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By
NICK GOSNELL
Hutch
Post
HUTCHINSON,
Kan. —&nbsp;Race is more of an issue in Kansas K-12 education in recent years than it was in previous decades simply because the student population is <a href="https://kasb.org/blog/despite-some-progress-large-differences-in-kansas-educational-attainment-by-race-remain/">more diverse</a>."I went to work for the school board association in 1990," said Kansas Association of School Boards Vice-President for Advocacy, Mark Tallman. "Coincidentally, a lot of consistent data is available from then to now. When I started, at that point, about 80 to 85% of Kansas students identified as white. In the not quite 30 years since then, that has dropped to only about 65%. African-American enrollment has remained pretty stable. The big increase has been in Hispanic enrollment and students identifying with multiple races."It may feel like everyone graduates from high school now, but that's not the case."High school graduation, actually, overall, is right around 90%," Tallman said. "In fact, the percent of students that graduate exactly in four years, which you might call on time is about 87, 88 percent. That's been increasing over the last, really over decades. Some kids go on and finish within a few years, so overall, we're about 90%. White students are several percentage points above that. African-American and Hispanic students are below that."Boys don't graduate at the same rate as girls in every racial group."Good news is, the students that have not been doing as well have been improving a little bit faster, so that gap is closing," Tallman said. "It's still a significant gap. It would still take some years before that would be closed."The overall graduation rate is still historically as high as it has ever been.&nbsp;

Tallman: Student population more diverse, closing achievement gap