High School graduation rates by county weighted 2014—2022 in Maine
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Why This Indicator Matters
What the data shows
The 2020 graduation rates were about the same as 2019, but in 2021 graduation rates fell from 87.4% to 86.1% and the following year 2022, the rate remained at 86.1%. In 2022, only Sagadahoc County had a rate above 90% at 91.3%. York and Cumberland had the next two highest rates at 88.8% and 88.5%. Three counties had graduation rates in 2022 below 80%. These were Somerset, 74.7%., Franklin, 75.8%, and Piscataquis 76.7%. Between 2021 and 2022, four counties improved their graduation rates by more than 1 percentage points. These were: Androscoggin, Aroostook, Lincoln and Washington. Counties that had graduation rates more than 1 percentage point lower in 2022 as compared to 2021 were: Kennebec, Piscataquis, and Somerset.
Nationally, for the most recent year data was available, the national graduation rate for 2019-2020 was 86.5%, while Maine's rate for 2019-2020 was 87.4%, so Maine's rate was higher than the national average.
Definitions: The number and percent of youth by county who graduate in 4 years from public schools and 60% publicly funded private schools. The numerator is the number of youth graduating in the state in 4 years and the denominator includes the cohort of ninth grade students 4 years prior plus all transfers in and all transfers out.
Data Source:
Special data request to the Maine Department of Education for high school graduation aggregated by the county.
Source for national comparisons
High School Grad Rates 2019- 2020
Footnotes:
The year refers to the year of graduation, so 2022 is the 2021-2022 school year. In this series, the calculation is at the student level rather than the school level. This makes it "weighted". For example, suppose a county had 3 schools, one with 300 ninth graders and two small schools with 20 ninth graders each. If 70% of the students graduated at the large school and 95% at the two other schools, the student average would be (300x70%)= 210 graduates plus 19 + 19 graduates, so the "weighted average would be 248/340 = 72.9% for the county.
The data for the series 2009 -2013 is unweighted. This means it averages all the individual school graduation rates in a county, rather than taking all the ninth graders in the county and how many of that cohort graduated 4 years later. In the above example, the graduation rates of the three schools would be averaged (70% +95% +95%)/3 = 86.6%. 86.6% would be the unweighted average.
Updated March 2023.