Stats That Stick: June 13, 2012

Time for those Stats That Stick! Here are a few of the statistics we’ve seen in the past week that deserve your attention!

High school graduation rate of the class of 2009: 73 percent.

U.S. News and World Report examines Education Week’s  “Diplomas Count2012,” which was released last week. This edition of the annual report focuses on the achievement of Latino students. From 2008 to 2009, Latino graduation rates increased by 5.5 percent, which helped to spur a 1.7 percent increase in the overall national graduation rate.

Average annual salary of someone with a high school diploma and a postsecondary certificate: $34,496.

A study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce released last week said that on average, those with certificates earn about 20 percent more than those with just high school diplomas. The Huffington Post has the details.

Grade given to “The Gettysburg Address” when graded by computers, on a 1-6 scale: 2-3.

NPR has an interesting story on computer-graded essays that boils down to computers being able to score essays quickly but not well. Although arguments in favor of computer-graded writing assessments include speed and consistency, there appear to be a number of kinks still to be worked out with this technology.

Age of the oldest student to graduate high school last week (that we know of): 97.

In what is just a heartwarming story, The Huffington Post tells us about Ann Colagiovanni, the 97-year-old woman who graduated from Shaker Heights High School in suburban Cleveland last week. Ms. Colagiovanni dropped out during the Great Depression. Her daughter Emilia noted, “When I told her she was getting a diploma, she sobbed as if a pain had been relieved from her heart.” Dropouts, take note: it’s never too late to go back.

That’s all we have for you today! Stop back tomorrow for even more Announcements!