Understanding and Addressing the Issue of the High School Dropout Age
Background Information
Statistics on the economic disparity between those who have completed high school and those who have dropped out, and the related social implications of this disparity, are troubling. In 2000, an estimated 11 percent of 16- through 24-year-olds who were not enrolled in a high school program had neither a high school diploma nor an equivalent credential (U.S. GAO, 2002). In 1993, more than 12 million people 18 years or older possessed less than a ninth-grade education (National Dropout Prevention Network, 2000). High school graduates earn an average of $6,415 more per year than those who drop out. In 1998, 28.2 percent of youths in the labor force who had dropped out of school in the previous 12 months were unemployed. In comparison, the unemployment rate of 1998 high school graduates who were not enrolled in college was much lower at 18.4 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1999). A National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) study found that in 1994, high school dropouts were more than twice as likely to receive public assistance as high school graduates who did not go on to college—14 percent compared to 6 percent (Smith et al., 1996). High school dropouts also comprise a disproportionate share of the nation's prisons and death row inmates (U.S. GAO, 2002). Eighty percent of prisoners in America are high school dropouts, according to the National Dropout Prevention Network (2000) study of Dropout Statistics.
Dropouts also drain the economy of much needed revenue. In fact, each year's class of dropouts will cost the country over $200 billion dollars during their lifetimes in lost earnings and unrealized tax revenue (Catterall, 1985). For example, in Texas, between the 1985–86 and 2001–02 school years, the estimated cumulative costs of public school dropouts were in excess of $488 billion in forgone income, lost tax revenue, increased job training, welfare, unemployment, and payments to the criminal justice system (Johnson, 2001). Dropouts account for almost half of the heads of households on welfare (Schwartz, 1995).
"The loss of taxes, loss of production and the cost of assistance provided to dropouts make the problem of high school non-completion an issue for every taxpayer" (Hale, 1998). Students classified as at-risk candidates for dropping out of high school frequently have no form of health insurance. Research has indicated that dropouts are more likely to have health problems, engage in criminal activities, and become dependent on welfare and other government-related programs than high school graduates (Rumberger, 1987).
NCES, the primary federal resource for U.S. dropout data, reports that national dropout rates varied slightly between 1990 and 2000. Within this 10-year span, the number of students who had not received a high school diploma or an equivalency certificate fluctuated between 10.9 and 12.5 percent nationally (U.S. GAO, 2002).
| High School Graduation Rates for Midwestern States - 1999–2000 | ||
|---|---|---|
| State | National Rank | Percent of Ninth Graders Who Graduated in Four Years |
| Minnesota | 5 | 83.7% |
| Iowa | 6 | 83.0% |
| Wisconsin | 9 | 76.9% |
| Illinois | 25 | 71.1% |
| Ohio | 28 | 69.6% |
| Indiana | 32 | 68.1% |
| Michigan | 35 | 64.8% |
| (Kaufmann, Kwon, Klein, & Chapman, 2000) | ||
Dropout rates varied considerably by race over this period: whites, 8 percent; blacks, 13 percent; and Hispanics 29 percent (Kaufmann, Alt, & Chapman, 2001). This disparity reported by NCES is alarming, but establishing the exact degree of difference in dropout rates among minority groups is difficult because methods and classifications vary considerably among states and regions of the country.
Nevertheless, one of the most challenging issues facing the educational community is the existence of gaps and differences in dropout rates between ethnic and minority groups. Child poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are more than twice as high as poverty rates for whites (Kaufmann et al., 2000). Dr. Susan Mayer (1991), in her research study that analyzed the differences in dropout rates between whites and minority students, concluded that dropout rates would be reduced if racial minority groups attended schools where racial and socioeconomic compositions were similar. "Indeed, the family, school, and community condition for racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. are generally much worse than for the white majority" (Rumberger, 2001, pp. 18-19).
Graduation rates vary among ethnic groups and by socioeconomic status. The high school graduation rate for black students in 1999 was 72.9 percent, which is 3.9 points below the national average of 76.8 percent. Graduation rates for white students and for Hispanics were 82 percent and 54.9 percent, respectively (Bonsteel, 2001). For the year 2000, NCES reported the dropout rate for Asian/Pacific Islander students was lower than it was for students from all other racial and ethnic backgrounds. The rate for Asian/Pacific Islanders was 3.8 percent, compared with 27.8 percent for Hispanics, 13.1 percent for blacks, and 6.9 percent for whites (Kaufmann et al., 2001).
The dropout rate for white students in 2000 remained lower than the rate for black students, but since 1970 the difference in rates for whites and blacks has narrowed (Kaufmann et al., 2001). It is important to note that the narrowing of this gap occurred during the 1970s and 1980s. Since 1990, the gap has remained fairly constant (Kaufmann et al., 2001). According to the National Dropout Prevention Network (2000), black students are still twice as likely to drop out of school as white students.
Hispanics make up a disproportionate share of the country's student dropouts. Hispanic students have significantly higher dropout rates: 30 percent of Hispanic young adults are classified as dropouts, compared to 8.6 percent for non-Hispanics whites, and 12.1 percent for non-Hispanic blacks. The dropout rate for Hispanics born outside the United States is much higher than for Hispanics born in the United States in 2000 (44.2 percent versus 15.2 percent). Hispanics represented nearly 16 percent of all 16- to 19-year-olds in 2000, regardless of educational background, which is up from 11 percent in 1990 (Associated Press, 2002).
