High School Dropout Rate
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"Jerry Okamura" okamuraj...@hawaii.rr.com
A couple of months ago, in one of my local newspapers, they said that the high school dropout rate was 70%. I don't know if that is high or low, since I went to a dependent school in Japan, and most of my cl***mates did not spend the whole 4 years in that high school because their fathers tour of duty was only 18 months. So, the question I have is, do you remember if the drop out rate in your high school was around that number.
Sir Frederick mmcne...@fuzzysys.com
When I went to high school (fifties, Tucson), dropping out was anti-social, so it was never discussed. Under five percent I guess.
"Jake" jcbepst...@yahoo.co.uk
Jerry Okamura a ?©crit : You got your numbers switched around somehow. A dropout rate of 70% is anywhere nearly correct even in the worse highschool of the nation.
The web has a lot of information on this, and the government also publishes statistics on this. One problem is confusing dropout rate and completion rate, the latter being those who eventually get a high school diploma but who may have dropped out.
One slightly dated source of information for the year 2000 is http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/droppub_2001/Figs.asp The historical figures give a rough idea of the evolution of the figures.
But one figure to keep in one's head is that the HS completion rate is over 80%. Higher for girls than boys along Whites, Blacks and Hispanics.
The boy rate for Hispanics in recent years has gone below 50%.
Black competion rates are overall around 80% now, Hispanic overall around 60%. The Blacks are catching up but the Hispanics are not, possibly due to illegals coming in and their children only going into the education system briefly. Or they are too far behind to catch up.
Family cultures play a big role in determining how important education is.
This site gives the overall completion rate in the 85-86% range in 2000 while the overall dropouts should be the remainder but is given as about 11%. That rate has fallen from around 15% in 1972, so things are "getting better".
If you go on to college statistics, 58% of the students are now women, male rates have been falling except for higher degrees.
Girls of all the groups are working harder than to get somewhere in education than the boys. This is never talked much about.
Glenn mino...@NOSPAM.yahoo.com
Cl*** size was a little over fifty. One didn't make it because of heart disease and died soon after because welfare was too cheap to pay for the operation, two fell back one grade but graduated, one girl got pregnant and wasn't allowed to graduate in that condition, and two girls and one boy decided Texas sounded like more fun than Graduation.
--
Glenn
"AndyS" andysha...@juno.com
Andy writes I don't think anyone in my high school cl*** ( rural N C ) dropped out.
it was unheard of. Some with learning problems went to special schools, and some were held back a grade or two, but "dropping out" didn't happen. To us that was something that happened in big cities among juvenile delinquents....
Andy
"Golden State Poppy" GoldenStatePo...@aol.com
To me the most interesting statistic is the Hispanic dropout rate which is much higher than any other group. This does not speak well for the future as we become increasingly Hispanic.
However, it was encouraging to note that all other groups had close to 90% completion rates.
"Jerry Okamura" okamuraj...@hawaii.rr.com
You got your numbers switched around somehow. A dropout rate of 70% is anywhere nearly correct even in the worse highschool of the nation.
The web has a lot of information on this, and the government also publishes statistics on this. One problem is confusing dropout rate and completion rate, the latter being those who eventually get a high school diploma but who may have dropped out.
One slightly dated source of information for the year 2000 is http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/droppub_2001/Figs.asp Thanks, that will be a good place to start my education on the matter.
The historical figures give a rough idea of the evolution of the figures.
But one figure to keep in one's head is that the HS completion rate is over 80%. Higher for girls than boys along Whites, Blacks and Hispanics.
The boy rate for Hispanics in recent years has gone below 50%.
Black competion rates are overall around 80% now, Hispanic overall around 60%. The Blacks are catching up but the Hispanics are not, possibly due to illegals coming in and their children only going into the education system briefly. Or they are too far behind to catch up.
Family cultures play a big role in determining how important education is.
Good points. I guess I don't remember if the article used the word dropout rate or high school completion rate.... But you data still supports one of my arguments. Even a HS completion of 80% does not seem to be a number I would pound my chest over. If it were in the 90's, I would, but not 80%, because that means, 20% did not, and that 20% is going to most likely be suffering from our failures for the rest of their life.
