Colorado’s four-year high school graduation rate reached a six-year high last year, with some metro Denver districts that serve at-risk students showing marked improvement and others taking steps back.
The on-time graduation rate for the class of 2016 was 78.9 percent, according to data released Thursday by the state education department. Thatap a 1.6 percentage point jump from the previous year.
The state’s dropout rate also improved, falling by 0.2 percentage points. All told, 584 fewer students dropped out in 2015-16 than in the previous school year.
Mapleton Public Schools, a district serving more than 8,000 students north of Denver, had the largest jump in the metro area, posting a 64.6 percent on-time graduation in 2016, up from 57.1 percent in 2015. Aurora, a school district that is struggling to improve before potentially facing state sanctions in another year, also made a significant jump — graduating 65 percent of their students in 2016, up from 59 percent in 2015.
Denver’s graduation rate for 2016 is 67.2 percent up from 64.8 percent. Jeffco Public Schools posted a graduation rate of 82.8 percent, virtually unchanged from the 82.9 percent in 2015.
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