Federal Report Roundup

Dropout Rates

By Catherine Gewertz — September 29, 2009 1 min read
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Students living in low-income families are 10 times more likely to drop out of school than those in higher-income families, the National Center for Education Statistics reported last week.

That was one of the findings of an NCES report on high school dropout and completion rates. One of a series of such studies since 1988, the most recent report also found that the average freshman graduation rate—which estimates the proportion of 9th graders at public high schools who receive standard diplomas four years later—was 73.2 percent in 2006.

The report discusses four methods of calculating dropout and graduation rates and presents estimates of those rates for 2007, as well as trends between 1972 and 2007.

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A version of this article appeared in the September 30, 2009 edition of Education Week as Dropout Rates

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