Losing Our Future: How Minority Youth are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis

By Gary Orfield , Daniel Losen, Johanna Wald and Christopher B. Swanson

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 percent 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 percent, only approximately half of Black, Hispanic , and Native American students earn regular diplomas alongside their classmates. Graduation rates are even lower for minority 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.

Recently, Congress took a first step in recognizing the severity of the dropout problem by including graduation rate accountability provisions in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), enacted in 2002. Unfortunately, the Department of Education has issued regulations that allow schools, districts, and states to all but eliminate graduation rate accountability for minority subgroups. By doing so, Department officials have rendered these accountability measures virtually meaningless..

The implications for individuals, communities, and the economic vitality of this country are far-reaching and devastating. High school dropouts are far more likely to be unemployed, in prison, and living in poverty. Many studies estimate significant losses in earnings and taxes with economic and societal effects that last generations.

Report Purpose and Methodology

Our goal in issuing this report is to raise public awareness of the issue, and to make improving high school graduation rates a more central