Iowa’s high school graduation rate climbed to a record high of 91.6% in 2019, continuing a trend of long-term growth across nearly all groups of students, according to new data from the Iowa Department of Education. Data show 91.6% of students in Iowa’s class of 2019 graduated within four years, up from 91.4% in the class of 2018. Since 2011, Iowa’s four-year graduation rate has increased 3.3 percentage points overall, with significant gains in nearly every student demographic subgroup. For example, graduation rates for Hispanic students have climbed by 9.3 percentage points, students whose first language is not English have increased by 8.8 percentage points, and African American students have gone up 8.4 percentage points since 2011. The annual dropout rate dipped to 2.61% for the 2018-19 school year from 2.67% for the previous school year. Iowa’s annual dropout rate reflects the percentage of students in grades nine through 12 who drop out of school during a single year.