States' Data Obscure How Few Finish High School

What if every year the equivalent of the entire population of Rhode Island dropped out of school?  That is what’s happening and it’s rarely being talked about. Every day the front page of our nation’s newspapers are filled with news about the sub-prime mortgage crisis and current state of the economy. I also may not have blogged about dropout statistics recently but this New York Times story had me thinking about the 1.2 million students who drop out yearly in America.

Think about that – 1.2 million!

That’s the equivalent of 6,000 students a day or one every 26 seconds.

The article brings troublesome news:

Many states use an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind law and a different one at home. As a result,  federal figures obscure a dropout epidemic so severe that only about 70 percent of the one million American students who start ninth grade each year graduate four years later.

We all knew there was a problem, but I don’t believe most Americans realize that it’s this big or else there would be more outrage because, as I’ve said before, this directly affects our economic competitiveness. American students are failing behind their global peers. The nation’s 15 year-olds score significantly below the international average in math and science. Out of 30 countries participating in the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment, America’s 15-year-olds ranked 25th in math and 21st in science.

The inflation of these graduation statistics is a national problem and instead of sweeping this news under the carpet, we need to roll up our sleeves and propose solutions to fix it.

We’ve launched an interactive map that shows the dropout rate for each state and also breaks down the statistics by demographics. I wanted to point out a couple statistics from the upcoming primary states.

State	Dropout Rate	Percent of Students Prepared for College
Pennsylvania	22%	41%
Indiana	29%	28%
North Carolina	34%	37%

These numbers are startling. Take a moment and get the facts today about your state.

Our sources

Comments

[Melissa]

These stats are incredibly troubling. No Child Left Behind has been preparing students to take certain tests, but where is the preparation for college? The idea that finishing high school is optional just should not be. We need to show our children a different way of thinking, and that starts with the parents and the school systems. Hopefully these stats will get people thinking and spur some action.