Oklahoma Watch: Graduation Rates Dropping Across Oklahoma

With it being back to school season, graduation is likely the last thing on your mind. But for state leaders it's front and center because graduation rates are dropping across the state.

Our friends at Oklahoma Watch found that the graduation rate of the 2013-14 school dropped over 2 percent from the year before. And not just the total percentage dropped, every student sub-group took a hit.

Now comparing the 2013-14 school year to 2012-13, the total drop in graduation rate was 2.2 percent, from 84.9 percent to 82.7 percent.

The sub-group that took the biggest hit is the students who are considered to be living in poverty. There the group had a rate just over 76 percent, which is almost a 4 percent drop from the previous year. But no matter the sub-group, everyone saw a drop and that's something Superintendent Joy Hofmeister knows needs to be fixed.

“It's going to take building school capacity and that begins with a strong relationship, one that is focused on new ways of doing things, what are the best practices and giving more time for students to actually learn. If we are doing more testing we're not learning when you're testing, we're just measuring," said Joy Hofmeister, State Superintendent.

Now while the state did see a drop in the graduation rates, our nearly-83 percent rate was still higher than the national graduation rate of 81 percent, which is a record high.