The Lansing School District is celebrating a historic milestone for the 2024–2025 school year, announcing a 93.81% four-year graduation rate — the highest in district history — while reducing its dropout rate to just 1.75%.
The district says the achievement continues a steady and sustained upward trend in student success and marks the strongest graduation performance the ever recorded.
According to official state data, Michigan's average four-year graduation rate is 84%, with an average dropout rate of 7.1%. The Lansing School District's graduation rate exceeds the state average by nearly 10 percentage points, and its dropout rate is more than 5 percentage points lower than the statewide average.
Interim Superintendent Jessica Benavides credited students, families and school staff for the milestone.
"This historic achievement is a direct reflection of the unwavering commitment of our students, their families, and our high school teams," Benavides said. "Our teachers, counselors, administrators, graduation specialists, and support staff show up every day for our students. Their dedication, persistence, and belief in every student have made this graduation rate possible."
Benavides emphasized that graduation represents more than a statistic.
"Graduation is a transformational moment in a young person's life," she said. "A diploma opens doors to college, career pathways, military service, and economic opportunity. It means our students have choices. It means confidence. It means they are prepared to build successful futures for themselves and their families. When our students succeed, our entire community succeeds."
District leaders attribute the upward trend to focused strategies including proactive academic monitoring, strengthened student support services, increased family engagement, community partnerships, expanded credit recovery programs and a commitment to removing barriers that can stand in the way of student achievement.
District leadership said it remains focused on sustaining momentum and ensuring every student — in every school — has the opportunity to graduate prepared for success beyond high school.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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