Jordan School District had the highest graduation rates among the 50 largest school districts in the country, according to Education Week's latest data from its "Diplomas Counts: Ready for What? Preparing for College, Careers and Life after High School" report.

Utah's public schools had the best 2004 high school graduation rate in the country with 83.8 percent of students graduating. While Jordan School District was first with an 88.5 percent rate, Granite School District came in seventh place at 80.1 percent.

However, gaps remain between minority and white students.

And state education leaders say the report's calculations could be skewed in districts where high school students are transferring.

"We are very pleased, and it's a great compliment to the efforts of the district as a whole," said Jordan Superintendent Barry Newbold.

He attributes the ranking to excellent teachers who are well-prepared, care about students and go the extra mile, supportive parents and students who are willing to work and invest time to excel.

Another large factor has to do with the support system in place at the school and district levels, he said.

"What we have happening at all levels is schools are identifying students by name if they need specific help in various subject areas — not dealing with groups of students but with individuals," Newbold said.

Mark Peterson, spokesman for the State Office of Education, said Utah schools seem to do well at keeping students in school and seeing them through.

"Utah's still fairly homogenous population helps — although that is changing," Peterson said. "And certainly there is peer pressure here in that most everyone graduates — it's still a social trend."

He did note that under the report's calculations, high school students who transfer to a Utah school are also counted among graduates and could fill a dropout's spot. So the new students added to high school rolls could create artificially higher graduation rates.

State officials say they don't believe this greatly tips graduation rates higher, but said it should be taken into account.

Peterson said overall the report is good news for the state but that large gaps still remain between the graduation rates of white students and ethnic minority students, something state officials say they are working to erase.

Both state and district leaders said programs like extended-day kindergarten, the K-3 reading initiative and even the new math initiative are all expected to increase graduation rates among minority groups — giving students an equal and solid footing in reading, writing and math early so they can succeed later on.

However, Peterson said it is encouraging that, with the exception of Asian/Pacific Islanders, minority graduation rates in Utah are still ahead of national rates.

"Overall it's very good news, we are going in the right direction but we would like to push it forward," Peterson said. "We want to see more of our minority students doing better and graduating high school and moving into college and furthering their education."

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E-mail: terickson@desnews.com