Latino students are graduating on time from California public high schools at rates higher than years before.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced that as overall graduation rates climbed, dropout rates fell. Overall, nearly eight in ten students, or 78.5 percent, who started high school in 2008-2009 graduated with the rest of their class in 2012. According to the Department of Education’s annual report, while the graduation rate for Latinos is slightly lower than the general population, Hispanic students are making some of the biggest gains. Among Latino students, 73.2 percent graduated with their class, marking a 1.8 percentage point increase from the year before.

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“There are great things happening in California’s schools every day, and the upward climb of our graduation rate bears that out,” Torlakson said in a statement. “While I am glad to announce that we are moving in the right direction, the fact remains that we must keep moving to ensure that every California student graduates ready to succeed in the world they will find outside our classrooms.”

Torlakson attributes the rise of graduation rates to two things that he says his office has made a priority: expanding career technical education and addressing chronic absenteeism.

“Career technical education is designed to keep students in school and engaged with real world experience,” he explains. “With chronic absenteeism, we see children as young as kindergarten chronically missing school and that is an early indicator of dropping out. So we are paying more attention to these types of behaviors.”

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The rise in Latino graduation rates is especially significant as Latinos make up a little over half, 52.03 percent, of California public schools’ class of 2012. But they were not the only ethnic group to make gains. Graduation rates of African American and Asian students were on the rise in the past year as well. Approximately 65.7 percent of black students graduated from high school, up 2.9 percentage points. Asians maintained the highest rate among any ethnic group, with 91 percent of students graduating with their class. Comparatively, white high schoolers’ rate was up 0.7 percent as well to 86.4 percent.

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There was good news on the other side of the spectrum as well; Torlakson reported that as graduation rates were on the rise, dropout rates were falling. Of all high school students 13.2 percent dropped out, down 1.56 percentage points. According to the report, another 8.3 percent are neither dropouts or graduates and are likely still enrolled in school.