Since the enactment of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, high school graduation rates have gained an increasingly important place in educational policy. For the first time, federal law requires that high schools and school districts be held accountable for graduation rates.
Researchers disagree about how many students graduate from America’s high schools. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the high school graduation rate in 2000 was 86%. This number, however, includes students who earn equivalency diplomas. Alternative calculations, which exclude students with a GED, place the graduation rate at around 71%. Regardless of which is closer to reality, both implicate a crisis. According to research conducted by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, between the 9th and 12th grades more than 1 million students will leave school without earning a diploma.
Disaggregated data reveal that high schools do a poorer job serving African American and Latino students than white students. National statistics show the graduation rate for white students is 72% whereas Latino and African American students have just better than a 50-50 chance of completing high school.
As recently as a few decades ago, a high school diploma was a sufficient credential for most low-skill, family-wage jobs. But today, the diploma has declining purchase power; young people need high skills and postsecondary education to succeed. Students who do not graduate from high school are at the greatest risk for a lifetime of low-wage jobs and high rates of unemployment. This not only has personal costs for them, but also has long-term consequences for the nation’s economic future.
|
