High school graduates and dropouts focus of new NCES report

Ω

Approximately 3 million 16- through 24-year-olds were not enrolled in high school and had not earned a high school diploma or alternative credential as of October 2008, according to a new report. These dropouts represented 8 percent of the 38 million non-institutionalized, civilian individuals in this age group living in the United States, according to Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 1972–2008.

The report, released by the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences, builds upon a series of reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It includes national and regional population estimates for the percentage of students who dropped out of high school between 2007 and 2008, the percentage of young people who were dropouts in 2008, and the percentage of young people who were not in high school and had some form of high school credential in 2008. Data are presented by a number of characteristics including race/ethnicity, sex, and age. Annual data for these population estimates are provided for the 1972-2008 period.

Other findings include:

• Of first-time freshmen in public schools four years earlier, 74.9 percent had graduated with a regular diploma by the end of the 2007-08 school year. The lowest state-level rate was Nevada’s 51.3 percent and the highest was Wisconsin’s 89.6 percent.

• About 3.5 percent of students who were enrolled in grades 10-12 in public or private high schools in October 2007 left school before October 2008 without completing a high school program. While there have been fluctuations in the rate since 1990, the 2008 rate is not measurably different from the 1990 rate.

• The percentage of 16- through 24-year olds who were not enrolled in high school and who lacked a high school credential varied by race and ethnicity in 2008. The rate for Hispanics (18.3 percent) was the highest followed by the rate for Blacks (9.9 percent). Rates for Whites (4.8 percent), Asian/Pacific Islanders (4.4 percent), and persons of two or more races (4.2 percent) were the lowest among racial/ethnic groups.