Data-Driven Education Journalism for the Last Frontier
Education News & Data
Local education reporting from every corner of Alaska, grounded in Alaska Department of Education data.
Alaska's special education graduation rate has barely moved in seven years while 471 students in the 2025 cohort left high school without a diploma.
In seven years of data, students who are currently homeless' graduation rate has never exceeded 65%. The 2025 rate of 63.4% is the best on record, and still 16.5 points below the state average.
Two-thirds of Alaska's 53 districts are majority-minority, but the state's racial composition has barely shifted in seven years of data.
Alaska Native students graduate at a 68% rate, nearly 18 points below white peers. Seven years of data show a gap that refuses to narrow.
Fifteen Alaska school districts graduated fewer than 70% of their students in 2025. Nearly all are remote Bush communities where teacher turnover, tiny cohorts, and extreme geography collide.
Alaska's 4-year graduation rate has stayed below 80% for six of seven years, trailing the national average by 7 points. Nearly 2,000 students per year leave without a diploma.
Yukon-Koyukuk School District slashed chronic absenteeism from 52% to 17% in three years, the largest improvement in Alaska, with four schools reporting zero chronically absent students.
Alaska's kindergarten enrollment has fallen 15% since 2020 while 12th grade hit an all-time high, creating a pipeline inversion that will accelerate decline for years.
Alaska's 12th grade class consistently outnumbers the prior year's 11th graders, driven by correspondence school re-entry and credit recovery.
From Pelican's 16 students to the Pribilof Islands' 56, Alaska's smallest districts face existential questions about whether they can keep their doors open.
Alaska's post-COVID enrollment gains were an illusion. The state is now 3,272 students below pre-pandemic levels, and correspondence growth masked deeper traditional losses.
Three correspondence districts added 5,880 students since 2020 while traditional districts lost thousands. Even Mat-Su's apparent growth is driven by a new virtual program.
Black enrollment fell from 3,317 to 2,669 since 2020, the steepest decline of any racial group and nearly eight times the statewide rate.
Fairbanks lost 2,017 students in seven years, closed three schools, and still faces a structural deficit. The decline is accelerating.
Twenty-nine of Alaska's districts are at their smallest enrollment ever recorded, including both Anchorage and Fairbanks. Together they hold 66% of the state's students.
