State’s high-school graduation rate remains about 79%

SEATTLE (AP) - Washington's four-year graduation rate for public high schools remains at just below 80 percent.

The Seattle Times reports the state superintendent's office said this week that 79.3 percent of all students in the class of 2017 graduated within four years of starting high school. That's up slightly from 79.1 percent for the class of 2016.

But black, Latino, special-education and low-income students posted higher-than-average growth during the past two years. The graduation rate for black students rose from 70.7 percent in 2016 to 71.5 percent last year, while the graduation rate for students with special needs reached 59.4 percent in 2017, up from 58.1 percent the year before.

The nation's high-school graduation rate was 84 percent for the 2015-16 school year.