Bad news first: Rochester City Schools still have the worst graduation rate among New York’s “Big Five” urban school districts. Now the good news: they’re getting better at faster than the statewide average.
Figures released today for the 2012-2013 school year by the New York State Department of Education show Rochester’s graduation rate at 47.5 percent. That compares with better than 79 percent statewide, nearly 61 percent for Syracuse and close to 62 percent for Buffalo. But the Rochester graduation rate was up two points from the year before, which beats the statewide average of 1.3 points.
The news isn’t that good. Buffalo improved its graduation rate by better than three points, and Syracuse schools by better than six points:
| Statewide | 78.1 | 79.4 | +1.3 |
| NYC | 67.2 | 69.6 | +2.4 |
| Buffalo | 58.4 | 61.7 | +3.3 |
| Rochester | 45.5 | 47.5 | +2.0 |
| Syracuse | 54.5 | 60.9 | +6.4 |
| Yonkers | 74.2 | 77.5 | +3.3 |
Statewide, graduation rates are improving for both urban and suburban low-income students, but there’s still a big performance gap between “high need” and “low need” districts which are able to draw on higher property values and have less poverty.