California’s high school graduation rate rose for the seventh year in a row and reached a record high for the class of 2016.

Among students who started high school in 2012–13, 83.2 percent graduated with their class in 2016, up from 82.3 percent the year before, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced Tuesday, April 11. That translates to 4,917 more graduates than in the class of 2015.

The state’s graduation rate has climbed 8.5 percentage points since the class of 2010 posted a 74.7 percent rate, state Department of Education data show.

Three of the four counties in the region saw the number of graduates grow by at least 1.8 percentage points, but Orange was the only large county to graduate at least 90 percent of its class.

Los Angeles County, which has by far the most students in the state, was below the average for the class of 2016, but above last year. Of the 121,039 students who were part of the class of 2016, 81.3 percent graduated, up from 78.7 percent one year ago.

Orange County showed a slight increase to 90.8 percent from 90.0 for the class of 2015.

Riverside County showed a significant increase, graduating 89.2 percent of its students, up from 87.4 percent. Though San Bernardino County was slightly below the state average at 82.6 percent, it made significant improvement over last year’s 80.7 percent.

The graduation rate rose among almost every student subgroup. The biggest increases took place among English learners (up 2.7 percentage points), African American students (1.8 percentage points) and Latino students (1.5 percentage points), Torlakson said.

“This is great news for our students and families,” Torlakson said in a news release.

Additional state dollars have helped cut class sizes, restore art and music classes that were slashed during the recession, as well as expand career technical education programs.

Common Core academic standards that stress hands-on learning have made school more interesting and relevant, Torlakson said. Districts have more control over spending decisions and those with the greatest needs get more state dollars, he said.

A critical job, he said, is to narrow the achievement gap between Asian and white students and Latino and African American pupils.

Along with the rising graduation rate, fewer students dropped out of school. The dropout rate declined from 10.7 percent in 2015 to 9.8 percent in 2016.

Here are answers to three key questions about the new statistics:

Why are graduation rates going up every year?

Schools and districts are putting more effort into raising them, said Morgan Polikoff, an associate professor of education at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. Also, educators have created alternative approaches, including ways to help students who fail a class make up credits by taking online courses with video lectures, practice problems and tests.

Most believe these methods of recovering credits are watering down the standards, he said.

“What you hope isn’t happening is they’re getting people through high school by lowering standards through the floor,” Polikoff said. He added that the state eliminated the high school exit exam as a graduation requirement in 2016, removing another hurdle for some students.

Why should people care about graduation rates?

It’s hard to find a job and become successful in life without a high school degree, said Cassandra Guarino, professor of education and public policy at UC Riverside. On average, high school graduates earn more money and have better future prospects than high school dropouts, and, if students want to attend college, a high school degree is necessary. In general, higher levels of education are linked to lower crime rates, better health and more civic participation, she said.

How did Riverside County students do?

The county saw a significant increase, graduating 89.2 percent of its students, up from 87.4 percent.

Of the 14 districts with at least 1,000 students who were part of the class of 2016, nine saw at least 90 percent of those students graduate, led by Corona-Norco at 94.8 percent and Temecula Valley at 94.6 percent.

“We are so pleased that so many districts in the county are moving in the right direction,” Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Judy White said.

She noted that the county’s rate was the second highest of any California county with 10,000 or more high school graduates, behind Orange County.

The two largest jumps were in Banning, which graduated 83.1 percent of its students, up from 78.0, and Perris Union, at 92.1 percent compared to 87.0 the previous year.

White attributed the increase to online academies, summer enrichment programs, career internships and other programs. Additional counselors and teacher training to address students’ social, emotional and academic issues also help, she said.

How did San Bernardino County students do?

While the county was slightly below the state average at 82.6 percent, it’s a significant improvement over last year’s 80.7 percent.

Redlands Unified graduated the highest percentage of students in the county at 92.8, up from 90.7 percent the previous year.

The biggest increases came in Fontana, which graduated 90.1 percent of the class of 2016 compared to 87.3 in 2015, and Colton, 86.4 in 2016 compared to 83.8 the previous year. Across the county, 27,096 students graduated from public, private and charter schools in 2016.

GRADUATION RATES

To see how your student’s district and school did, visit: dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest