Grad Nation: US won't meet 90% graduation goal by 2020

The national graduation rate continued to inch higher in 2017 to 84.6%, up from 84.1% in 2016, according to the latest Building a Grad Nation report from the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University and Civic, a policy and research organization.But states are off pace to reach the 90% rate by 2020 goal set by the Alliance for Excellent Education and America’s Promise Alliance, the organizations leading the GradNation campaign. An additional 199,466 students would have needed to graduate on time in 2017 to reach that goal.The adjusted cohort rate in two states — Iowa and New Jersey — has surpassed 90%, and in 25 states, the rate now tops 85%. Only New Mexico has a rate lower than 75%, at 71.1%, the report says. The focus on increasing graduation rates over the past two decades has "paid off with benefits to individuals, the economy and our civic society," the authors write. "America now needs a second act, as the rise in high school graduation rates slows down and the demands of the workplace require postsecondary education and training of some kind for most jobs today and in the future."