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Under New Method, State’s High School Grad Rate Is 85 Percent

Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit journalism organization that produces in-depth and investigative content on a range of public-policy issues facing the state. For more Oklahoma Watch content, go to www.oklahomawatch.org.
Oklahoma Watch
Oklahoma Watch is a nonprofit journalism organization that produces in-depth and investigative content on a range of public-policy issues facing the state. For more Oklahoma Watch content, go to www.oklahomawatch.org.


Oklahoma graduated 85 percent of its high school students in 2012-2013 according to data released by the National Center for Education Statistics Thursday.

That graduation rate ranks Oklahoma 20th nationally, and puts the state ahead of the national average of 81 percent.

  Iowa leads the nation with a 90 percent graduation rate while the District of Columbia is last with a 62 percent graduation rate.

Data for the previous two years in Oklahoma is also not available due to a change in how NCES measures graduation rates.

The data released Thursday does not include a breakdown by race or socioeconomic status.

Challenges still remain, though, for graduates.

Nearly 40 percent of Oklahoma freshmen take remedial courses in college, according to the state Regents for Higher Education.

Education experts and lawmakers say that means a large number of high school students graduate unprepared for college or the workforce.

About 33 percent of college students nationally took at least one remedial course in 2011-2012, according to NCES data.

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Oklahoma Watch is a non-profit organization that produces in-depth and investigative journalism on important public-policy issues facing the state. Oklahoma Watch is non-partisan and strives to be balanced, fair, accurate and comprehensive. The reporting project collaborates on occasion with other news outlets. Topics of particular interest include poverty, education, health care, the young and the old, and the disadvantaged.
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