Lisbon’s high school graduation rate increased dramatically.

Richmond’s dropped. Wiscasset’s is the worst in Maine.

Maine’s education commissioner announced Monday high school graduation rates increased in 2012 for the third consecutive year statewide, calling this “great news for Maine education.”

The four-year graduation rate for 2012 rose to 85.3 percent — 1.5 percentage points higher than 2011 and nearly 5 percentage points higher than 2009.

But the state said 48 of Maine’s 133 high schools did not reach the 83 percent target set in federal accountability standards, and “more than 40 percent of Maine high schools did not improve their graduation rate from the year before.”

“More than one in seven students in Maine who enters ninth grade does not complete high school four years later,” Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen said. “There is a lot more work to do.”

Maine uses a federally-required method for calculating graduation rates that shows the percentage of students who entered ninth grade and graduated within four years. “While this method is valuable for comparing schools and is an important piece of data, it does not tell a complete story,” Bowen said. The data doesn’t reflect the students who graduate from high school in five or six years, or those students who drop out but go on to earn a GED.

Nationally, the United States is making steady gains in the number of high school students earning diplomas, putting it on pace to reach a 90 percent graduation rate by 2020.

The national graduation rate jumped from 71.7 percent in 2001 to 78.2 percent in 2010, with the pace accelerating in recent years.

But a report by Robert Balfanz, a leading scholar of dropout rates at Johns Hopkins University, says students with learning disabilities and limited fluency in English face longer odds, with graduation rates for those groups as low as 25 percent in some states.

With 26 graduates, Richmond High School’s rate dropped to 74.3 percent — 6.6 percentage points lower than 2011.

Virgel Hammonds, superintendent for Regional School Unit 2 which includes Richmond, said Thursday it’s tough to talk percentages with a school as small as Richmond, because “those percentage numbers can swing based on one student pretty easy.”

Hammonds said there are students in his district who have “had some real life issues and they just needed more time.”

“A lot of our kids across the RSU, for a number of reasons we’re seeing here very publicly, need to go to work and support their families,” he said.

Hammonds credited staff at the high school with doing everything they can to help students finish high school.

But, for some, it simply takes longer than four years, and Hammonds said nearly all Richmond students who don’t graduate in four years return to earn a diploma.

RSU 2 allows students to continue where they left off and helps them finish what they haven’t completed so returning for a fifth year may not mean repeating an entire year.

Lisbon High School’s 2012 graduation rate jumped nearly 18 points from 2011.

Heather Wilmot, director of student services in Lisbon, attributes the rise to an alternative education program put in place in 2010 to meet the needs of at-risk students with small class sizes and flexible schedules.

Wilmot also pointed to enhanced professional development at the entire K-12 system in Lisbon as the school system moves toward recognizing “students learn in different ways and different time frames.”

At Mt. Ararat High School — where the graduation rate, now at 90.4 percent, has improved annually since 2009 — administrators credit a variety of programs aimed at engaging students.

Mt. Ararat Principal Craig King said students have the same classroom adviser for all four years and meet with that person every other day to bolster student-teacher communication about emerging challenges.

There’s also extra academic support time “built in” every other day for students who may have done poorly on a test or paper before their grades become a problem, King said.

Mt. Ararat — which educates School Administrative District 75 students from Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham — also has a “student assistance team” that allows teachers, councilors and social workers to have an intense one-hour meeting to talk about what is getting in the way of learning, and to develop a plan to help the student come to school and work toward graduation.

The high school also works closely with the middle school to keep an eye on students in grade 8 who had trouble meeting their course work.

For students in grades 11 and 12 who decide they can’t attend high school, King said the school works hard to get them enrolled in adult-education classes — even though those graduates aren’t reflected in graduation rates.

“We’ve put in a lot of effort,” King said. “We put in a lot of time, put professional time into it, and I’m very happy to see there’s statistical proof that it’s paying off.”

Using data such as attendance rates, standardized test scores, truancy and free lunch enrollments, “you can tell by sixth grade who the kids are who are likely not to graduate on time.”

If schools are strategic and, “If you intervene early, you can really do a lot to help those kids out.”