Comprehensive efforts to increase graduation rates and decrease dropout rates are reaping results on local and state levels, with an 80.6 percent four-year, on-time graduation rate statewide for the Class of 2009.

The Texas Education Agency's annual "Secondary School Completion and Dropouts in Texas Public Schools" report shows that the number of dropouts in grades 7-12 decreased to 40,923 in the 2008-2009 school year, a 10.6 percent decrease from the 45,796 students who dropped out in the 2007-2008 school year.