Special Report
Equity & Diversity

As Graduation Rates Rise, Focus Shifts to Dropouts

By The Editors — May 31, 2013 | Corrected: February 21, 2019 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Corrected: An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect statistic for the share of returning dropouts who later attained a high school diploma in a study of San Bernardino, Calif., youth. Fewer than one in five of those dropouts went on to get a diploma.

First, comes the good news: The nation’s high school graduation rate is at its highest point since the 1970s.

According to the newest calculation by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, the graduation rate for the class of 2010 (the most recent year for which data are available) stands at nearly 75 percent. That’s an improvement of nearly 2 percentage points from the previous year and about 8 points in the past decade. At that pace of improvement, the center projects, the percent of students earning a diploma on time could surpass the historical high of 77.1 percent within a few years.

The sobering news is that, despite this upbeat trend, the glass remains partly empty. Many students—roughly 1 million a year—leave high school without a diploma. Education Week‘s Diplomas Count 2013 focuses on these students—a group for whom the prospect of landing a good-paying job or earning a postsecondary credential is likely to be dim. While much attention has gone to identifying teenagers who are at risk of dropping out and finding ways to keep them in school, comparatively fewer efforts have been expended on bringing back the students who have already left.

The recent economic downturn, however, may have helped catalyze new interest in these youths. As one researcher notes in the report, before the recession, “it was believed that there were still places in the economy they could go. We know now that isn’t the case.”

Nonprofit groups, for-profit ventures, school districts, and some states have created or ramped up dropout-recovery programs.

It isn’t easy work. Longitudinal research in San Bernardino, Calif., found that 30 percent of the school system’s dropouts returned at least once to their high schools—but fewer than one in five dropouts managed to get a diploma in the time frame of the study.

The new attention to dropout recovery also comes as a major path to a second chance at a high school credential—the General Educational Development test battery—is undergoing a transformation. The revised and computerized version makes its debut in January, and it’s unclear how the changes will affect the educational trajectories of this difficult-to-teach population.

The other good news in this year’s statistical analysis is that the improvements in graduation rates cut across demographic groups. In fact, much of the nation’s progress since 2000 has been driven by historically disadvantaged groups.

Graduation rates for Latinos, the subject of last year’s Diplomas Count, have risen 16 percentage points over the past decade, reaching 68 percent for the class of 2010. Rates for black students, now at 62 percent, have risen 13 points. Native American students may be the exception: Despite a 3-percentage-point improvement since 2000, their graduation rate declined in three of the past five years.

Board of Trustees, Editorial Projects in Education

Larry Berger, chief executive officer, Wireless Generation Inc. • Gina Burkhardt, executive vice president, American Institutes for Research • Chris Curran, co-founder and managing partner, Education Growth Partners • Virginia B. Edwards, president and editor-in-chief, EPE and Education Week (ex officio) • Francesca Forzani, associate director, TeachingWorks • Mike Lawrence, executive vice president and chief reputation officer, Cone Communications • Barbara Newton, president, Sunset Publishing • Jim Sexton, vice president digital, B.A.S.S. • Lester Strong, chief executive officer, Experience Corps • Marla Ucelli-Kashyap, assistant to the president for educational issues, American Federation of Teachers • Jerry Weast, founder and chief executive officer, Partnership for Deliberate Excellence • Ronald A. Wolk, chair emeritus (ex officio) • Jessie Woolley-Wilson, chief executive officer and president, DreamBox Learning
A version of this article appeared in the June 06, 2013 edition of Education Week as Making Progress and Trying Again

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
(Re)Focus on Dyslexia: Moving Beyond Diagnosis & Toward Transformation
Move beyond dyslexia diagnoses & focus on effective literacy instruction for ALL students. Join us to learn research-based strategies that benefit learners in PreK-8.
Content provided by EPS Learning
Classroom Technology Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: Is AI Out to Take Your Job or Help You Do It Better?
With all of the uncertainty K-12 educators have around what AI means might mean for the future, how can the field best prepare young people for an AI-powered future?
Special Education K-12 Essentials Forum Understanding Learning Differences
Join this free virtual event for insights that will help educators better understand and support students with learning differences.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Equity & Diversity Here's How Many High Schoolers Are Transgender—and How They're Faring in Schools
For the first time, national data show how many high school students identify as transgender or gender-questioning.
6 min read
Demonstrators advocating for transgender rights and healthcare stand outside of the Ohio Statehouse on Jan. 24, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. Republican states are filing a barrage of legal challenges against the Biden administration's newly expanded campus sexual assault rules, saying they overstep the president's authority and undermine the Title IX anti-discrimination law.
Demonstrators advocating for transgender rights and healthcare stand outside of the Ohio Statehouse on Jan. 24, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. Roughly 3 percent of high school students identify as transgender, and they face high levels of bullying and hopelessness, according to new data.
Patrick Orsagos/AP
Equity & Diversity Why It's Important to Recruit More School Counselors of Color
Many students of color say they want to talk to someone who looks like them.
5 min read
School social worker Melva Mullins embraces a student in her office at Garnet-Patterson S.T.A.Y. High School in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 27, 2024, after the student confided in Mullins about some heavy topics.
School social worker Melva Mullins embraces a student in her office at Garnet-Patterson S.T.A.Y. High School in the District of Columbia on Sept. 27, 2024, after the student confided in Mullins about some heavy topics.
Maansi Srivastava for Education Week
Equity & Diversity What Works to Help Students of Color Feel Like They Belong at School
New research focuses on how ethnic studies classes and local partnerships can help students of all races feel they belong in school.
5 min read
Group of diverse people (aerial view) in a circle holding hands. Cooperation and teamwork. Community of friends, students, or volunteers committed to social issues for peace and the environment.
iStock/Getty Images Plus
Equity & Diversity It's Banned Books Week. Have the Challenges to Books Slowed Down?
Attempts to ban books in public schools are still prevalent, according to two new reports.
5 min read
Image of a bookshelf.
Luoman/E+