Graduation rates continued to improve in Massachusetts last school year. About 87 percent of students graduated in four years, an increase of just over a percentage point from the previous year. On Thursday, Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester also touted a decrease in the dropout rate to 1.9 percent. He says a total of 5,346 students dropped out last year.
“That is 5,346 students too many, but that is a huge improvement over where we were ten years ago,” Chester says.
Several western Massachusetts districts saw improvements. 66 percent of Springfield students graduated last year, up by five percentage points over 2014. Holyoke’s graduation rate moved up nearly 2 percentage points to 62 percent.