Sweet Home High School’s 13.5-percent bump in its graduation rate, from 70.83 percent in 2017-18 to 84.52 this past year, reported on page 1 of this issue, is a big deal that our community should take note of.

Checking back over the past two decades, we’re reminded that the rate has never moved more than a few points, sometimes up, sometimes down. Our community has run graduation rates as low as the 60s percentage range at times.

When the graduation rate grows even a couple of points, it’s a good day.

Each of those percentage points last year represented 1.68 students. Of the 2015...