Definition: Percentage of public school students from the graduating class who receive a high school diploma (e.g., in 2021, 83.6% of California students from the graduating class graduated high school). Use caution when comparing data for 2016 and earlier years—annotated with an asterisk (*)—against 2017 and later.
Data Source: California Dept. of Education, Graduates by Race and Gender (Jun. 2017) & Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate and Outcome Data (May 2022).
Footnote: Years presented are the final year of a school year (e.g., 2020-21 is shown as 2021). Students completing high school with credentials other than a regular high school diploma are not graduates—e.g., those who receive a General Educational Development (GED) certificate or special education certificate of completion, and, for years 2017 and later, those who pass the California High School Proficiency Exam or receive an adult education high school diploma. The graduating class, or four-year adjusted cohort, is composed of students entering Grade 9 for the first time, adjusted for students who subsequently transfer in, transfer out, or pass away during Grade 9 or the following three years. Prior to 2017, students transferring to adult education programs or community colleges were excluded from the graduating class. Due to changes in methodology, the Dept. of Education recommends that data for 2016 and earlier years—annotated here with an asterisk (*)—should not be compared with 2017 and later. The notation S refers to percentages that have been suppressed because there were fewer than 20 high school graduates, to numbers (for 2016* and earlier) that have been suppressed because there were fewer than 11 graduates, and to numbers (for 2017 and later) that have been suppressed because there were fewer than 11 students in the graduating class. N/A means that data are not available.
