It’s official. Wisconsin has the second-highest high school graduation rate in the country.
The U.S. Education Department reported Monday for the first time a list of state graduation rates based on a uniform formula developed by the National Governors Association.
The new method tracks a cohort of ninth graders who graduated with a diploma in 2011. Wisconsin was one of 26 states that saw graduation rates decline under the new measurement.
Wisconsin officials have long touted the state as having one of the top graduation rates in the country, but it was never an apples-to-apples comparison until now. According to the Education Department, “the varying methods formerly used by states to report graduation rates made comparisons between states unreliable.”
The new graduation data show: