Graduation rate up for DPS

Some of the brightest news to emerge from Durham Public Schools' release of preliminary ABCs performance data Wednesday was a 4.1-percent increase in the districtwide graduation rate.

The jump to 73.9 percent comes a year after the district posted a 6-percent increase in the four-year graduation rate.

"I just want to applaud the efforts of our high school principals, as well as our parents and our students for showing that we graduate students -- and graduate them on time," district Superintendent Eric Becoats said.

The district's small high schools, two of which graduated their first classes this spring, posted remarkable rates, including 100 percent at Hillside New Tech High School and 97.3 percent at City of Medicine Academy.