Graduation Rates Show Gap for Minority Students Narrowing

ST. PAUL (AP) -- A wide gap in high school graduation rates between Minnesota's white and minority students is narrowing.

State education officials said Tuesday that 82.7 percent of high school students graduated in 2017. That's up 4.3 percentage points since 2012.

But the numbers are better for the state's non-white students. Sixty-nine percent of minority students in Minnesota graduated last year, up more than 11 percentage points from 2012.

Gov. Mark Dayton says the newest numbers are proof that the state is closing disparities in the public school system. But the Democratic governor insisted Minnesota must do more to close the gap in graduation rates between white and minority students.

Those disparities have been a major focus for Dayton and the Legislature.