This site gives the overall completion rate in the 85-86% range in 2000 while the overall dropouts should be the remainder but is given as about 11%. That rate has fallen from around 15% in 1972, so things are "getting better".
That is good news..
"Jerry Okamura" okamuraj...@hawaii.rr.com
Which goes to show that statistics alone does not necessarily give you a complete picture.... Good points....
"Jerry Okamura" okamuraj...@hawaii.rr.com
Four out of fifty graduated, so a little over 90% made it in four years.
But, since we do not know what happened to the one girl who got pregnant, and we do not know what eventually happened to the two girls and one boy who decided Texas sounded like more fun, the odds are at least one or more, eventually saw the light and did complete high school, we just don't know for sure....
"Jerry Okamura" okamuraj...@hawaii.rr.com
That is pretty impressive....
"Jerry Okamura" okamuraj...@hawaii.rr.com
I wonder what the dropout rate in your old school is today? If it has not changed much, then I guess that means the community is doine something right.
"Jerry Okamura" okamuraj...@hawaii.rr.com
Thanks. What I am trying to figure out is if things have changed, and I think the answer as a result of all of your answers is, something has changed. Now I have to figure out why that changed occurred, and what can be done about it, if anything....
...
"AndyS" andysha...@juno.com
Andy comments: Well, I was in the Cl*** of 63 and all the teachers and staff have gone to their deserved rewards. I heard that it changed from a high school to an elementary school a long time ago..... I went to the 25 year reunion, but haven't had an inclination to go to the subsequent ones...
Andy
"Jake" jcbepst...@yahoo.co.uk
Jerry Okamura a ?©crit : Personally I don't remembere any drops outs in 1950, but we did not pay much attention to it at the time. I went to a lower middle cl*** high school and so there must have been those who left at 16 to go to work.
Nationawide, the white drop out in 1960 was around 50%, much larger than people imagine now The most recent stats are 2004, which can be gotten from the Statistical Abstracts of the United States; http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract.html.
These go back to 1960.
The gender gap is less now than I had indicated Those with a high school diploma (or more) Table 215 2004 Whites Blacks Asian Hispanic Male 85.3 80.4 88.7 57.3 Female 86.3 80.8 85.0 59.5 I would ***ume that the Asian gap are influenced by a culture which pushes boys more academically than girls.
Going back to 1990 the figures were Whites Blacks Asian Hispanic Male 79.1 65.8 84.0 50.3 Female 79.0 66.5 77.2 51.3 An enormous improvement has occurred in the black population between 1970 when the diploma rates were only 30%. Even with the white population the rate was just above 40% in 1960. So the dropout figures where high in our youths even among Whites.
As for college graduates (all degrees), white men and women rates are now 30.0 and 26.4% respectively in 2004, up from 25.3 and 19% in 1990. For blacks the figures are 16.6 and 18.5% in 2004, up from 11.9 and 10.8% in 1990. Asians are 53.9 and 45.6% in 2004 up from 44.9 and 35.4% in 1990. For Hispanics the figures are 11.8 and 12.3% in 2004, up from 9.8% and 8.7%, in 1990. These figures indicate that the improvement for Blacks has been spectacular, black women now are where white women were in 1990. Similar improvements occur in many health statistics and longevity with most moving forward.
I think this presents a mostly optimistic view for the future. The Hispanic figures are the most complicated. The Cuban Hispanics have a much different picture, some came from middle and upper cl*** backgrounds so their education statistics look better (I have not shown them, that is from memory). But those coming across the border from Mexico are not from the same cl***, they are poor and that creates a problem in education. They also are constantly being added to in the states which is less true for the Amercan Blacks and Cuban Hispanics.
The above reference also gives tables on kids having serious problems with English (about 20%). There both the Hispanics and the Asians have a problem but the "Asians" are a broad category, so one would have to subdivide them to find which groups have the problem. Still the Asians have the highest completion rate and do well in the diploma area. So they overcome their handicap. Why is another problem.
