19. has the highest high school graduation rate

The U.S. Department of Education’s “National Center for Education Statistics” (NCES) periodically collects and analyzes data on high school graduation rates by state. Vermont always scores near the top.

Using data from public schools for the years 2011-12 only four states had high school graduation rates of more than 90 percent. As shown in the Graphic that follows, Vermont and Nebraska were tied for first place with a graduation rate of 93 percent. Wisconsin was second with 92 percent and North Dakota was third at 91 percent.

At the other end of the spectrum, Nevada managed to graduate only 60 percent of its students, the worst in the nation followed by that perennially poor performer—Mississippi—at a mere 68 percent.

Source of the graphic below and statistics is: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_coi.asp

An earlier study by the same organization showed that only tiny Vermont managed to graduate 91.4 percent of the freshman who started high school. Amazingly, out of the nearly 8,000 students who started high school in Vermont, only 675 did not graduate four years later.

The most recent study, using data from 2011-2013 showed Vermont tied for 2^nd place with Nebraska, Wisconsin and even Texas, while first place went to Iowa with an 89 percent graduation rate.

http://www.governing.com/gov-data/education-data/state-high-school-graduation-rates-by-race-ethnicity.html