Graduation Rate

The measure is far less precisely published than its reputation suggests. Of the 11,673 districts in this release, fewer than a third report an exact percentage. Most report either a range or a bound of the form "greater than or equal to 80 percent", because the Department, where "a population or subgroup represents too few students", releases "a range of values rather than an actual, precise value" (ED Data Express FAQs). Since graduating cohorts are small in most districts, this affects the majority of them. The single figure Birdseye shows for those districts is our own estimate lying inside the published range, and small differences between two districts often sit inside that uncertainty rather than describing anything real.

Only districts operating high schools have a graduating cohort, so about 11,700 districts report here against roughly 17,000 reporting assessment results. A tract whose district has no high school shows nothing.

School year 2020-21 was disrupted by the pandemic, and states varied in how they handled credit, attendance and graduation requirements that year.

The rate is self-reported by states to the Department, which reviews the submissions but leaves states to certify them.

This is a district-level figure displayed on a census tract. It describes the district covering that tract, not the tract, and not any individual high school within the district. It covers public schools only.