Glenn mino...@NOSPAM.yahoo.com
My fiftieth is this August and melancholy is an apt description. Life wasn't easy for any and ours was a fatalistic generation which found relief mostly through corrupt behavior. The Watson's and Eisenhower's retired to be replaced by the Lay's and the Nixon's.
--
Glenn
"Jerry Okamura" okamuraj...@hawaii.rr.com
Personally I don't remembere any drops outs in 1950, but we did not pay much attention to it at the time. I went to a lower middle cl*** high school and so there must have been those who left at 16 to go to work.
Nationawide, the white drop out in 1960 was around 50%, much larger than people imagine now The most recent stats are 2004, which can be gotten from the Statistical Abstracts of the United States; http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract.html.
These go back to 1960.
The gender gap is less now than I had indicated Those with a high school diploma (or more) Table 215 2004 Whites Blacks Asian Hispanic Male 85.3 80.4 88.7 57.3 Female 86.3 80.8 85.0 59.5 I would ***ume that the Asian gap are influenced by a culture which pushes boys more academically than girls.
Going back to 1990 the figures were Whites Blacks Asian Hispanic Male 79.1 65.8 84.0 50.3 Female 79.0 66.5 77.2 51.3 An enormous improvement has occurred in the black population between 1970 when the diploma rates were only 30%. Even with the white population the rate was just above 40% in 1960. So the dropout figures where high in our youths even among Whites.
As for college graduates (all degrees), white men and women rates are now 30.0 and 26.4% respectively in 2004, up from 25.3 and 19% in 1990. For blacks the figures are 16.6 and 18.5% in 2004, up from 11.9 and 10.8% in 1990. Asians are 53.9 and 45.6% in 2004 up from 44.9 and 35.4% in 1990. For Hispanics the figures are 11.8 and 12.3% in 2004, up from 9.8% and 8.7%, in 1990. These figures indicate that the improvement for Blacks has been spectacular, black women now are where white women were in 1990. Similar improvements occur in many health statistics and longevity with most moving forward.
I think this presents a mostly optimistic view for the future. The Hispanic figures are the most complicated. The Cuban Hispanics have a much different picture, some came from middle and upper cl*** backgrounds so their education statistics look better (I have not shown them, that is from memory). But those coming across the border from Mexico are not from the same cl***, they are poor and that creates a problem in education. They also are constantly being added to in the states which is less true for the Amercan Blacks and Cuban Hispanics.
The above reference also gives tables on kids having serious problems with English (about 20%). There both the Hispanics and the Asians have a problem but the "Asians" are a broad category, so one would have to subdivide them to find which groups have the problem. Still the Asians have the highest completion rate and do well in the diploma area. So they overcome their handicap. Why is another problem.
Thanks for the reference. Printed it out so I can look at the data a little more closely. The one statistic that I think is very useful is the average income based on educational attainment...
Earl Evleth evl...@wanadoo.fr
The Statistical Abstracts of the United States is a collection of statistics from various (usually US) sources. The book itself is not super expensive, maybe $40 and is easier to go through than the web available down loads.
Unfortunately none of these statistics have analysis of what they mean! Numbers alone, as you wrote somewhere, are not enough.
"Jake" jcbepst...@yahoo.co.uk
Earl Evleth a ?©crit :
"rick++" rick...@hotmail.com
Theres been a controversary about how these numbers are counted.
One eye-opening study in Denver counted the number of 8th graders in 1999 around 5600, But only 1900 diplomas were granted to the same cohort in 2004 for a graduation rate of 34%. However the official droppout rate was 27%. The school administration would only count known reasons for not coming to school, but mark other reasons like transferring to an alternative program for others. I recall seeing a similiar study in Houston. The establishment has a vested interest in fudging numbers. There is one rapidly increasing ethnic group that values getting out into workforce as early as possible over an education.
Urban school systems are in a tight spot between a president who has p***ed a lot of education legislation and changing social trends.
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