Report: SC improves its high school dropout rates

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A report by a national think tank has found South Carolina’s high school graduation rates have sharply increased since 2002.

The report by the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University finds that South Carolina’s graduation rate in 2009 was 66 percent, compared to just under 58 percent in 2002. It was the third biggest gain in the country behind New York and Tennessee.

But South Carolina’s rate is still the third-worst in the county and well below the 75 percent national rate.

The state also made big gains in eliminating so-called dropout factories, which are schools where less than 60 percent of an incoming freshman class ends up graduating.

The report says the state had 101 dropout factories in 2002, but reduced that number to 58 in 2010.