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Iowa's Graduation Rate is Up, As Is Siouxland's

Iowa’s high school graduation rate has increased for the fifth year

in a row.  Sioux City schools’ graduation rates also improved. However, dropout rates were slightly higher across the state.  Siouxland Public Media’s Mary Hartnett has more.

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The Iowa Department of Education says more than 91 percent of 2016 graduates finished high school within four years.  That was up from 90.8 percent from the previous year. Iowa’s annual dropout rate was 2.8 percent, up very slightly from 2015.  The Sioux City Community School District’s graduation rate rose to 87.5 percent, just shy of the state’s average. Its dropout rate was a little more than three percent.

Graduation rates and dropout rates can go up at the same time because they measure different groups of students.  

African American, Hispanic and white students had improved graduation rates. But Asian and Native American students, students in special education, from low-income backgrounds, and whom English is a second language had lower rates.   For Siouxland Public Media, I’m Mary Hartnett.

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