By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

The State Department of Education is updating some of its previously reported high school graduation rates.

The Education Department announced today that the data used to calculate the graduation rates the last 10 years left out students who had transferred to another school and then dropped out. Most recently, the correction increased the 2023 graduation rate by a tenth of a point to 87.5%. The rates for 2021 and 2022 fell by more than two percentage points to 87.8% for 2021 and 87.4% for 2022.

The Department says in a statement that Iowa’s four-year graduation rate for the class of 2023 is consistent with the national standard and it is above the 2023 rates reported by Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota.