High School Dropout Rates For Minority And Poor Students Disproportionately High

Debate over the No Child Left Behind revision continues on the Senate floor as lawmakers attempt to find middle ground on how the education law should be changed, and how it can best serve students and teachers while improving the American education system.

At the bottom of discussions of teacher evaluations, school assessments and standardized testing is a focus on how to close achievement gaps and enhance the performance of the bottom 5 percent of schools and students. Legislators want students to be making it through the educational system -- and they want those kids graduating.

A report in July notes that high school dropouts cost between $320 billion and $350 billion annually in lost wages, taxable income, health, welfare and incarceration costs. About a quarter of those who entered high school this year won't earn a diploma, and according to a new report by the National Center for Education Statistics, someone who did not complete high school will earn about $630,000 less over their lifetime than someone who has earned at least a GED.

To add to that, changes to calculations make the situation appear even bleaker. While high school dropouts aren't eligible for 90 percent of the jobs in the economy, an overhaul of flawed measurement formulas that often undercounted dropouts and inflated graduation rates would lead some states to see graduation rates fall by as many as 20 percentage points.

But the new NCES report reports a silver lining: the number of high school dropouts is already decreasing. The report released last week studied dropout and graduation rates between 1972 and 2009. For students aged 15 to 25, 3.4 percent dropped out between grades 10 and 12, down from 5 percent a decade prior and 6.7 percent in 1979.

While the trend appears promising, the report's more disturbing discovery is that there were about 3 million 16- to 24-year-olds in October 2009 who were neither enrolled in high school nor had earned a high school diploma or alternative degree. These dropouts accounted for 8.1 percent of the 38 million U.S. noninstitutionalized and civilians in that age group not in high school and without a high school credential.

Minority students dropped out at disproportionately higher rates than their White counterparts -- In 2009, 4.8 percent of of blacks and 5.8 percent of Hispanics between 15 and 24 dropped out of grades 10-12, compared with 2.4 percent for white students.

Also in 2009, the dropout rate for low-income students was five times greater than their high-income counterparts -- 7.4 percent compared with 1.4 percent.

Comments

[goolfballl]

02:33 PM on 10/24/2011

Why don't we fine the parents or cut a percentage of their entitlement payouts if their children drop out of high school? Let's try to make the parents somewhat accountable.

[arecibo48]

10:16 AM on 10/24/2011

Something needs to be done about this situation; these students are our future.

[Mrgrayhistory]

09:26 PM on 10/22/2011

Help a minority student.

mrgrayhistory.blogspot.com

This is what my students do but we're rapidly running out of cash. If you can help please contact me via the website above.

[arecibo48]

10:15 AM on 10/24/2011

Is this for disadvantaged students?

[Angie Sullivan]

02:42 PM on 10/22/2011

Are people starting to realize that taking a standardized test and answering A, B, C and D - does not an education make?

Poverty and racism are America's problems. Is it a secret that the disenfranchised don't do well, have never done well, and are unlikely to do well on tests developed by rich white people in an ivory tower far far away from the at-risk communities - like the area I live in and teach in?

[AbeMartin]

12:05 PM on 10/22/2011

Bard College President Leon Botstein, Jefferson's Children, condemned American high schools as holding tanks for bored teenagers until they can attend college.  It need not be so.  America has an enormous need for young people who have the skill sets required to build, plan, construct, create and repair, and has lost the ability to offer training opportunities for young people as the pedagogical emphasis has shifted from trade and technical education to "academic."

Many of the kids who are dropping out see no possibility at all of going to college because of costs, family obligations, or low grades.  And, even those who do go to college see a dim economic future as their degrees cannot even guarantee an entry level job in a field in which they are interested.

If the high schools, however, begin to refocus on training kids for jobs that lead directly to apprenticeships in plumbing, masonry, carpentry, welding, cooking and baking etc., that can either lead to employment or starting small businesses, they will find that many kids who find the dust dry discussion of English language writers who lived two hundred years ago and the memorization of theorems and corollaries in Geometry I, might stay in school if they could learn to use tools and do something practical rather than paying good money to take PSAT and ACT tests.

[P Alan Greene]

11:41 AM on 10/22/2011

In a country where social mobility is at an all-time low, people at the bottom the ladder already suspect that they aren't going anywhere. The notion that education unlocks a future of possibilities has taken an enormous hit.

How do you convince a poor child to stick with education as a chance to achieve something better?

[AbeMartin]

12:06 PM on 10/22/2011

You have to first convince them that they can have a future and that the promises told by their parents, teachers, preachers and politicians are true.  But they aren't.

