Mississippi now has one of the highest graduation rates in the country. The Mississippi Department of Education announced that the state’s 2024-25 graduation rate was 90.8%, a stunning increase from just over a decade earlier, when the graduation rate hovered around 75%.
The graduation rate increased by 1.6% from the 2023-24 school year to the highest level recorded in the state’s history.
Mississippi graduation rates exceed the latest national rate of 86.6%, reported for the 2021-2022 school year by the National Center for Education Statistics.
“We’ve had a steady upward trend, with the exception of last year, and then a meaningful increase this year to 90.8%,” Associate State Superintendent of District and School Performance C. Alan Burrow told the Mississippi State Board of Education during its Jan. 19 board meeting. “You’ll see the national average there stops in ‘22. That’s the last reported year that we have.”
MDE released its 2024-25 graduation rates report on Feb. 19. The rates are based on students who entered ninth grade for the first time during the 2021-22 school year. It does not include students who earned a GED or certificate of completion. The graduation rate among students with disabilities was 71.1%. Thirty districts had a graduation rate of 95% or above.
The state’s dropout rate is only 7.1%, a decrease of 1.5% from the 2023-2024 school year. The statewide graduation rate was 74.5% during the 2013-2014 school year, with a dropout rate of 13.9%. Mississippi, which ranked No. 48 in the nation in graduation rates in 2014, would rank near the top today based on federal 2021-2022 data.
Students with disabilities had a graduation rate of 71.1% and a dropout rate of 14.6% in 2024-2025, representing a 5.6% increase in the graduation rate and a 5.4% decrease in the dropout rate since last year.
The report breaks graduation rates down by subgroups. Male students had an 88% graduation rate, while female students had a 93.6% graduation rate. The gap between graduation rates among white students and Black students has also narrowed since 2014, when it was about 7.4 points. The gap is now just 4.3 points, well below the national average reported in 2021-2022 of 9 points.
The latest report shows that 93.3% of white students graduated, compared to 89% of Black students, 87% of Latino students, 95.5% of Asian students, 87.5% of Native American or Alaskan native students and 90.9% of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students.
Limited English proficiency students showed a decline, which Burrow attributed to the transient nature of that subgroup. Two subgroups, American Indian and Alaska Native, also showed a decline from last year. However, Burrow said that is to be expected because the overall student population count is low.
MDE attributes the increased rates overall to “quality instructional support from dedicated teachers across the state, increased options for meeting graduation requirements, and an increase of students completing Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.”
“These results reflect the hard work of teachers, administrators, parents, and, of course, students,” State Superintendent of Education Dr. Lance Evans said in a Feb. 19 press release. “With continued support from the state Legislature to provide funding, MDE is committed to supporting students with innovative programs and educators with professional learning opportunities designed to produce continued progress across the state.”
Mississippi School of the Arts and the Union Public School Districts have a 100% graduation rate. The Mississippi School for Math and Science, Benton County School District, Alcorn School District, West Jasper Consolidated School District, Aberdeen School District, Coahoma County School District, Amory School District and Desoto County School District are the other top eight districts with the highest graduation rates. Forest Municipal School District, which serves many immigrant families, has the lowest graduation rate at 68.5%.
Read more of our reporting on education in Mississippi at this link.