About 91% of high school seniors around the state graduated in the 2023-24 school year, according to numbers released last week by the Alabama State Department of Education.
“We, of course, hit this mark before the pandemic. Then we took a dip. We’re back up above pandemic levels and again tied for second-highest graduation rate in history,” state Superintendent Eric Mackey said after the Alabama State Board of Education meeting.
The highest reported graduation rate was 91.7% in 2020, but those numbers are not complete due to a waiver the board sent to schools that did not require them to report their accountability numbers.
The state’s reported graduation rates in the past have sometimes brought skepticism and controversy. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education said the state’s graduation rates had been inflated due to poor oversight and improper calculations of graduation rates among students with disabilities.
Two years later, the U.S. Department of Education asked questions about sharp improvements in the graduation rates of students with disabilities.