Rash: Record graduation rate merits kudos — and caution

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Graduation-party season may have been a bit busier in Minnesota last spring.

That’s because a record percentage of students graduated last year: 59,720 of them, representing 84.2% of the class of 2024, according to recently released data from the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE).

The news gets better: Demographic gaps, while enduring, narrowed.

Overall, the graduation rate for all students increased 0.9 percentage points from 2023. But there was a 1.6 percentage-point gain for American Indian students to 62.9% from the prior year and an admirable 4.5 percentage-point gain from 2020. The momentum for Black students was even higher: A 73.9% graduation rate, which is 1.8 percentage points above 2023 and 4.7 percentage-points ahead of 2020.

Meanwhile, Asian students, whose graduation rate was 88.1%, just below the rate of white students (89.3%), increased their graduation rate 2.7 percentage points from 2023 (although there was a one-percentage point slippage since 2020). And Hispanic or Latino students, who had a 71.7% graduation rate, were up 2.5 percentage points from the year prior and 1.2 percentage points from 2020. Those identifying as two or more races graduated at an 80.1% rate, down negligibly 0.1 percentage points from 2023 but up impressively 4.1 percentage points from 2020.

Other demographic distinctions were distinctly better too: 67.4% of students receiving special-education services graduated, which was up 1.8 percentage points from 2023 and 2.4 percentage points from 2020. Students eligible for free or reduced meals graduated at a 74.4% clip, up 2.4 percentage points from last year and 2.8 percentage points from 2020. And English learners increased their graduation rate 3.9 percentage points to 67.2%, which represented a 1.1 percentage-point gain from 2020.

“These gains are vital,” MDE Commissioner Willie Jett told reporters on Tuesday. The students, Jett said, “worked hard and overcame challenges to achieve this milestone.”

That milestone began with a millstone: The class of 2024 began their high-school careers careening from COVID restrictions that kept most away from their classrooms for months. But the graduates — and as profoundly, the families and faculties and broader communities — rallied, resulting in the record rate.

The data “does tell me that we’re moving in the right direction,” said Chelda Smith Kondo, a University of St. Thomas associate professor of education. What was most notable, Smith Kondo added, was the progress among the key demographic groups. The question with the state’s education system, she said, “has not been an issue of whether or not Minnesota is capable of educating students who are white and Asian. It’s been a question of whether or not Minnesota can equally educate those who are Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaskan natives. And so, I am deeply encouraged by the gains made by those communities, because that would suggest that we are — as an education field and as teachers — learning how to make our teaching inclusive of students who are nonwhite or Asian.”

Smith Kondo also credited statewide and district policies for the achievements. As did DFL Gov. Tim Walz, who said in a statement that the graduation rates “are a testament to the historic investments we made to provide free school meals, support teacher training, expand mental health resources, and promote technical training opportunities for Minnesota high schoolers.”

The progress is important for the vibrant economy that creates the tax base to support such initiatives. “We’ve really been focused on this question of ‘how are we going to grow our economy over time, and what’s really the important pillars and assets to be able to have a growing economy?’ ” said Sean O’Neill, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s senior director of economic development and research.

“One of the things we keep going back to time and time again,” continued O’Neill, “is that we need to be really focused on developing a skilled, educated workforce broadly throughout our economy. Clearly high-school graduation rates are a fundamental part of that equation.”

One “of the key factors behind that is the extent to which we’re building human capital in the economy, so I think all of those signs point toward the importance of really strengthening our education system and being able to keep the momentum up were we do have positive signs like this.”

But Minnesota’s momentum may be stalled or even reversed if federal investment itself is stalled or reversed.

“These successes are possible,” said Jett, because of longstanding partnerships between school communities, the Minnesota Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Education.

But that partnership is at risk because of instability in federal funding, let alone the future of the Department of Education. According to MDE, annual federal investments in Minnesota include $256 million for students with disabilities; $192 million for students from low-income backgrounds; $27 million for academic enrichment; $6 million for students in rural schools; $38 million to support children living on military bases or Native American reservations; and $100 million for Career and Technical Education workforce development programs.

“Our most vulnerable students are on the right track,” said Jett. “So now is not the time to interrupt all the important work being done to close achievement gaps.”

That’s a message Minnesotans, regardless of partisan persuasion, should heed. Indeed, the state’s congressional delegation, Chamber of Commerce and other key individuals and institutions should speak clearly about the continued need for federal funding to further this progress. Especially since Minnesota’s record high-school graduation rate, however improved, is still below several other states’ and achievement challenges persist for Minnesota’s younger learners.

But for now, congratulations to the record-setting class of 2024. And let’s hope that this spring’s grad-party season is even more hectic than last year’s.