Idaho’s high school graduation rateon the rise

With the Class of 2018, Idaho’s statewide graduation rate topped 80 percent for the first time Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra said Thursday.

Across Idaho, 80.65 percent of high school students graduated within four years, up from 79.67 percent in 2017 and 79.66 in 2016. The 2015 graduation rate was 78.91 percent.

“Our graduation rates have been improving steadily, and the pace is accelerating,” Superintendent Ybarra said. “I am confident the pace will continue to pick up, thanks to hard work by our schools and districts and the intensive help my department now offers to lower-performing schools under our new accountability plan, which kicked in for the 2018-19 school year.”

2018’s graduating class was larger than 2017’s by 370 students – up from 18,059 to 18,429.

About 43 percent of the state’s high schools – 90 out of 210 – met that mark in 2018, and 18 schools achieved 100 percent graduation rates for 2018.