Changes in dropout rates attract little notice, partly because they are difficult to calculate.
The overall 2-point increase disguised much more striking jumps in dropout rates at some schools.
So far this year, Philadelphia has laid off 20 administrative workers and cut 300 slots in dropout prevention programs.
Research shows that these centers lead to improved health, increased attendance, improvements in grades and a decrease in dropout rates.
Blacks lag behind whites in life expectancy and median income (see chart 2); they exceed whites in dropout and poverty rates.The income disparity, in fact, is growing.
In his opinion yesterday, the judge explained his earlier ruling by citing disparities between blacks and whites on test scores, in the numbers taking honors courses, and in dropout and college attendance rates.
The decrease in dropout rates has been reflected in more children continuing to lower-secondary education: the lower secondary enrolment rate had increased from 71% in 1999 to 85% in 2012.
Over the last two decades, dozens of studies have led many educators to conclude that policies forcing students to repeat a grade are costly and counterproductive, resulting in no gains in student achievement and sharp increases in dropout rates.
He would also hold back aid from states that did not reduce the gap in dropout rates between minority and nonminority students, and between low-income and middle-income students.
According to a study by the demographer John Bound and his colleagues, lack of institutional resources explains up to two-thirds of the increase in dropout rates at lower-tier colleges.
Despite its limited scope, the six-year completion measure, if enacted, would make Texas a national leader in dropout recovery programs, according to Lili Allen, program director of the postsecondary division at Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based nonprofit that has researched dropout policies across the country.
