to keep students on the path to a high school diploma, which means we have more work to do,” Wright said in the press release.
Also included in the MDE’s report was the state’s graduation rate of students with disabilities, which is 27.5 percent.
For a complete listing of district level’s graduation rates visit http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/docs/communications-library/grad-rate—brief—final-to-sbe7C78959A6EB7.pdf?sfvrsn=2.