Missouri graduated 92.7 percent of its four-year cohort in 2025, the highest rate in the state's history and roughly six percentage points above the most recently reported national four-year graduation rate of 87 percent. The milestone marks the culmination of a steady climb from a post-COVID trough of 90.6 percent in 2021.

What makes the number especially significant is that it was achieved with a larger graduating class. Missouri's 2025 cohort included 68,809 students, up from 65,761 in 2019, a gain of 3,048 students. More students entered the pipeline, and a higher share of them finished. The result: an estimated 63,788 on-time graduates in 2025 compared with 59,853 in 2019, nearly 4,000 additional graduates per year.

Year by year

The path to 92.7 percent was not a smooth ascent. Missouri's rate was 91.0 percent in 2019 before rising slightly to 91.2 percent in 2020, then dipping to 90.6 percent in 2021. The recovery began in 2022 at 91.1 percent and continued through 2023 (91.0 percent), 2024 (91.8 percent), and 2025 (92.7 percent).

The 2025 gain of 0.9 percentage points was the largest single-year improvement in the data window. At the statewide level, where the denominator is nearly 69,000 students, that increment represents roughly 600 additional on-time graduates.

Every group improved

All major racial and ethnic groups posted higher graduation rates in 2025 than in 2019. Asian students led at 94.8 percent, followed by white students at 94.5 percent, multiracial students at 93.1 percent, Hispanic students at 87.9 percent, and Black students at 86.7 percent. Black students' rate was the highest in the data series, a milestone driven in part by dramatic turnarounds in Kansas City and other districts.

The gaps between groups narrowed modestly. The white-Black gap fell from 9.7 points in 2019 to 7.8 points in 2025, the lowest point in the seven-year series. The white-Hispanic gap moved less: 6.5 points in 2019, 6.6 points in 2025, with year-to-year variation between roughly 5.6 and 7.2 points along the way.

What 92.7 percent leaves behind

At 92.7 percent, approximately 5,021 students in Missouri's 2025 cohort did not graduate in four years. Some will finish in a fifth or sixth year. Others will not. Missouri's State Board of Education sets a 24-credit minimum for a high school diploma, including practical arts, personal finance, and physical education.

The remaining 7.3 percent who do not finish on time are disproportionately concentrated in a small number of struggling districts. St. Louis CityET (70.3 percent), Grandview C-4ET (72.5 percent), and Normandy Schools CollaborativeET (73.3 percent) together account for hundreds of non-graduates while 385 of the state's 455 districts hold rates of 90 percent or higher.

The state's MSIP accountability system uses graduation rate as a key indicator alongside attendance, academic achievement, and growth.

Data source

Analysis based on graduation data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

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