Our nation’s graduation rate is at an all-time high. The national figure shows 84 percent of young people overall graduating from high school within four years after first entering the 9th grade, a trend that has been on a consistent upswing since these rates were first collected for the 2010-2011 school year.
Still, despite much progress with that indicator, major gaps still exist. And there is great concern that the graduation rate hype not only masks those gaps, but distracts us from what must be our ultimate goal: ensuring all students earn a high school degree and are college and career ready.
Even as overall graduation rates improve, Black and Brown students continue to lag behind that curve. Graduation rates for African-American students are 76.4 percentage points — 8 percentage points behind the national average — and Latino students are at 79.3 percent. Native American students fare even worse at just 72 percent graduation. Meanwhile, White and Asian students are anywhere from four to six points higher than the national average.
Read the full article on The Washington Informer.
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