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Connecticut's Graduation Rate Slips

By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

January 22, 2013

The percent of high school students who graduate high school on time in Connecticut continued to slip, the U.S. Department of Education reported today.

Among those who entered high school with the Class of 2010, three out of four students would make it to graduation, a 7 percent drop of freshman getting their diploma since 2007.

The state's on-time graduation rate is slightly below the national rate. The national trend is also heading in a different direction, with a higher percentage of students graduating each year between 2005 and 2010.

Connecticut also has the largest graduation gap in the country between its boy and girl students.

The achievement gap is also apparent in the graduation rates of white, black and Hispanic students. While 82 percent of white freshman will graduate on time, only 64 percent of black students and 56 percent of students will get his or her diploma in four years.

In a statement accompanying the results, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said much work remains.

"Our high school dropout rate is still unsustainably high for a knowledge-based economy and still unacceptably high in our African-American, Latino, and Native-American communities," Duncan said, pointing out that the national figures are headed in the right direction. "Our journey to equality of opportunity is not yet complete. But as this report shows, we are making progress in our schools toward living up to the American creed of equal opportunity for all."