Graduation rates are one of the most visible and widely used measures of how a school district is performing, and for good reason. Even while serving as a useful metric for evaluating school districts, they remain just one piece of a larger picture. In that sense, they are best understood as a starting point, not a final verdict. 

At a basic level, graduation rates tell us something important: are students finishing school? That makes graduation rates a clear, easy-to-understand indicator for parents, taxpayers, and policymakers alike. They also serve as a public accountability tool, giving communities a way to evaluate how well their local schools are supporting students through to completion. And over time, graduation rates are linked to real-world outcomes, acting as a signal tied to employment opportunities, earnings potential, and long-term stability.

But while graduation rates matter, they don’t tell the whole story. Measures like third grade reading proficiency, math achievement across grade levels, and ACT scores or other college-readiness benchmarks help answer a different, but equally important question: what are students actually learning? If graduation rates rise while proficiency or readiness lags, that may be a sign that closer scrutiny is warranted.

With that context in mind, newly released graduation rate data offers an opportunity to take a closer look at how Iowa school districts are performing.  297 School Districts have full data available to measure graduation rate changes across two years (2024 and 2025) of graduating seniors, and across five years (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025) of graduating seniors.

The State of Iowa calculates the graduation rate by dividing the number of students who graduate with a regular high school diploma in four years or less by the number of first-time 9th graders enrolled minus the number of students who transferred out plus the total number of students who transferred in.

While nearly 30 relatively small districts graduated 100% of their senior class last year, 88.8% of seniors graduated statewide. Some districts saw fewer of their students reach the finish line. The table below displays the ten Iowa school districts with the lowest graduation rates in 2025:

130 school districts had graduation rates that dropped during the two-year period, 13 remained the same, and 154 increased.  Statewide, graduation rates increased during the two-year period (+0.5%).

The school districts with the 10 largest decreases/increases in graduation rates from 2024 to 2025 are here:

Over the five-year period, 130 school districts had a reduction in their graduation rates, ten remained the same, and 157 districts increased their graduation rates.  Across the state, there was a decrease in the graduation rate during the five-year period (-1.4%).

The school districts with the 10 largest decreases/increases in graduation rates from 2021 to 2025 are here:

When measuring changes as a percentage, it is worth remembering that a smaller sample size (i.e., schools with lower enrollments) means that a small number of students can make a big impact on the calculation.  For instance, the Paton-Churdan Community School District had ten students enrolled in 12^th grade, meaning a change of three students represents a difference of 30%. You can use the sortable and searchable table below to review graduation data for each district in the state.