The New York State Education Department last week announced the overall high school graduation rate for students who entered the 9th grade in 2010, and received a diploma in four years increased to 76 percent statewide, up from nearly 75 percent the year before. The rates reflected the achievement of the first group of students to enter high school after the adoption of the Common Core standards in New York. The average graduation rate in both Columbia and Greene counties was 86 percent, higher than the state average. The New Lebanon Central School District topped the list with a four-year completion rate of 97 percent, followed by Hunter-Tannersville (94 percent), Chatham (92 percent) and Windham-Ashland-Jewett (91 percent). At the bottom of the list: Catskill (76 percent) and Hudson City (72 percent). The average drop-out rate reported in the six districts located in Columbia County (7.2 percent) was higher than for the schools located in Greene County (5 percent). Hudson had the highest drop-out rate for all students in both counties at 16 percent. Drop-out rates reported for various sub-groups within the Hudson student body were higher still: 31 percent of students with disabilities, 20 percent of the economically disadvantaged and 19 percent of black students that entered the 9th grade in 2010 had dropped out by the spring of 2014, according to NYSED.