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High School Graduation Rates Plummet Below 50 Percent in Some U.S. Cities
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
WASHINGTON - Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school
graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates
reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report
released Tuesday.
The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of
the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities
receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were
more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high
schools, the researchers said.
Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a
regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually.
"When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more
than a problem, it's a catastrophe," said former Secretary of State Colin
Powell, founding chair of the alliance.
His wife, Alma Powell, the chair of the alliance, said students need to
graduate with skills that will help them in higher education and beyond. "We
must invest in the whole child, and that means finding solutions that
involve the family, the school and the community." The Powell's organization
was beginning a national campaign to cut high school dropout rates.
The group, joining Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at a Tuesday news
conference, was announcing plans to hold summits in every state during the
next two years on ways to better prepare students for college and the work
force.
The report found troubling data on the prospects of urban public high school
students getting to college. In Detroit's public schools, 24.9 percent of
the students graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in
Indianapolis Public Schools and 34.1 percent received diplomas in the
Cleveland Municipal City School District.
Researchers analyzed school district data from 2003-2004 collected by the
U.S. Department of Education. To calculate graduation rates, the report
estimated the likelihood that a 9th grader would complete high school on
time with a regular diploma. Researchers used school enrollment and diploma
data, but did not use data on dropouts as part of its calculation.
Many metropolitan areas also showed a considerable gap in the graduation
rates between their inner-city schools and the surrounding suburbs.
Researchers found, for example, that 81.5 percent of the public school
students in Baltimore's suburbs graduate, compared with 34.6 percent in the
city schools.
In Ohio, nearly 83 percent of public high school students in suburban
Columbus graduate while 78.1 percent in suburban Cleveland earn their
diplomas, well above their local city schools.
Ohio Department of Education spokesman Scott Blake said the state delays its
estimates by a few months so it can include summer graduates in its
calculations. Based on the state's methodology, he said Columbus graduated
60.6 percent of its students in 2003-2004, rather than the 40.9 percent the
study calculated.
By Ohio's reckoning, Columbus has improved each year since the 2001-2002
school year, with 72.9 percent of students graduating in 2005-2006, Columbus
Public Schools spokesman Jeff Warner said.
Warner said the gains were partly because of after-school and weekend
tutoring, coordinated literacy programs in the district's elementary schools
and bolstered English-as-a-second-language programs.
Cleveland's current graduation rates are also higher than the statistics
cited in the new report, school district spokesman Ben Holbert said.
Spellings has called for requiring states to provide graduation data in a
more uniform way under the renewal of the No Child Left Behind education law
pending in Congress.
Under the 2002 law, schools that miss progress goals face increasing
sanctions, including forced use of federal money for private tutoring,
easing student transfers, and restructuring of school staff.
States calculate their graduation rates using all sorts of methods, many of
which critics say are based on unreliable information about school dropouts.
Under No Child Left Behind, states may use their own methods of calculating
graduation rates and set their own goals for improving them.
The research was conducted by Editorial Projects in Education, a Bethesda,
Md., nonprofit organization, with support from America's Promise Alliance
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The alliance is based on a joint effort of nonprofit groups, corporations,
community leaders, charities, faith-based organizations and individuals to
improve children's lives.
High School Graduation Rates Plummet Below 50 Percent in Some U.S. Cities
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
WASHINGTON - Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school
graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates
reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report
released Tuesday.
The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of
the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities
receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were
more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high
schools, the researchers said.
Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a
regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually.
"When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more
than a problem, it's a catastrophe," said former Secretary of State Colin
Powell, founding chair of the alliance.
His wife, Alma Powell, the chair of the alliance, said students need to
graduate with skills that will help them in higher education and beyond. "We
must invest in the whole child, and that means finding solutions that
involve the family, the school and the community." The Powell's organization
was beginning a national campaign to cut high school dropout rates.
The group, joining Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at a Tuesday news
conference, was announcing plans to hold summits in every state during the
next two years on ways to better prepare students for college and the work
force.
The report found troubling data on the prospects of urban public high school
students getting to college. In Detroit's public schools, 24.9 percent of
the students graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in
Indianapolis Public Schools and 34.1 percent received diplomas in the
Cleveland Municipal City School District.
Researchers analyzed school district data from 2003-2004 collected by the
U.S. Department of Education. To calculate graduation rates, the report
estimated the likelihood that a 9th grader would complete high school on
time with a regular diploma. Researchers used school enrollment and diploma
data, but did not use data on dropouts as part of its calculation.
Many metropolitan areas also showed a considerable gap in the graduation
rates between their inner-city schools and the surrounding suburbs.
Researchers found, for example, that 81.5 percent of the public school
students in Baltimore's suburbs graduate, compared with 34.6 percent in the
city schools.
In Ohio, nearly 83 percent of public high school students in suburban
Columbus graduate while 78.1 percent in suburban Cleveland earn their
diplomas, well above their local city schools.
Ohio Department of Education spokesman Scott Blake said the state delays its
estimates by a few months so it can include summer graduates in its
calculations. Based on the state's methodology, he said Columbus graduated
60.6 percent of its students in 2003-2004, rather than the 40.9 percent the
study calculated.
By Ohio's reckoning, Columbus has improved each year since the 2001-2002
school year, with 72.9 percent of students graduating in 2005-2006, Columbus
Public Schools spokesman Jeff Warner said.
Warner said the gains were partly because of after-school and weekend
tutoring, coordinated literacy programs in the district's elementary schools
and bolstered English-as-a-second-language programs.
Cleveland's current graduation rates are also higher than the statistics
cited in the new report, school district spokesman Ben Holbert said.
Spellings has called for requiring states to provide graduation data in a
more uniform way under the renewal of the No Child Left Behind education law
pending in Congress.
Under the 2002 law, schools that miss progress goals face increasing
sanctions, including forced use of federal money for private tutoring,
easing student transfers, and restructuring of school staff.
States calculate their graduation rates using all sorts of methods, many of
which critics say are based on unreliable information about school dropouts.
Under No Child Left Behind, states may use their own methods of calculating
graduation rates and set their own goals for improving them.
The research was conducted by Editorial Projects in Education, a Bethesda,
Md., nonprofit organization, with support from America's Promise Alliance
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The alliance is based on a joint effort of nonprofit groups, corporations,
community leaders, charities, faith-based organizations and individuals to
improve children's lives.
