California’s high school graduation rate has just topped 80 percent, reflecting the highest level in state history, as announced by Tom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, on April 28, 2014. When looking at the class of 2013, 80.2 percent of those who started high school in 2009-10 graduated with their class, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from the year before. Graduation rates for African-American and Hispanic students