Do we really understand the impact of HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS?????

HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS COSTLY FOR AMERICA   MAY '10
Dropouts cost taxpayers more than $8 billion annually in public assistance programs like food stamps. High school dropouts earn about $10 thousand less a year than workers with diplomas. That's $300 billion in lost earnings every year. They're more likely to be unemployed: 15 percent are out of work versus a national average of 9.4 percent. They also are more likely to be incarcerated. Almost 60 percent of federal inmates are high school drop outs.

OBAMA TAKES AIM AT SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES   MAR '10
President Obama pledged today to tackle the dropout rate of American high school students, calling it an economic imperative if the United States intends to remain competitive in the global society.

DROPOUT RATES - FAST FACTS   2010
The status dropout rate represents the percentage of 16- through 24-year-olds who are not enrolled in school and have not earned a high school credential (either a diploma or an equivalency credential such as a General Educational Development [GED] certificate).   The status dropout rate declined from 14 percent in 1980 to 8 percent in 2008. A significant part of this decline occurred between 2000 and 2008 (from 11 percent to 8 percent). Status dropout rates and changes in these rates over time differed by race/ethnicity. In general, the status dropout rates for Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics each declined between 1980 and 2008. However, in each year during that period, the status dropout rate was lower for Whites and Blacks than for Hispanics. In addition, the rate for Asians/Pacific Islanders was lower than that for Hispanics and Blacks every year between 1989 and 2008. Although the gaps between the rates of Blacks and Whites, Hispanics and Whites, and Hispanics and Blacks have decreased, the decreases occurred in different time periods. The Black-White gap narrowed during the 1980s, with no measurable change between 1990 and 2008. In contrast, the Hispanic-White and Hispanic-Black gaps narrowed between 1990 and 2008, with no measurable change in the gaps during the 1980s.

High School Dropouts in America  FEB. '09

Over a million of the students who enter ninth grade each fall fail to graduate with their peers four years later. In fact, about seven thousand students drop out every school day.

HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS   JAN. '07

High school dropouts are three times as likely to slip into poverty as those who finish high school from one year to the next; they make up nearly half of the heads of households receiving public assistance.

THE SILENT EPIDEMIC - PERSPECTIVES OF HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS   MAR. '06
There is a high school dropout epidemic in America. Each year, almost one third of all public high school students – and nearly one half of all blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans – fail to graduate from public high school with their class. Many of these students abandon school with less than two years to complete their high school education.

HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES   MAR. '96
The news media and others often quote high school dropout rates as an indication of the success or failure of American schools. However, the rates quoted may differ significantly from time to time or from one publication to another. Why is this? What is the true dropout rate?   The answer is not as clear as one might want: there are different definitions of what it means to graduate from high school and there are wide differences in who is counted as a dropout. In addition, there are a number of ways the student dropout rate can be calculated.