A greater percentage of Wyoming high school students graduated on time last year than the year before. That’s according to data released Wednesday by the Wyoming Department of Education.
The four-year graduation rate for the 2013-2014 school year was 78.6 percent—up from 77.5 percent the year before—and compared with 81 percent nationwide.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow says she’s pleased with the numbers, but would like to see more improvement. Balow says remediation efforts to get kids learning at grade level need to begin as early as kindergarten.
“When kids enter school and they’re not ready to learn, that gap widens. In other words, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” says Balow. “We want to close that gap, and the earlier that we close that gap, the better.”
Teton School District Number One had the state’s best graduation rate last year—at nearly 96 percent. Eleven of Wyoming’s 48 districts posted rates above 90 percent.
This year’s higher graduation rates reverse Wyoming’s previous four year downward trend.