Study Shows Improvement in Southern HS Graduation Rates

High school graduation rates have risen across the nation and in the south according to a study released by the Southern Regional Education Board.

But those gains recorded since 2000 have only brought rates back to where they stood in the early 1990s.

The SREB study says southern states overall are within reach of the national average graduation rate for perhaps the first time.

The study shows South Carolina freshman graduation rates were 61% in 1996, but fell to 57% by 2001. Those percentages began to climb in 2002 and hit 61% in 2006.

North Carolina has seen a better than five percent climb in those rates from 66% in 1996 to 72% in 2006.

You can read the complete SREB study by clicking here.