Recently published state data show that four-year graduation rates for both Massachusetts and Boston Public Schools students dipped slightly in 2023 after years of gains. Both rates remain near all-time highs, but the rates vary widely, by district, school, and demographic group.
BPS students trailed the state average, at just over 80 percent graduating within four years, but the district has dramatically closed the gap over the last two decades, increasing its graduation rate from 59.1 percent in 2006 to 80.5 percent last year.
How do graduation rates vary by demographic?
Students who are low-income, Black, Latino, or English learners trailed their white and Asian peers in graduation rates in Boston and statewide, but all groups are near all-time highs.
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English learners had particularly big declines in graduation rates. The gap between students with disabilities and other students also widened both statewide and in Boston, as did gaps between Black and Latino students and their white peers. The gap narrowed, on the other hand, between low-income students in Boston and their peers.
There is also a graduation gap by gender, with female students consistently graduating at higher rates than their male classmates. The gap is particularly wide in Boston, as well as in many of the gateway cities.
What happened to the students who didn’t graduate?
Most of the students who didn’t graduate within four years dropped out or remained in school. Many of those who stayed in school will likely go on to graduate; the state also publishes five-year graduation data, which showed nearly 92 percent of Massachusetts students in the class of 2022 graduated within five years, up about 2 percentage points from the four-year rate. Boston has a larger fraction of its students graduating after five years — over 5 percent in 2023.
The dropout rate increased slightly both statewide and in Boston.
Nearly 1 percent of students statewide were “non-grad completers” last year, meaning they completed local requirements but not all state requirements to graduate. That includes the state MCAS exam, which the state education agency once again began requiring students to pass in order to graduate (the state had paused it during the pandemic). In 2022, without the MCAS, just 0.2 percent of students were non-grad completers.
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The return of the MCAS requirement seems to have hit English learners particularly hard, with 4.8 percent statewide completing local requirements but not graduating last year, compared to 0.7 percent in 2022. The grade 10 state MCAS exams are only offered in English.
What happened at different BPS schools?
Within Boston Public Schools, graduation rates vary widely by school type. Over 98 percent of exam school students graduated within four years, unsurprisingly given those schools admit academically high-achieving students. Meanwhile, traditional high schools had just 69 percent of their students graduate on time.
Alternative schools, which support students who are not succeeding in more traditional school environments, have the lowest four-year graduation rates, but posted a significant increase last year.
What about my school or district?
Use the tables below to look up any high school or public school district in the state, including both traditional public schools and charter schools. Four-year graduation rates are shown for the last decade.
Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit.