Alabama’s high school graduation and college- and career-readiness rates reached record highs for the Class of 2025, as students increasingly met the state’s readiness standards through career-technical education and college credit rather than through earning benchmark scores on standardized tests.
Ninety-three percent of seniors graduated within four years, up from 92% for the Class of 2024, and 91% earned at least one college- or career-readiness indicator, up from 88% for the previous graduating class. The chart below, compiled by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, shows the progression of each indicator.
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The two-percentage-point difference between the graduation and college- and career-readiness rates was the smallest on record.
That gap has narrowed sharply since 2018, when Alabama’s graduation rate was 90%, but its college- and career-readiness rate was 75%, leaving a 15-point gap, according to an analysis released by PARCA.
Since Alabama dropped the high school graduation exam, critics have argued that an Alabama high school diploma no longer has an achievement standard attached to it. State education officials have described the college- and career-readiness indicators as that standard.
‘High bars’?
State Superintendent Eric Mackey told State Board of Education members in May that the indicators represent “high bars” that are not easy to attain.
“The board’s done a very good job of setting not just benchmarks, but benchmarks that mean something to industry or mean something to college,” Mackey said.
Students can demonstrate readiness in several ways, including meeting an ACT college-readiness benchmark, scoring silver or higher on WorkKeys, passing an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exam, earning college credit, completing an approved career-technical course sequence or earning an industry-recognized credential.
Beginning with the Class of 2026, students must earn a readiness indicator to receive a general education diploma. The requirement does not limit the indicator to a particular year of high school.
Mackey said the goal should extend beyond students earning a single indicator, noting that some graduates have qualified for seven or more of the indicators by the time they leave high school.
Rather than treating readiness as a box to check, he said, principals, counselors and other educators should help students identify the opportunities that best prepare them for their plans after high school.
“It’s not just checking a box,” he said. Educators should ask, “For his preparation for life and what he wants to do, how many of these do I need to make he’s enrolled in?”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Trisha Powell Crain and originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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