New York City’s high school graduation rate has declined for two consecutive years.
According to data from the New York City Department of Education, the graduation rate for 2025 was 81.2%, a decrease of 2.1 percentage points from the previous year. The graduation rate had steadily increased for over a decade, reaching 83.7% in 2023 after falling 0.8 percentage points from 65.5% in 2011 to 64.7% in 2012. However, following a 0.4 percentage drop to 83.3% in 2024, the downward trend continued in 2025.
The 2.1 percentage point decline recorded last year is the largest drop in the past 20 years, since 2005 when it fell by 1.1 percentage points compared to the previous year. Education officials link the significant decline in graduation rates to the fact that high school graduates in 2025 are students who began ninth grade in September 2021, just as the pandemic was ending. They analyze that the chaotic post-pandemic educational environment, where students attended classes remotely during the pandemic but began in-person schooling in the fall semester of 2021, likely influenced the drop in graduation rates.
Furthermore, they interpret the renewed tightening of exemptions and lowered passing standards for certain Regent exams, which had been in place during the pandemic, as having had a considerable impact on graduation rates.