Amidst budget cuts and a struggling economy, Highline schools have found at least one thing to be proud about.

At the Jan. 27 school board meeting, Superintendent John Welch said that Highline schools are ahead of the rest of the state when it came decreasing the gap between the number of white students and minority students who graduate from high school and continue on to college the next year.

He presented data which showed that the percentages of three racial groups - African-American, Hispanic and Asian - had progressively increased when it came to students who had graduated and pursued higher education the following year.

The data reflected the four-year period covering the graduating classes of 2004 to 2008.

The only category that showed significant decline was American Indians, which had fallen roughly 23 percent from 2006 to 2008. Welch said that he and his staff could offer no explanation as to why.

Although the percentages of all college-going graduates had increased, the numbers themselves had decreased. The school district's class of 2004 had graduated a total of 1,006 students, of which 52.5 percent had continued on to college the following year. In 2008, 896 students had graduated - 110 less than that of 2004 - but 57.4 percent had continued on to college.

Welch also pointed out that the data had changed significantly throughout the four-year period when it came to the percentage of students who started at 2-year schools compared to the percentage of students who started at 4-year schools.

In 2004, 34.3 percent of students had gone on to 2-year schools while 20.1 percent went to 4-year schools.

In 2008, those numbers decreased to 30 percent and increased to 28.6 percent respectively.

Other notable data that was looked at was the persistence rate - if the students had continued on to their second year of college.

That had decreased significantly, starting from 82.6 percent in 2004 down to 75.5 percent in 2008.

"Every district's [persistence rate] had dropped, probably due to the economy," Superintendent Welch said.

He added that the recession may have affected students' ability to afford their second year of college and he emphasized that the numbers he had presented were markedly better than the state's numbers.

Board president Bernie Dorsey praised what the data revealed.

"I can't help but be pleased we've almost eliminated the gap [between white students and minority students," he said.