A Dropout Epidemic

A DROPOUT EPIDEMIC Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut DC Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana lowa Kansas 100% Here in the United States, a kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. Over the course of a 50% year, it adds up to 1.2 million students. Recently, when the National Center for Education Statistics issued a report examining graduation rates, or lack thereof, Education Secretary Arne Duncan didn't mince words: "When 25 percent of our students-and almost 40 percent of our black and Hispanic students-fail to graduate high school on time, we know that too many of our schools are failing to offer their students a world-class education." To further complicate matters, Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce recently reported 0% %= 30.9% 29.3% 23.6% 28.8% 24.6% 17.8% 44% 33.1% 34.6% 24% 19.9% 19.6% 25.9% 13.6% 20.9% that education after high school is increasingly becoming a prerequisite to generate enough income to qualify for the middle class. And as demand for workers with college degrees continues to intensify, those that failed to secure a high school diploma will be left at a lifelong Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota 100% disadvantage. Here, a look at who, exactly, is dropping out. Maybe think of it as the beginning of a conversation in terms of what we, as a nation, will do about it. Please note: Delaware, Maine, Nevada, and South Carolina are not 50% included because the states did not report diploma count by race/ethnicity. 0% 25.6% 36.5% 19.6% 18.5% 23.7% 13.6% 36.1% 17.6% 18% 16.2% 16.6% 15.4% 33.2% 29.2% 21.2% 16.2% Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate Averaged Non-graduates State-wide Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming 100% Native American/Alaska Native Asian/Pacific Islander Hispanic Black 50% White A collaboration between GOOD and Design Language in partnership with University of Phoenix 0% 21% 22% 23.3% 17.3% 23.6% 15.6% 25.1% 26.9% 25.7% 10.7% 23% 28:1% 22.7% 10.4% 24% Source: "Public School Graduates and Dropouts From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2007-08," National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.