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Maryland 4‑year graduation rate slips to 86.4% as multilingual and Hispanic students see largest declines
Summary
MSDE reported an 86.4% 4‑year graduation rate for the class of 2025 — a 1.2 percentage‑point decline — with larger drops among multilingual learners and Hispanic students; officials urged local analysis and said the department will continue tracking trends amid reports of immigration enforcement activity affecting school attendance.
Maryland State Department of Education officials told the State Board of Education that the statewide adjusted 4‑year graduation rate for the class of 2025 is 86.4 percent, down 1.2 percentage points from the prior year. The department said the 4‑year cohort comprised about 72,700 first‑time ninth‑grade students; 62,842 earned a Maryland diploma within four years.
MSDE analyst Tim Guy highlighted subgroup differences: the largest decreases occurred among multilingual learners and Hispanic students, while Black / African American and economically disadvantaged groups saw some gains. Guy also reported the 5‑year graduation rate for the prior cohort at 89.2 percent and a cohort dropout rate of 9.9 percent in 2025, up from 8.3 percent.
Board members pressed staff for explanations and additional breakdowns. Doctor Lewis and others asked whether the department can identify causes locally and monitor whether immigration enforcement activity or enrollment shifts are contributing to declines. Guy said MSDE’s data show increases in Hispanic student enrollment post‑pandemic, and that those groups are overrepresented in dropout counts; he cautioned that MSDE’s datasets do not capture all local‑level reasons for delayed graduation and that district records are needed to determine specific drivers (late entries, credit deficits, local graduation requirements).
MSDE clarified that federal reporting rules exclude certain credentials from the graduation rate: students who receive a certificate of completion or earn a GED are not counted as graduates in the adjusted cohort rate. Board members requested further disaggregations (for example, intersecting gender with Hispanic and multilingual status) and committed to follow‑up with local superintendents to understand on‑the‑ground causes.
Next steps: MSDE said it will continue to track the affected populations over time, provide technical assistance to districts, and use local analyses to inform interventions. The board acknowledged the data are lagging and reflect conditions through 2025; members said they want a timely, local‑level response to address student safety, attendance, and supports that might affect graduation outcomes.
