Des Moines, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Education reports four-year graduation rates for the class of 2021 dropped slightly in the wake of the pandemic.
The Department’s Information Bureau Chief, Jeff Pennington, says two factors impacted the numbers.
He says both factors are related to the pandemic.
The data show 90.2 percent of students in 2021 graduated within four years, down from 91.8 percent in 2020. The drop is small and Pennington says it goes against what has been a 10-year trend of increases.
He expects things to rebound as schools are now back to normal schedules following the height of the pandemic.
Pennington says that the four-year graduation rate trend was up in nearly every student demographic subgroup. For example, graduation rates for students from low-socioeconomic status households have increased by 4.2 percentage points between 2011 and 2021.
