| 
March 24, 2005
Every year, across the country, a dangerously high
percentage of students—disproportionately poor and minority—disappear
from the educational pipeline before graduating from high school.
Nationally, only about 68% of all students who enter 9th grade will
graduate “on time” with regular diplomas in 12th grade.
While the graduation rate for white students is 75%, only approximately
half of Black, Latino, and Native American students earn regular
diplomas alongside their classmates. Graduation rates are even lower
for Black, Latino and Native American males. Yet, because of misleading
and inaccurate reporting of dropout and graduation rates, the public
remains largely unaware of this educational and civil rights crisis.
This crisis may be even less apparent
in California because, officially, the state reports a robust overall
graduation rate of 86.9%. However, this rate is based upon a flawed
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) formula that dramatically
underestimates the actual numbers of dropouts. When the more accurate
Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI—see next section) is used,
the overall graduation rate is 71% for 2002, which is slightly above
the national average. In fact, according to a recent study released
by ETS, California is one of only seven states in the country where
the overall graduation rate has improved from 1992 to 2002 (from
64% to 71%).
Nonetheless, graduation rates in individual districts and schools—particularly
those with high minority concentrations—remain at crisis level
proportions. Only 64% of all students in central city districts
graduate with regular diplomas. In racially segregated districts,
only 65% of all students graduate, and only 58% graduate in socio-economically
segregated districts. According to Professor Robert Balfanz of Johns
Hopkins University, Black and Latino students are 3 times more likely
then White students to attend a high school where graduation is
not the norm and where less than 60% of ninth graders obtain diplomas
four years later. Another independent study by Dr. Julie Mendoza
of the University of California All Campus Consortium on Research
for Diversity (UC/ACCORD) finds that in the state’s largest
district, Los Angeles, only 48% of Black and Latino students who
start 9th grade complete grade 12 four years later. The exodus of
Los Angeles youth from school is especially pronounced between grades
9 and 10, which means that they are leaving school ill prepared
for all but the most menial jobs. And, even among the Black and
Latino youth who complete high school in Los Angeles Unified School
District (LAUSD), only one in five have met the curriculum requirements
to qualify for admission to a four year public university in California.
California’s failure to graduate so many of its students
is a tragic story of wasted human potential and tremendous economic
loss. When high numbers of youth leave school ill-prepared to contribute
to our labor force and to civic life, our economy and our democracy
suffer. Life opportunities for these youth and for their offspring
are dramatically curtailed. According to Russell Rumberger, Professor
at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the 66,657 students
who were reported as dropouts from the California public schools
in the 2002-03 will cost the state $14 billion in lost wages. These
costs rise significantly when one considers that the actual number
of students who leave school without diplomas is much higher than
the estimates provided by the state. Since the greatest economic
benefits of earning a high school diploma as are realized in the
next generation, the most significant loss is to their—and
our— future.
NOTE:
The following files are available for download in PDF Format ( )
and might take a while to download. Please allow a couple of minutes
for them to appear on your screen.
To view the FULL REPORT click below:
Confronting
the Graduation Rate Crisis in California
|
