BY PAUL SCHINDLER | City officials were quick to tout news out of the State Board of Regents on January 11 that, for the first time, graduation rates from New York City public schools are better than 70 percent. The 70.5 percent four-year graduation rate is a huge improvement over the comparable number a decade ago — just 46.5 percent. “Today’s announcement of more students graduating than ever and fewer dropping out speaks to the critical importance of maintaining the momentum we are seeing in education here in New York City,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio in a written statement. The mayor acknowledged that his administration is building on progress begun under his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg. The graduation rate for students who began high school in 2006 and graduated five years ago had already risen to 61 percent.
Schools in Districts 2 and 3 in Midtown and the Upper East and West Sides generally outperformed both the system overall and the universe of all Manhattan schools, but even there wide disparities from school to school exist, as the accompanying table shows. And Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, in the city’s release, acknowledged racial disparities as well, with 85 percent of Asian-American students and 82 percent of white students graduating, while the figures for black and Hispanic students are 65.4 and 64 percent, respectively.
