Graduation and Dropout Rates
Prioritizing the Nation’s Lowest-Performing Schools 
Issue Brief
April 12, 2010
Noting that the nation is in the midst of a dropout crisis that will cost more than $3 trillion in lost wages over the lifetime of the 12 million students projected to drop out over the next decade, Prioritizing the Nation's Lowest-Performing High Schools calls on federal policymakers to perform "legislative triage" by devoting attention to the lowest-performing high schools and immediately improving or replacing the most severely "injured" schools. It points out that the nation’s lowest-performing high schools may be diverse in size and geographic location, but most all of these schools disproportionally serve low-income students and students of color.
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The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools Policy Brief
September 1, 2009
If the high school students who dropped out of the Class of 2009 had graduated, the nation’s economy would have benefited from nearly $335 billion in additional income over the course of their lifetimes, so says a new issue brief, The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools, from the Alliance for Excellent Education.
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Every Student Counts: The Role of Federal Policy in Improving Graduation Rate Accountability Policy Brief
March 16, 2009
As the poor performance of U.S. high schools has been acknowledged and come to the forefront of education policy debates over the past several years, so too has a recognition of the need to improve graduation rate calculations and accountability for increasing those rates. A range of state, national, and federal efforts have been launched toward this end—many of which were codified in the October 2008 federal regulations on Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This brief, Every Student Counts: The Role of Federal Policy in Improving Graduation Rate Accountability, provides background information on the movement toward better data collection, common graduation rate calculations, and meaningful accountability for raising graduation rates and describes in detail the culminating federal policy changes made by the regulations, which reflect both the significant progress that has been made and the hurdles that remain.
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Federal High School Graduation Rate Policies and the Impact on States
March 2009
For too long, inaccurate data, misleading official graduation and dropout calculations, and inadequate accountability systems at the state and federal levels have obscured low graduation rates. In October 2008, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released regulations that change requirements for states’ calculations, reporting, and accountability systems for graduation rates under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Nationally, and for each state, Federal High School Graduation Rate Policies and the Impact on States summarizes the changes the new regulations would make in these three policy areas and describes how each state's current graduation rate policies might be affected.
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High School Dropouts in America (Updated) Fact Sheet (PDF)
February 5, 2009
Over a million of the students who enter ninth grade each fall fail to graduate with their peers four years later. In fact, about seven thousand students drop out every school day. Perhaps this statistic was acceptable fifty years ago, but the era in which a high school dropout could earn a living wage has ended in the United States. Dropouts significantly diminish their chances to secure a good job and a promising future. Moreover, not only do the individuals themselves suffer, but each class of dropouts is responsible for substantial financial and social costs to the communities, states, and country in which they live.
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Understanding High School Graduation Rates (Fact Sheet)
Updated July 2009
Far too many of our high school students—particularly poor and minority students—are leaving school without a high school diploma. Understanding High School Graduation Rates provides the latest graduation rate statistics, demonstrates graduation gaps between demographic groups, illustrates the discrepancies in graduation rates reported by government and independent sources, and examines the economic costs of dropouts to individuals and society.
http://www.all4ed.org/publication_material/understanding_HSgradrates
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Dropouts, Diplomas, and Dollars: U.S. High Schools and the Nation’s Economy Report (PDF)
August 27, 2008
The United States can no longer absorb the costs and losses associated with an education system that produces more than 1.2 million dropouts every year. This report examines the impact of this crisis on the dropouts themselves, as well as its effect on the economy, social fabric, and security of the nation, states, and local communities.
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Using Early-Warning Data to Improve Graduation Rates: Closing Cracks in the Education System Policy Brief (PDF)
August 26, 2008
This brief explores the power of early-warning data in predicting whether a student will drop out, offers examples of current efforts to use such data to guide secondary school interventions across the country, and discusses the policies that can support these efforts.
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Every Student Counts: The Case for Graduation Rate Accountability Policy Brief (PDF)
July 7, 2008
In passing the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, members of Congress from both parties acknowledged the importance of addressing the significant achievement gaps between students of differing racial, ethnic, economic, and linguistic backgrounds. In the years since the law’s enactment, further data has highlighted the glaring inequities that continue to exist in and between schools, districts, and states across the country. NCLB was designed to address these gaps by holding schools accountable for the success of every student enrolled. However, the legislation fails to address a key measure of a successful high school: who graduates?
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Who’s Counted? Who’s Counting? Understanding High School Graduation Rates Report (PDF)
June 27, 2006
Who’s Counted? Who’s Counting? Understanding High School Graduation Rates explains the reasons why so many different graduation rate formulas and statistics exist, addresses why states report them differently, discusses the limitations and benefits of each method, and – most importantly – defines the policy changes needed to assure that educators, school officials, parents, and the public receive timely and accurate information about how many students are actually graduating so that they can assess their schools’ current effectiveness and make improvements.
Press Release
State Specific Information
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