[morganthepirate]

03:49 AM on 10/22/2011

Not suprised ! With over 50yrs. of liberal control in this country`s inner cities and teachers unions sucking the life out of those school districts. Not suprised !

[Southernthinker]

03:15 PM on 10/22/2011

Measres of US educational success is not limited to unionized states.

[Mr Anonymous]

11:47 PM on 10/23/2011

Not suprised! About your ignorance about teachers' unions and what they actually do. Not suprised!

[morganthepirate]

12:10 AM on 10/24/2011

Lib attack,Lib attack,O.K. since you lefties always like to attack before you even try to engage your brain towards the comment made,EXPLAIN

[umbrarchist]

07:52 PM on 10/21/2011

It is curious how they can talk about high school dropouts having lost wages. What about supply and demand? Won't a larger supply of high school graduates force wages for the graduates down? I am not trying to argue against them graduating just saying how curious it is that they can turn their so called capitalism on its head when they want to.

Why not make double-entry accounting mandatory in all high schools and create a National Recommended Reading List? How many kids would learn a lot if they were just told what the excellent books were?

The Accounting Game: Basic Accounting Fresh From the Lemonade Stand
http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/general/2006/10/18/foolish-book-review-quotthe-accounting-gamequot.aspx

Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, by Stan Gibilisco
http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/book-reviews/teach-yourself-electricity-and-electronics.htm

[girlking]

03:28 PM on 10/21/2011

Keep in mind people whenever an article speaks about children from "poor" families, they are speaking about poor white families. So while everyone wants to focus on failures of African-American and Latino children, the forget that poor white children are included as well.

[Ram Air 350]

04:41 PM on 10/22/2011

Girlking you are correct. However, the school dropout rate for blacks is twice the rate for whites and higher for Latino children. Less skills equates to loss opportunities, even when jobs are available. This situation leads to more poor black families, because of the high dropout rate!

[ms schatzi]

03:21 PM on 10/21/2011

How can anyone complain about inequality when they are high school drop outs and losers?

[edtastic]

10:32 PM on 10/21/2011

I suppose you feel better about supporting them through government welfare programs for the rest of their lives because that's what happens when we fail our young people. Even if we didn't have welfare they would wreak havoc having to rob, steal, and cheat to survive. We are a modern society and I think it would be better if we stopped treating our children like a disposable commodity. The difference between success and failure at this early stage determine whether or not we receive decades of return on our investment.

[robidomoore]

03:00 PM on 10/21/2011

the article pointed out one major point that needs to be drilled in to every young persons brain. The earnings gap. Childrens minds are not developed enough at these early ages let alone 18-21 year old to see that far down the road. Decisions made at these early ages are misguided and it is hard to make up ground after the damage has been done. I firmly believe if students are bombarded with signage and visual awareness every moment they step into a classroom a hallway from an early age just maybe the few dollars it costs to produce these positive infomercials might strike some sense into these skeptical minds of our youths. however these kids are being bombarded with infomercials like "I want to be just like Mike" Or the latest rap star. Show more of the reality instead of the false hope that these kids see as their role models and hope of the good life. A picture of a nice car and home in a good neighbor in conjunction with the possibility through education could not hurt. Dreaming maybe-but brainwashing in what ever direction it takes sometimes work and the positive reinforcement in a different direction could not hurt. I only must point out those Pilot Schools that work with these measures in under privileged districts. But so to is important the family,teachers, and community reinforcing these attitudes.

[elsquibbs]

02:25 PM on 10/21/2011

Is this article talking about Asians?

[Leto II]

02:42 PM on 10/21/2011

Asians and Indians! Those people just don't know how to succeed in America.

[ahearst4]

03:09 PM on 10/21/2011

That's why we see most doctors,physicians, dentists, engineers , programmers are Asians right? Asian only account for 5% of total USA population but they account for 10% of the college student body. The num

[silsez]

02:21 PM on 10/21/2011

"High School Dropout Rates For Minority And Poor Students Disproportionately High". When has this NOT been the case? I graduated high school many years ago and most of the dropouts back then were also minority and poor students.
And in other groundbreaking news, the sun will rise tomorrow, followed by the moon approximately 12 hours later.

[Eric Shin]

12:55 PM on 10/21/2011

And every student that decides to or is forced to drop out should get as a parting gift a lifetime supply of condoms so we don't face this mess again in 15 years with their kids.

[baffledinPA]

12:47 PM on 10/21/2011

This article should be on both the main and the latino pages!!!