Tennessee’s high school graduation rate has declined again, according to new data from the state.
About 88.7% of public school students in the class of 2021 graduated on time this past spring, down almost a full percentage point from 2020, according to the state education department.
Tennessee’s graduation rate also fell by the slightest of margins the prior year. That decline, however, came after the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the state to relax graduation requirements soon after the virus emerged – and likely would have been more pronounced without the emergency rule.
While the state’s 1 percentage point slide over two years may not sound like much, it pulls back on nearly a decade of hard-fought, incremental increases totaling more than 4 percentage points under an initiative prioritized by former Gov. Bill Haslam. In 2019, the year before the pandemic, Tennessee’s graduation rate peaked at 89.7%.
How did Hamilton County do?
Hamilton County Schools’ graduation rate dropped by 1.5 percentage points at the end of the last academic year, remaining below the statewide average. In Hamilton County public schools, 85.5% of students in the Class of 2021 graduated on time in the spring, compared to 87% from 2020, according to the state education department.