Iowa once again leads the nation in the percentage of high school students who graduate. Iowa Department of Education director, Ryan Wise, says 91-point-three percent of students in the class of 2016 completed high school within four years in Iowa and a national report says that the best in the country. The 2016 graduation rate in Iowa was up three-tenths of a percent from the year before and is up three percentage points during the last six years. The national graduation rate is about seven percent lower at 84-point-one percent.

New Jersey was the only other state to top 90 percent — at 90-point-one. Wise says the graduation rate is just one measure of success as the state has work to do to ensure all the graduates are prepared to succeed beyond high school.

(Radio Iowa/Dar Danielson)