Part of the Minnesota Graduation Rates 2024ET series.

Minnesota's four-year graduation rate rose from 83.3% for the Class of 2023 to 84.2% for the Class of 2024, a gain of 0.9 percentage points. The number of graduates increased by 1,427, from 58,293 to 59,720.

The cohort also grew, but not as quickly as the graduate count. It increased by 982 students, from 69,945 to 70,927. As a result, the number of students who did not graduate within four years fell by 445, from 11,652 to 11,207.

A rebound within a short panel

The package-backed statewide panel used here covers four graduating classes, from 2021 through 2024. Across those four points, the graduation rate ranged from 83.3% to 84.2%.

The 2024 increase was the largest one-year rate gain in that panel. The rate had risen by 0.3 points in 2022 and then fallen by 0.3 points in 2023 before gaining 0.9 points in 2024.

Four years are enough to identify the rebound, but not enough to support a decades-long projection or a claim that a new trend will persist. The graduation file also does not identify which programs, policies or student circumstances produced the change.

More students, and a higher completion rate

From 2021 to 2024, the statewide cohort grew by 2,360 students, or 3.4%. The graduate count rose by 2,583, or 4.5%, over the same span.

Because graduates grew faster than the cohort, the non-graduate count moved in the opposite direction over the full panel. It fell by 223 students, or 2.0%, from 11,430 in 2021 to 11,207 in 2024.

The 2024 class had the highest graduation rate, largest cohort and most graduates in the four-year panel. It also had the fewest non-graduates.

Large districts show a wide spread

The five largest district entities by published 2024 cohort count did not move as a group.

District	Graduation rate	Cohort
Anoka-Hennepin↗ET	85.6%	3,303
Saint Paul↗ET	76.5%	2,556
Minneapolis↗ET	73.8%	2,499
Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan↗ET	88.1%	2,368
Osseo↗ET	84.6%	1,650

Anoka-Hennepin, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan and Osseo were above the 84.2% statewide rate. Saint Paul and Minneapolis were below it.

The full 2024 file contains 424 district entities with published rates. Of those, 198 were at or above 90%, 76 were below 70%, and 16 were reported at 100%. Those counts show how much variation sits behind one statewide number; they do not by themselves explain why the results differ.

About the data

Figures come from the Minnesota Department of Education's Minnesota Report Card. The analysis uses source-published statewide rows for 2021 through 2024 and district rows for the 2024 comparison. It does not reconstruct statewide totals from district data.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.