Graduation Rates

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

This article appears in the December 2004 edition of Principal Leadership magazine, and is reprinted with permission.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

During the past year, we have repeatedly heard that the nation's public schools are facing a high school completion crisis. My research at the Urban Institute, for example, reveals an overall graduation rate of 68 percent. Even more troubling, there's only a fifty-fifty chance for a student from a historically disadvantaged minority group to finish, the same odds as flipping a coin (Swanson 2004). But I am not alone in this assessment. Findings from independent studies conducted at a variety of institutions—Johns Hopkins University, Boston College, the Manhattan Institute, and others—all point in a similar direction (Balfanz and Legters 2004; Greene and Foster 2003; Haney et al. 2004). Far too many of our youth, particularly poor and minority students, are failing to complete high school with a diploma.

At the same time, the media has publicized cases where school systems apparently encourage underperforming high school students to leave or use administrative sleight-of-hand and other suspect methods to cover up the dropout problem. While these stories are certainly intriguing and disconcerting, we do not know how widespread such practices are. These controversies over graduation rates and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), however, helped push high school reform to the forefront of the educational issues highlighted by the 2004 presidential campaigns. Will the solutions touted actually be put into practice? Only time will tell.

All too often, when complex issues of social and economic importance collide with policy and politics, heat is generated but little light. In particular, it may be difficult for local educators to parse the rhetoric from the reality and to figure out what this all means for their schools and students. This article attempts to provide some practical insight into NCLB and its implications for graduation rates and to highlight some issues of particular relevance to school administrators. I also hope that this piece will point to areas where local school leaders may take increasing ownership of the search to find solutions for the high school completion crisis.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

Usage, posting and reprint of materials on the UI web site:

Most publications may be downloaded free of charge from the web site in PDF format. This information may be used and copies made for research, academic, policy or other non-commercial purposes. Proper attribution is required.

Copyright of the written materials contained within the Urban Institute website is owned or controlled by the Urban Institute. Posting UI research papers on other websites is permitted subject to prior approval from the Urban Institute—contact paffairs@urban.org.

If you are unable to access or print the PDF document please contact us or call the Publications Office at (202) 261-5687.