Dropout Fact Sheet

The value of a high school education has changed dramatically.

• During the 1950s, a high school degree was considered a valued asset; even through the 1970s, it continued to open doors to many promising career opportunities. Today, a high school education is only a minimum entry requirement.
• Those who fail to obtain either a high school diploma or a GED face many more problems in later life than those who do graduate.

The reasons students drop out of high school are varied, ranging from personal and family issues to socioeconomic.

• National studies show that students who are most likely to drop out are poor, when they live in poor communities, or when they come from a single-parent household.
• Students in large cities are twice as likely to leave school before graduating than non-urban youth.
• More than one in four Hispanic youth drop out and nearly half leave by the eighth grade.
• Hispanics are twice as likely as African Americans to drop out while Whites and Asian Americans least likely.
• More than half of student who drop out leave by the tenth grade, 20 percent quit by the eighth grade, and 3 percent drop out by the fourth grade.  (Focus Adolescent Services website, September 2005

In 2004, the reasons students leave school before graduating in Washington State (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Promising Programs and Practices for Dropout Prevention, December 2005)

• Attended school for four years/did not continue: 4.6 percent
• Lacked progress/poor grades: 6.4 percent
• School not for me/stayed at home: 15.8 percent
• Married, family support or child related: 1.4 percent
• Offered training/chose to work: 3.0 percent
• Dropped out for unknown reasons: 7.4 percent
• Left to take GED: 7.8 percent
• Expelled/suspended: 4.0 percent
• Location unknown: 49.6 percent

Potential warning signs that a student may drop out include the inability to read at grade level, poor grades, didn’t get along with teachers/students, truancy, substance abuse, and teen pregnancy.

High-risk students are eight to 10 times less likely to drop out in the 11th and 12th grades if they enroll in a career/technical program rather than a general program

The economic consequences of leaving high school without a diploma are severe.

• National studies show that dropouts are 72 percent more likely to be unemployed and earn 27 percent less than high school graduates.(

In 2002 in Washington State,

• The median annual earnings for a person with a high school diploma was $30,000, for a person without $17,000.
• The median hourly wages for a high school graduate was $14.93 compared to $9.24 for a dropout.

• High school dropouts are also more likely to be single parents, go to prison (dropouts make up nearly half of the prison population), and receive public assistance (dropouts make up nearly half the households on welfare) than high school graduates.

In 2002 in Washington State,

• The number of high school graduates receiving food stamps was 9 percent, those without a diploma was 17 percent
• The number of high school graduates on public assistance was 9 percent, for those without a diploma, it was 12 percent.