Preliminary data released from the U.S. Department of Education show that Wisconsin’s gap in graduation rates between black and white students is once again the largest in the nation.

The federal data show that almost 93 percent of white students in Wisconsin earn diplomas within four years, compared to just 64 percent of black students. That gap was more than twice as large as the disparity in national graduation rates where 87.6 percent of white students graduate compared to 74.6 percent of black students.

“Not every gap is identical,” Tom McCarthy, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction communications director, told Wisconsin Public Radio. “Almost all of them are unique to the situations that exist in the area of the state where those kids live. So it’s getting the people bought into making a change and acknowledging that it exists.”

Wisconsin’s high school graduation rate, at 88.4 percent, stayed above the national average. Overall, the high school graduation rate in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 83.2 percent in the 2014-2015 school year, marking the fifth straight record-setting year.

“When I took office almost eight years ago, we knew that our education system was falling short,” President Barack Obama said making remarks at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, D.C. yesterday. “I said, by 2020 I want us to be No. 1 across the board, so we got to work making real changes to improve the chances for all of our young people … And the good news is that we’ve made real progress.”