Mayor Wu and Superintendent Skipper announce record 2025 Boston Public Schools graduation rate, with persistent gaps

Graduation rate hits highest level since state tracking began

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Public Schools (BPS) Superintendent Mary Skipper announced Monday that the district’s four-year high school graduation rate for the Class of 2025 reached 81.3%, the highest recorded since Massachusetts began tracking comparable graduation-rate data in 2006.

The announcement was made at Dearborn STEM Academy in Roxbury and was tied to newly released state education data on cohort graduation and dropout rates. City officials said 3,377 students earned diplomas in four years, roughly 400 more graduates than the prior year.

Boston improves, but remains below the statewide average

State figures show Boston’s 2025 four-year graduation rate remains below the statewide four-year graduation rate of 89% for the same reporting cycle, an 8 percentage-point difference. Statewide, the four-year graduation rate was reported as one percentage point below the state’s record high of 90% in 2022.

City officials said graduation rates increased across demographic groups, with the largest gains reported among English learners.

Dropout rate declines as officials cite expanded course opportunities

BPS reported a 2025 dropout rate of 3.6%. In remarks at the event, Wu and district leadership connected the graduation-rate increase to academic and programmatic changes that broaden access to higher-level coursework, including expanded Advanced Placement offerings and additional opportunities for students to take college-level classes while in high school.

• Class of 2025 BPS four-year graduation rate: 81.3%
• Statewide four-year graduation rate (same cycle): 89%
• Reported number of BPS graduates: 3,377
• Reported BPS dropout rate: 3.6%

MassCore completion remains a key measure alongside diplomas

Alongside the graduation-rate milestone, a separate benchmark continues to shape the district’s readiness debate: completion of MassCore, the state-recommended course sequence intended to align high school coursework with college and career expectations. More than half of Boston’s 2025 graduates did not complete the district’s MassCore expectations, based on state reporting and district discussion of MassCore completion levels.

MassCore completion is tracked statewide, but local graduation requirements vary by district. In Boston, MassCore has been adopted as a graduation requirement beginning with the Class of 2026, a change approved by the Boston School Committee in 2021.

Graduation and MassCore completion measure different outcomes: earning a diploma within four years, and completing a defined course of study designed to signal academic preparation.

What comes next

The new data arrive as BPS and city leadership face overlapping priorities: sustaining graduation gains, reducing dropout rates, and expanding the capacity of high schools to schedule and staff MassCore-aligned coursework for all students. With MassCore becoming a local graduation requirement for the Class of 2026, the district’s ability to raise completion rates is expected to be closely monitored in the next release cycles of state reporting.