This week America’s Promise Alliance released 10 Facts About Low Graduation Rate High Schools. The facts are published on the heels of the 2016 Building a Grad Nation report. Both examine the characteristics of low-graduation-rate high schools, or schools that graduate fewer than 67 percent of their students. The new Every Student Succeeds Act requires that states intervene in schools with 67 percent or lower graduation rates, and use evidence-based plans to make improvements.
Written by the Everyone Graduates Center, with Civic Enterprises and released by America’s Promise and Alliance for Excellent Education, the 2016 Building a Grad Nation report shows that significant graduation gaps remain between White students and their Black and Latino peers, as well as between low-income and non-low-income students, and students with and without disabilities. Research has shown that it’s these same groups of kids, most often underserved in schools, that face high levels of chronic absenteeism, especially in the early grades.
We know that poor attendance as early as kindergarten can tip off educators to academic trouble ahead. Students who miss 2 days a month or more, on average in preschool and kindergarten often continue to miss school in the early grades and aren’t able to read by the 3rd grade. These same students struggle academically as they progress through school making it difficult to achieve.
“As Attendance Works has made clear, poor attendance is among our first and best warning signs that a student is headed off track for high school graduation,” said John Gomperts, president and CEO of America’s Promise Alliance, which leads the GradNation campaign. “We can and must improve attendance and, with it, achievement and graduation rates by paying attention to who is missing too much school for any reason and connecting those students with supports and activities that will motivate them to attend class every day.”
The 10 facts include:
- There were 2,397 low-graduation-rate high schools in the U.S. in 2014, enrolling a total of 1.23 million students.
- In 2014, 33 percent of all non-graduates nationwide were enrolled in high schools with a graduation rate of 67 percent or less.
- More than half (54 percent) of all low-graduation-rate high schools are in cities, one-quarter (26 percent) are in suburbs, 8 percent are in towns, and 12 percent are in rural areas.
Find all 10 Facts in the post by America’s Promise Alliance here .
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