Increase in graduation rates for Nebraska high schools

Nebraska public high schools graduated nine out of every 10 seniors in 2015, setting a nearly 89 percent graduation rate.

According to the Nebraska Department of Education, this is a slight decrease from the nearly 90 percent graduation rate set the previous year.

In 2015, Sidney's graduation rate was nearly 94 percent, slightly down from the previous year's rate of 98.8 percent.

According to Sidney High School principal Chris Arent, Sidney High School has been above the state average graduation rate for many years.

"This is a great example of the quality of our students and staff and their efforts to support our rigorous requirements," Arent said. "Our parents and community play a large part in our success and should also be commended."

This year, the graduation rate decreased for Nebraska seniors in some racial and ethnic groups as well as students living in poverty and students with special needs.

"Nebraska schools focus on keeping all students in school and helping each student every day to graduate and reach their career and education goals despite the academic struggles and sometimes challenging circumstance and some students have," Nebraska Education Commissioner Matt Blomstedt said.

Overall, the statewide graduation rate has steadily improved since 2011 when 86.1 percent of the high school seniors graduated in four years.

The Nebraska 2015 report showed that 91.8 percent, or 19,987 of the state's high school seniors, graduated in five years. There were 92.1 percent, or 20,222 students, graduated in six years, with both of those rates improving from the previous year.

"While the substantive change is less than one percent and slight changes are expected, year-to-year, we will continue to closely watch the state's graduation rate as we focus on graduating at least 90 percent of our high school students in four years," Blomstedt said. "Today we applaud the hard work of our high school seniors and their teachers considering that Nebraska public schools continue to have one of the highest graduation rates in the nation."