Dropout Talking Points

In 2000, the National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy estimated that 33 percent of students who were in ninth grade four years earlier dropped out, an increase of 4 percent since 1990. In comparison, the dropout rate was lower in Finland, France, Italy, Poland, and Germany, and was only 6 percent in Japan.

According to the most recent OSPI report (2003-04) on high school graduation rates, a total of 18,365 students dropped out of Washington schools in grades 9-12.

• Put another way, 21 percent who started high school in 2000 did not complete their studies in the four-year period, and a further 8.5 percent are still enrolled and continuing their education
• Asians/Pacific Islanders had the lowest dropout rate at 3.7 percent and Native Americans the highest at 12.9 percent. .(http://www.k12.wa.us/DataAdmin/pubdocs/GradDropout/03-04/Graduationanddropoutstatistics2003-04Final.pdf)
• Males drop out at a higher rates than females. (“Promising Programs and Practices for Dropout Prevention”, OSPI, p. 8, December 2005.
• Only about half the Native American, African American and Hispanic students graduate by the end of the four-year period. (“Promising Programs and Practices for Dropout Prevention”, OSPI, p. 8, December 2005.

Benefits of completing high school:

Income:

• Students who drop out are less likely to be employed and will earn less over their working lives. (“The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society,” see www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/press/cost04/EducationPays2004.pdf)
• High school graduates nationally, on average, earn $9,245 more per year than high school dropouts. (Employment Policy Foundation, 2002).

• In 2001, the median income for a bachelor’s degree was more than $20,000 per year greater than the median income for a person without a high school diploma. (Mortenson, T. (2002) Earnings by Educational Attainment 1958-2001. Postsecondary Education Opportunity, p. 129)

Unemployment:

• Higher levels of education result in significantly less unemployment: 3 percent for a bachelor’s degree compared to almost 8.5 percentfor someone with less than a high school diploma. (Mortenson, T. (2002) Earnings by Educational Attainment 1958-2001. Postsecondary Education Opportunity, p. 129)

• In 2002, the unemployment rate of blacks ages 20-24 with no high school diploma was 32 percent compared to 6 percent for those with a bachelor's degree or higher (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003c).
• In today's workplace, only 40 percent of adults who dropped out of high school are employed, compared to 60 percent of adults who completed high school, and 80 percent for those with a bachelor's degree (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003c).

Health:

• Male and female students with low academic achievement are twice as likely to become parents by their senior year of high school compared to students with high academic achievement (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003b).
• The U.S. death rate for those with fewer than 12 years of education is 2.5 times higher than the rate of those with 13 or more years of education (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003b).

Crime:

• 75 percent of America's state prison inmates are high school dropouts (Harlow, 2003).
• 59 percent of America's federal prison inmates did not complete high school (Harlow, 2003).
• High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested in their lifetime (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003a).
• A 1 percent increase in high school graduation rates would save approximately $1.4 billion in incarceration costs, or about $2,100 per each male high school graduate (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003a).
• A one-year increase in average education levels would reduce arrest rates by 11 percent (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003a).

Literacy

• The cost to taxpayers of adult illiteracy is $224 billion per year (National Reading Panel, 1999).
• U.S. companies lose nearly $40 billion annually because of illiteracy (National Reading Panel, 1999).
• If literacy levels in the United States were the same as those in Sweden, the U.S. GDP would rise by approximately $463 billion and tax revenues would increase by approximately $162 billion (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2003e).

Workforce Board/OSPI/ESD program to help at-risk teens (see Dropout Initiatives)

What parents can do to prevent dropping out:

• Arrange for help with making up missed work, tutoring, etc.
• Help your teen with personal problems
• Help teens schedule work and family obligations to there is also time to attend school
• Help them understand the consequences of the choices they make
• Help them find a school or social program that will meet their special needs