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Northeast Michigan grad rate increases

News File Photo Atlanta Community Schools board president Amy Corbin presents Bryce Binge his diploma at graduation in Atlanta in this June 2023 News archive photo.

ALPENA — Northeast Michigan’s four-year high school graduation rate improved last school year over the previous school year and fewer students dropped out last year, according to state data released Friday.

Still, Northeast Michigan’s grad rate lags behind the statewide rate and remains lower than before the coronavirus pandemic struck.

At the end of the 2022-23 school year, about 80% of high schoolers across Alpena, Presque Isle, Montmorency, and Alcona counties earned their diploma within four years, the state data shows.

That’s slightly behind the 82% of high schoolers across the state who graduated in four years, but better than the 78% of Northeast Michigan high schoolers who graduated in four years at the end of the 2021-22 school year.

Northeast Michigan’s dropout rate, meanwhile, declined from 8% in 2022 to 6.5% last school year, better than the roughly 8% dropout rate statewide both years.

Check out the chart below showing Northeast Michigan and statewide graduation rates. Viewing on mobile? Turn your device horizontally for the best viewing experience. Story continues below graphic.

Some students take longer than four years to earn their diploma, some by design because of the programs in which they’re enrolled. Alpena Public Schools, for example, posted a 76% four-year graduation rate but graduated 82% of its high schoolers within five years and about 87% of its high schoolers within six years.

While Northeast Michigan’s graduation rate improved last school year over the year before, it remains lower than before the coronavirus broke out in spring 2020.

In 2019, more than 86% of Northeast Michigan high schoolers graduated within four years. That figure fell slightly in 2020 as the state forced schools to close that spring to prevent the spread of the virus. The following year, when students learned much of the year remotely from home, the grad rate fell to 83%. It dropped further in 2022.

Check out the chart below showing Northeast Michigan and statewide dropout rates. Viewing on mobile? Turn your device horizontally for the best viewing experience. Story continues below graphic.

Last school year’s increase was the first increase in Northeast Michigan in at least four years.

Northeast Michigan’s graduating classes are so small in many schools that a student or two can make the graduation rate fluctuate wildly from year to year. Posen Community Schools, for example, saw its graduation rate plummet from 90% in 2022 to about 81% in 2023, but it had only one fewer student graduate last year compared to the year before.

The statewide rate, meanwhile, has hovered between 80% and 82% all of the last five years, with last school year’s 82% slightly better than the 81% recorded statewide in 2019.

“Rising four-year graduation rates in all categories, above pre-pandemic levels in almost all cases, are a welcome sign that student achievement is rebounding and a tribute to the hard work of Michigan students, educators, support staff, and communities,” State Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement on Friday.

Northeast Michigan’s 2023 four-year graduation rate ranged from 76% in Alpena Public Schools — that figure includes students from the Alternative Choices for Educational Success Academy — to more than 95% in Atlanta Community Schools.

Northeast Michigan’s 2023 dropout rate ranged from 11% in APS to 0% in Atlanta.

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