There was a steady increase in high school graduation rates throughout the city between 2005 and 2018, according to data from the New York City Department of Education. The data covers public, non-charter high schools across all five boroughs, which encompasses 32 school districts and records for each school, the number of students in each class year as well as how many graduated with their cohort. 

Looking at data from high schools across all NYC school districts, the average graduation rate was 59.68 percent for the class of 2005. By the time the class of 2018 graduated, the average rate was 72.2 percent.