The national high school graduation rate for the class of 2012 was 80 percent—the highest in the history of the United States and a one percentage point gain over last year. Even with the overall gain, white students continue to graduate from high school at much higher rates than Latino, African American, and American Indiana/Alaska Native students, according to the data released on April 28 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). “The real-world impact of that improvement for students, their families, and their communities is enormous,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said when he announced the data to the audience at the America’s Promise Alliance Grad Nation Summit. “Because of graduation rate increases between just 2008 and 2012, an additional 100,000 Latino students and an additional 40,000 African American students graduated from high school." Iowa (89 percent) posted the highest graduation rate while the District of Columbia (59 percent) had the lowest. The complete report (NCES 2014391) can be found on NCES publication site.