An encouraging sign for New York schools as a new federal report finds more high school students are getting their diplomas and fewer are dropping out.

The U.S. Department of Education says New York State's graduation rate has improved from 61 percent a decade ago to an estimated 76 percent between 2009 and 2010.

That's just under the national average of 78 percent.

New York's dropout rate stands at 3.6 percent.

That's down from 5.5 percent between 2002 and 2003, and it's not far off from the national dropout rate of 3.4 percent.