SPRINGFIELD — Superintendent of Schools Daniel J. Warwick made one thing clear: "We are not where we want to be, but this is a remarkable improvement," he said of the increase in graduation rates and decrease in dropout rates for the district that were announced on Thursday.

Shortly after information released by the state revealed that dropout rates in Springfield have decreased more than 50 percent since the 2009-2010 school year, Springfield Public Schools officials said the dropout rates for the city's five public high schools dropped from 10 percent in 2012 to 5.1 percent in 2015. Springfield provided records going back only to the 2011-2012 school year, which reflects a difference in the data between the city and the state.

Springfield- Superintendent of Schools Daniel Warwick discusses increasing graduation rates at School Department central office on Main Street, Jan. 21, 2016.

"This has been a Herculean effort by the staff of the Springfield Public Schools, principals, assistant principals, teachers and outreach workers in every school and my wonderful staff here at central office," Warwick said.

He said Springfield has shown the best improvement in dropout and graduation rates of any urban district in the state.

The graduation rate for all five high schools in 2015 was 66.7 percent, up 5.1 percent from 2014.

The Springfield Renaissance School led the pack with an 88.9 percent graduation rate in 2015 followed by Central High School with 85.8 percent, Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy with 85.7 percent and the High School of Science and Technology at 63.5 percent. The High School of Commerce currently has a 47 percent graduation rate, but is up from 35.4 percent in 2012.

Warwick stressed that there is still work to be done, but highlighted various efforts to get students graduating and succeeding after graduation including an early warning system for students at risk of dropping out, high school graduation coaches, an expanded online credit recovery program and the "Stay in School" initiative, to name a few.

Dora D. Robinson, president and CEO of the United Way of Pioneer Valley, has spearheaded the "Stay In School" initiative, an effort to reduce absenteeism in the schools by getting the message out to the faith community, to parents and to young people.

"Our charge was to help mobilize our community and address an important issue – attendance, improving it and reducing chronic absenteeism," she said. " If you're not in school, then you can't learn, and if you can't learn you aren't going to graduate on time ready for career, vocational pursuits, military or any other things you want to do."

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said the positive results are due to a collaboration involving the schools, the students, parents and families and an invested community.

"As I said in my inauguration speech, the investments that have been made are real, these results you see right now are real, the benefits that are being derived from our students and our community are real," Sarno said. " When you look upon an urban center in America, there are three things that help with poverty and public safety. Number one, family, 1a. education, 1b. jobs, and I am so proud of the work that has been done here."