11 Facts About High School Dropout Rates

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1. Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day.^[Miller, Tony. "Partnering for Education Reform." U.S. Department of Education. Accessed February 18, 2015. .]
2. About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.^[Silver, David, Marisa Saunders, and Estela Zarate. "What Factors Predict High School Graduation in the Los Angeles Unified School District." Attendance Counts. Accessed February 18, 2015. .]
3. The U.S., which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries.^[BANCHERO, STEPHANIE. "High-School Graduation Rate Inches Up." The Wall Street Journal. Accessed February 27, 2014, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323301104578256142504828724.]
4. The dropout rate has fallen 3% from 1990 to 2010 (12.1% to 7.4%).^[U.S. Department of Education. "Fast Facts: Dropout Rates." Institute of Education Sciences. Accessed February 26, 2014, https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16.]
5. The percentage of graduating Latino students has significantly increased. In 2010, 71.4% received their diploma vs. 61.4% in 2006. However, Asian-American and white students are still far more likely to graduate than Latino & African-American students.^[Resmovits, Joy. "Graduation Rate Hits Record High For High School Students: Government Report." The Huffington Post. Accessed February 26, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/22/graduation-rate-record-high-school-students_n_2522128.html.]
6. A high school dropout will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate over his lifetime. And almost a million dollars less than a college graduate.^[Cheeseman Day, Jennifer, and Eric C. Newburger. "The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings." United States Census Bureau. Accessed February 26, 2014, https://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p23-210.pdf.]
7. In 2010, 38 states had higher graduation rates. Vermont had the highest rate, with 91.4% graduating. And Nevada had the lowest with 57.8% of students graduating.^[Layton, Lyndsey. "National public high school graduation rate at a four-decade high." Washington Post. Accessed February 26, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/national-high-school-graduation-rates-at-a-four-decade-high/2013/01/21/012cd7da-63e7-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html.]
8. Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students.^[Balfanz, Robert, and Nettie Legters. "LOCATING THE DROPOUT CRISIS ." Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University's School of Education. Accessed February 26 26,2014, http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/techReports/Report70.pdf.]
9. These “dropout factories” account for over 50% of the students who leave school every year.^[Sparks, Sarah D.. "Study Points to Fewer 'Dropout Factory' Schools." Education Week. Accessed February 18, 2015. .]
10. 1 in 6 students attend a dropout factory. 1 in 3 minority students (32%) attend a dropout factory, compared to 8% of white students.^[Balfanz, Robert, and Nettie Legters. "LOCATING THE DROPOUT CRISIS ." Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University's School of Education. Accessed February 26, 2014, http://www.csos.jhu.edu/crespar/techReports/Report70.pdf.]
11. In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75% of crimes.^[Smiley, Travis. "Fact Sheet: Is the Dropout Problem Real?." Travis Smiley Reports. Accessed February 26, 2014. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/tsr/education-under-arrest/fact-sheet-drop-out-rates-of-african-american-boys/.]