Mass. Makes Graduation Rate Gains—What's Melrose's Rate?

The Boston Globe reports that a new national report places Massachusetts among the states with the strongest gains in high school graduation rates between 2002 and 2009.

According to the Building a Grad Nation report, the graduation rate for the Class of 2009 in Massachusetts was 83.3 percent, up from 77.6 in 2002, according to the report.

Melrose's graduation rate in 2009 was 92.4 percent, according to figures from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Nationally, the graduation rate was 75.5 percent, compared to the 2002 rate of 72.6 percent.

The Globe reported that Massachusetts was among 12 states with the strongest gains in their graduation rates in the seven-year period covered by the report.

Building a Grad Nation has set a goal, the Globe reported, of achieving a 90 percent graduation rate in each state by 2020 and eliminating dropout factories—high schools that graduate 60 percent or less of its students—by 2016.

Below are the most recent unadjusted four-year graduation rate statistics available for Melrose High School, taken from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education:

Percent
GED

The Globe also reported that the state Legislature's Education Committee has recommended passage of a bill that would prohibit Massachusetts students from dropping out of school before age 18, instead of 16 as the law now stands.

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for states to raise the dropout age. Do you agree? Take our poll and discuss in the comments below.