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32% of American youth never graduate from high school.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/greene.htm
Only half of all children of color graduate high school.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=ByAuthor&NavMenuID=63&template=/
The lowest high school graduation rates (33% graduate & 67% drop out) are concentrated in 200 to 300 schools in the 35 largest U.S. cities.
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/pubs/power/policy_brief.htm
The high schools with very low graduation rates are located in the nation’s cities (around 900), but there are also close to 800 high schools in towns and rural areas with very low graduation rates.
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/pubs/power/policy_brief.htm
The age to leave school with out graduating is getting younger—shifting from 11th and 12th grades to 9th and 10th grades—leaving an less educated and younger pool of dropouts.
http://www.ets.org/research/pic/onethird.pdf
There is a wide disparity in the graduation rates of white and minority students. In the class of 2002, about 78% of white students graduated from high school with a regular diploma, compared to 56% of African-American students and 52% of Hispanic students.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/ewp_08.htm
Southern states have some of the lowest overall graduation rates in the country (64%).
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/dropouts/dropouts_south05.php
Until recently, graduation rates were inaccurately reported. Conventional wisdom, placed rates at 86% painting an overly rosy profile of America’s youth.
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/311114_grad_rates.pdf
There is no widely accepted or scientifically validated method for calculating graduation rates.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=ByAuthor&NavMenuID=63&template=/
Federal funding is sparse for high schools. The US provides $6 billion for Head Start, $11 billion in Title 1 funds for K-8 and $11 billion in Pell Grants for college students yet only $1 billion is available for high school students.
http://www.all4ed.org/publications/ProgressReportOnAmericanHS.pdf