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Graduation Rate

The percentage of students who earn a regular high school diploma within four years of entering ninth grade, calculated using the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) method required by federal law.

Reviewed by OpenSchoolData Editorial Team

How It Works

The Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) tracks a specific cohort of students who enter ninth grade together, adjusting for transfers in and out, and measures what percentage earn a regular diploma within four years. This method was mandated by the U.S. Department of Education in 2008 to replace less rigorous calculation methods that many states had used to inflate their reported graduation rates. The national ACGR is approximately 87%, but rates vary dramatically, from over 90% in states like Iowa and New Jersey to below 80% in New Mexico and the District of Columbia. Within states, individual school graduation rates can range from 100% to below 50%. Graduation rate is a critical outcome because a high school diploma is the minimum credential for most employment and post-secondary education opportunities. Students who do not graduate face dramatically worse lifetime outcomes: lower earnings (approximately $10,000 per year less than graduates), higher unemployment, higher incarceration rates, and worse health outcomes. On OpenSchoolData, graduation rate data comes from EDFacts and is reported at the district level. We display the four-year ACGR, which is the most consistent and comparable graduation measure available across states. For elementary and middle schools, graduation rate is not applicable.

Related Terms

  • Dropout Rate, The percentage of students who leave school before earning a diploma or completing an equivalent program, measured as either an event rate (one year) or a status rate (cumulative).
  • School Data Profile, The collection of real federal data OpenSchoolData presents for each school, including NCES enrollment, demographics, student-teacher ratio, and EDFacts proficiency and graduation rates.
  • School Accountability, The system by which schools and districts are held responsible for student outcomes, including state ratings, improvement plans, and potential interventions for chronically low-performing schools.
  • College Readiness, The level of academic preparation a student needs to succeed in credit-bearing college coursework without remediation, typically measured by SAT/ACT scores, AP participation, and course rigor.

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Real federal data: NCES CCD enrollment (2022), EDFacts proficiency rates (2020, district-level), EDFacts graduation rates (2019, district-level).

About This Definition

This definition is part of the OpenSchoolData Education Glossary, 33 terms explaining how school performance data works in the United States. All definitions are written in plain language for parents, educators, journalists, and researchers.

Graduation Rate is one of the U.S. K-12 school outcomes and enrollment concepts that recurs across this site. The definition above is the technical answer; the paragraphs below add the practical context for how the concept connects to the NCES Common Core of Data and EDFacts data behind every per-entity page on the site.

In the NCES Common Core of Data and EDFacts data, this concept shapes one or more of the fields that drive the per-entity grades and rankings on this site. The methodology page describes which fields feed into which output; this glossary entry documents the underlying term.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, 2026.