Colorado’s four-year high school graduation rate jumped to its highest in more than a decade during the 2023-24 school year, with 84.2% of seniors graduating as part of the class of 2024, according to data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Education.
That’s up 1.1 percentage points from the previous school year, continuing progress that was briefly interrupted by a dip in the state’s graduation rate in 2021 during the pandemic.
The state department counted 58,318 students who earned their diploma over four years in 2024, up by 1,506 students from the 2022-23 school year. Most Colorado districts and boards of cooperative educational services — 66% — held their four-year graduation rate steady or saw increases.
Meanwhile, Colorado’s dropout rate is also trending in the right direction, state data shows, with the percent of students who quit school last year dropping slightly by 0.2 percentage points to 1.9%. The state tallied 8,947 students in grades 7-12 who dropped out last year, down by 718 kids from the prior year.
The lower dropout rate marks two years of the state seeing fewer kids give up on graduating, a turnaround from 2022 when Colorado’s dropout rate climbed for the first time since 2015.
That also means Colorado has almost returned to its record low dropout rate of 1.8% from both the class of 2020 and the class of 2021.
The improved graduation and dropout rates give state education leaders reason to celebrate, though their excitement is tempered by data revealing that specific groups of students, including those who are homeless or learning English as a second language, have continued struggling to make it across the graduation stage more than others.
“While we are seeing promising progress, we are continuing to see our students of color and our students with the highest needs graduating below our statewide rates,” Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said in a statement. “I am encouraged by the momentum of our state’s multiyear improvements, especially in the gaps that are closing, and we also must do more to keep students engaged in meaningful learning experiences that prepare them for success after graduation.”
Year-over-year graduation rates among many student groups improved, though the figures still trail the state’s overall graduation rate of 84.2%.
For example, the state saw a 3.6 percentage point increase in four-year graduation among students experiencing homelessness, but only 61.6% of those students graduated with the class of 2024.
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Migrant students also improved their graduation rate by 0.8 percentage points, but that group’s overall four-year graduation rate was at 68%. The graduation rate among students with disabilities rose by 2.6 percentage points to 71.9% while the state saw the percentage of kids living in poverty who made it to the graduation stage jump by 3.1 percentage points to 76.4%.
Students learning English also improved upon their graduation rate — up 1.3 percentage points to 70.7%.
Hispanic students across Colorado experienced similar progress in graduating, with a 1.2 percentage point increase to 77.3%.
A smaller percentage of Black students, however, graduated with the class of 2024 than with the class of 2023 — the graduation rate among Black students fell by 0.3 percentage points to 78.3%.
Other students who needed more than four years to receive their diploma also made strides in graduating. Colorado students can take an additional three years to complete high school. The graduation rate among the state’s clusters of students who graduated in five years and six years increased. However, the graduation rate among students graduating in seven years continues to be lower.
Dropout rates across most Colorado student groups also improved, though the dropout rate among student groups remained higher than the state average of 1.9%.