LANSING – Only 76 percent of Michigan high school students graduate in the normal time, compared to 81 percent nationally, a report released during the weekend showed.

The report, by a variety of groups including Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, America’s Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education, showed 2012 was the first time more than 80 percent of high school students graduated on time nationally.

According to the report, Iowa had the nation’s highest graduation rate at 89 percent, while Nevada was lowest at 63 percent, based on a formula that looked at graduation within the usual four years of high school.

For low-income students, Michigan’s rate dropped to 64 percent, compared to a high for the group of 85 percent in Indiana and Texas. A total of 18 states had low-income graduation rates below 70 percent.

For non-low-income students, Michigan’s graduation rate was 85 percent, but Vermont had a 96 percent rate for that income group.

“While we celebrate the nation’s progress, we remain focused on the challenges ahead. Despite our gains, far too many young people still do not earn a high school diploma, and the number of non-graduates remains alarmingly high among young people of color and those from low-income communities,” Colin Powell and Alma Powell with America’s Promise said in an introduction to the report. “In other words, a young person’s chances for success still depend too much on his or her ZIP code and skin color and too little on his or her abilities and effort.”

The report found that continuing the national improvement rate of 1.3 percentage points a year seen since 2001, more than 90 percent of students could graduate by 2020.

Among 39 large urban districts, Detroit ranked 24th with a 65 percent overall graduation rate. Columbus, Ohio, Des Moines, Iowa, and Houston, Texas, tied for the top rate at 79 percent, while Minneapolis, Minnesota, was at the bottom at 50 percent.

Among the recommendations in the report is that states work to link dropouts to career readiness programs and that districts review discipline policies that push out those students already at risk of dropping out.

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