Oregon no longer has the worst graduation rate of any state in the country, according to federal data out Monday.
But it's still one of the worst.
Oregon's 2014 graduation rate was 72.5 percent. That was almost 3 percentage points higher than the previous year, when Oregon was the worst of any state and only trailed by Washington, D.C.
Oregon's improvement from 2013 to 2014 was largely the result of including two new categories of students as "graduates": students with special needs who earned modified diplomas, and students who delayed receiving a diploma in order to pursue low-cost college credits.
The 72.5 percent graduation rate elevates Oregon to 47th in the U.S. — above Alaska, Nevada and New Mexico.
State Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Salam Noor said he is "proud of the work Oregon schools are doing to prepare each and every student for life after high school."
Washington state also moved up a few spots to 38th in the nation, with a 2014 graduation rate of 78.2 percent.
NPR reported on some of the complexities of comparing graduation rates across state lines in a project earlier this year.
Copyright 2015 Oregon Public Broadcasting
