Mayor New York Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza announced that New York City’s 2019 four-year high school graduation rate has reached a record high of 77.3 percent. The education sector has seen an increase of whopping 8.9 percentage points in graduations, from 68.4 percent in August 2014 to 77.3 percent in August 2019.
Mayor NYC De Blasio names “equity and excellence for every student” the major factor for the success in education sector. In his statement he rejected the concept of status quo in education stating “I certainly wont accept status quo when it comes to the future of our children.”
The persistent achievement gap between white students and their black and Hispanic peers again narrowed, but still hovered around 15%. Just over 90% of white students who entered high school in 2015 graduated by August, compared with 75.3% of black students and 74.5% of Hispanic students
The graduation rate for Current English Language Learners and Former English Language Learners increased by 4.3 percentage points, rising from 57.4% in 2018 to 61.7% in 2019. When looking just at Current English Language Learners, the graduation rate increased by 6.2 percentage points since 2018, which is more than twice the gain made by the rest of the State.
There were also gains among students with disabilities, with a 2.1 percentage point increase, rising from 50.4% in 2018 to 52.6% in 2019. Since 2014, graduation rates for students with disabilities in New York City have increased by 12.1 percentage points, outpacing the gains made by the rest of the State over the past five years.
The largest improvement in graduation rates was in the Bronx, with a borough-wide record-high of 70.2%.
