Background
Definition
This indicator uses the “status” high school dropout rate,[7] which measures the percentage of young adults ages 16 through 24 in the civilian, non-institutionalized population who were not enrolled in a high school program and had not received a high school diploma or obtained an equivalency certificate.[8] Note that this measure does not include youth in prison or in the military.
While this indicator uses the status dropout rate, other indicators (such as on-time high school completion or high school graduation rates) are also used to measure educational attainment with regard to high school. For more information, see National Institute of Statistical Sciences/Education Statistics Services Institute Task Force on Graduation, Completion, and Dropout Indicators’ Final Report, available at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005105.pdf.
Endnotes
[1] Note that this measure—sometimes referred to as the “status” dropout rate—represents only one of several ways for calculating the high school dropout rate. The “event” dropout rate reports the percentage of young people ages 15 through 24 who dropped out of grades 10 through 12 in the past year. The “cohort” dropout rate measures the percentage of an entering ninth-grade class that drops out before the end of the twelfth-grade year. The “status” dropout rate is the only measure for which there are reliable national data over a number of years. National data on cohort graduation rates show that 84.1 percent of the public high school class of 2015-16 graduated four years after entering ninth grade. See U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2017). Common Core of Data: America’s public schools [Table 1]. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/tables/ACGR_RE_and_characteristics_2015-16.asp.
[2] Western, B. & Pettit, B. (2002). Beyond crime and punishment: Prisons and inequality. Contexts, 1(37), 37–43.
[3] Heckman, J. J. & LaFontaine, P. A. (2010). The American high school graduation rate: Trends and levels. Review of Economics and Statistics, 92(2), 244–262.
[4] Western, B. & Wildeman, C. (2009). The black family and mass incarceration. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621, 221–242.
[5] Hispanics may be of any race. Totals of whites in this report do not include Hispanics.
[6] Fry, R. (2003). Hispanic youth dropping out of U.S. schools: Measuring the challenge. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center. Retrieved from http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=19.
[7] Status dropout rate differs from event dropout rate, the latter being measured as the percentage of young people who dropped out of grades 10 through 12 in the past year.
[8] Chapman, C., Laird, J., Ifill, N., & KewalRamani, A. (2011). Trends in high school dropout and completion rates in the United States: 1972-2009 (NCES 2012-006). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012006.pdf.
Suggested Citation:
Child Trends Databank. (2018). High school dropout rates. Available at: https://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=high-school-dropout-rates