Parents and community members concerned about graduation rates in their state—and how their state compares to others—can now find that information via “Diplomas Count 2013,” a brand new Education Week special report.
The promising trend toward higher graduation rates continues according to the report latest report, which finds that nearly 75 percent of students in the class of 2010 graduated. The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center has calculated that this is an improvement of 8 percentage points over the past decade, and, if the trend continues, means the United States is closing in on the historical high graduation rate of 77.1 percent in 1969.
On the flip side of this news is the sobering fact that about 1 million high school students drop out every year, missing the opportunity to graduate with their class and to reap the benefits of a high school diploma.
Exploring “dropout recovery” programs to bring these students back to earn their diplomas is an option that does not get as much attention as the many dropout prevention programs do. “Second Chances: Turning Dropouts into Graduates” is the theme of this year’s Education Week report, which examines this potential solution to the dropout issue in an overview, “A ‘Neglected’ Population Gets Another Chance at a Diploma.”