Nearly nine of out of ten Wisconsin high school students graduated on time last year, a rate that has
increased for at least three years in a row. But Wisconsin’s high graduation rate masks a deep
disparity between the graduation rates of white and black students.

In 2012, 89.5% of Wisconsin’s high school students graduated with a regular diploma after four years of high school. For the last three years, Wisconsin’s graduation rate has steadily increased, as shown in the chart below. Before 2010, Wisconsin used a different method to calculate graduation rates, which makes it difficult to compare current graduation rates to earlier years.

Graduation rates for individual Wisconsin school districts are available online via the Kids Count Data Center. Tools available at the Kids Count Data Center make it easy to create basic maps or charts, like the one above.

Overall, Wisconsin’s high school graduation rate is high and heading higher. That’s good news. What’s not good news is that white students and black students continue to graduate from high school at very different rates. While more than nine out of ten white non-Hispanic students graduated from high school on time in 2012, less than two-thirds of black students did. The gap has not narrowed in recent years, as shown in the table below:

 Several large, urban school districts had graduation rates below the state average, including the following districts:

• Milwaukee, 62%;
• Racine, 70%;
• Madison, 75%;
• Green Bay, 80%; and
• Kenosha, 80%.

Wisconsin has long been a leader in education excellence, and we should strive to continue this tradition. We should continue to work to improve our schools so that all students have the opportunity to graduate from high school on time, and succeed economically regardless of their race or where they live.

Tamarine Cornelius