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Nationally the graduation rate is 75 percent, which is up 8 percent from a decade ago, according to the study.

The numbers are even higher for Ohio and the LHSD.

“In the late 1990s it was about 80 to 85 percent and that was pretty standard throughout the state,” said Logan High School Assistant Principal Josh Straus.

The LHSD had a graduation rate of 96 percent for the 2010-11 school year, which is the most recent available number, said LHSD Director of Instruction Trina Barrell.

“The 96 percent rate is really good compared to similar districts, which have a rate of 90.3 percent,” Barrell noted.

Straus said the new Ohio Department of Education report cards will start to show the number of students that took four years to graduate and five years to graduate. Currently, the graduation rates are shown by year regardless of how many years it took a student to graduate.

Straus said for the 2011-12 school year, the four-year graduation rate was 94 percent and the five-year graduation rate was 97 percent.

The graduation rate for the district has been more than 93 percent since the 2003-04 school year and has been between 93 and 98 percent each year.

“I think what has helped the numbers stay high is our credit recovery program,” he said.

As part of the program, students who are failing classes are able to take them online as part of the recovery lab.

“[The students] either have children or need to get a job to take care of themselves and they just can’t work going to school into their schedule,” Straus said.

Straus said most of the students in the program are 18 years or older and exempt from attendance laws.

“With the credit recovery program, we really try to work with those kids and find out why they are not passing those classes,” Straus said.

This article was contributed by the Logan Daily News