53% of Americans Don't Graduate from High School?

Parent Cafe
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<p>So said John Kerry this morning. I presume the Senator mis-spoke? I understand that high school graduations are in the mid 80%, near record numbers for the US.</p>

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<p>What amazed me about that was how dumb and out of touch does someone have to be to make those claims? Something as far off as that should get filtered out in the “that doesn’t make any sense” filter.</p>

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<p>I think it depends on which source you cite- like anything
for example- some districts do not count students as dropping out- unless the student actually notifies the district they have done so.
Districts may not count students who drop out before high school.
When you look at some schools that have say 1000 in the freshman class but only 500 graduate, it does look fairly bleak- did those students transfer? take their GED? what happened to them?</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=39522[/url]”>http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=39522&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I am sure he meant 53% of Democrats. ;-)</p>

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<p>The 85% figure is probably not a great statistic. It is the percentage of Americans 25 years old or older who have a high school diploma.</p>

<p>This statistic is skewed by the large population of the baby boomers coinciding with the peak rate of high school graduation rates in 1970.</p>

<p>The other measure that is used is the percentage of enrolled ninth graders compared to the number of high school graduates four years later.</p>

<p>This calculation pegs the current US high school graduation rate at around 68% overall with whites and Asians higher at 75% and blacks and hispanics lower (in the mid 50% range).</p>

<p>Based on this measure, US high school graduation rates have been consistently declining since the peak year in 1970.</p>

<p>I don’t have any interest in what John Kerry says, so I have no idea what statistic he was trying to use. More than likely, he meant to refer to black or hispanic graduation rates but garbled his message.</p>

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<p>53 percent is around the figure for urban districts such as LAUSD.<br>
It could well have been a slip of the tongue, much better than the slips of the brain we’re enduring from the current so-called leadership.</p>

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<p>strick: do you have source for your title? (beside drudge and fox)</p>

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<p>Source: <a href=“http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/highschool.htm[/url]”>http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/highschool.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I’m sure the NYT is working on a story right now. It will prove how Kerry was correct and that the poor suffer more than others when the Super Bowl is on due to a lack of HD plasma tv’s.</p>

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<p>barrons, its a good thing you have such compassion</p>

<p>I pray that you never need any help, with anything, because, if you were my neighbor, I would be hard pressed to take you in if you were needing it</p>

<p>But, I would. Don’t think you would though</p>

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<p>I agree, it wasn’t a great quote, but it is true in some areas. Do the republicans do much better when they say, well, almost everyone has health care, and we are winning the war</p>

<p>woohoo</p>

<p>a bad stat to me is bad, but not as bad as out right lying</p>

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<p>Do we actually know the percentage of the poor, or disadvantaged, who will have to watch the Super Bowl without Plasma…again?! </p>

<p>Maybe Kerry’s office has the figures. </p>

<p>Regarding the Junior Senator, I know the Swiss have plasma, but do they broadcast the Super Bowl…digital…in French?</p>

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<p>At least I have a sense of humor. It actually stole the idea from The Onion–it’s a humor paper you know.</p>

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<p>It sounds like Kerry garbled the statistic, but the real numbers are not nearly as rosy as those published by the Feds. Here’s a quote from the Manahattan Institute (a conservative think-tank; the author of the study has writen about it in the National Review):</p>

<p>"The report’s main findings are the following: </p>

<p>“The national graduation rate for the public school class of 2000 was 69%. The rate for white students was 76%; for Asian students it was 79%; for African-American students it was 55%; for Hispanic students it was 53%; and for Native Americans it was 57%.”</p>

<p>Kerry has been criticized in the past for citing some of these numbers without point out that they pre-date the Bush administration.</p>

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<p>Simba, I heard him say it myself. You can, too. </p>

<p>Go to the MSNBC link below and look at the section called, “More Today Show Video”. There are left and right arrows that index through different stories. It’s item 4 (you’ll see Kerry’s face), and the quote is roughly 3:13 minutes into the clip.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/?ta=y[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/?ta=y&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I would suppose that including private/parochial schools would up that number.</p>

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<p>Onion news today</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=70974[/url]”>http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=70974&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Yes it was a bad statisic, but there are places where it is over 50% dropout rates</p>

<p>And, gosh Republicans never lie, never go to jail, never mistspeak the truth, never ever</p>

<p>Um,…</p>

<p>Social Security going bankrupt 2042
Nucluer Weapons
No one knew the levies would break
You doing a good job Brownie</p>

<p>“I really don’t think about Bin Laden that much”- wait that was true</p>

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<p>Gee, citygirlsmom, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.</p>

<p>BTW, SS will be bankrupt, but sooner than 2042.
It’s nucular weapons, but no one in the Administration claimed Saddam had them (quote them if you can find a legitimate case of them saying so, not someone else making the claim).</p>

<p>And most certainly no one knew that the levies would break the way they did. Actually, what was said that no one was expecting them to overtop in that kind of storm, which if I understand correctly wasn’t the problem. They should have held, would have held if not for the faulty engineering. From money spent a long time ago, not since 2001.</p>

<p>As for Bin Laden, the guy hiding in a cave offers a truce without any substance? Not the man he used to be, I’m afraid.</p>

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<p>According to friends in the attendance office at my daughter’s suburban hs, there are way too many students on the rolls who will not be removed until they are, I believe nineteen, unless they come in and withdraw voluntarily. The attendance of these students is attrocious, and they are making no headway in racking up credits for graduation. The truancy courts apparently have no affect. I also believe that many of those over 25 graduates probably possess GED’s obtained after a couple of years of work. Greybeard’s stats look more like the ones I have seen and heard.</p>