Pathetic statistic

According to the EPE Research Center’s latest analysis of high school completion for Diplomas Count, the national graduation rate stands at 68.8 percent for the class of 2007, the most recent year for which data are available. That represents a slight drop, four-tenths of a percentage point, from 69.2 percent for the previous high school class; it also marks the second consecutive year of declines in the national graduation rate, following a decade of mostly solid improvement.

More that 30% of kids never get their high school diploma! That, even though many diploma's are nearly worthless, and that college is considered the new minimum requirement for many jobs (because the diploma is nearly useless.)

But wait, it gets worse:

Although more than three-quarters of white and Asian students in the United States earn diplomas, high school outcomes are much worse for others. Among Latinos, 56 percent successfully finish high school, while 54 percent of African-Americans and 51 percent of Native Americans graduate. On average, only two-thirds of male students earn a diploma, a rate 7 percentage points lower than the rate for female students. Rates of high school completion for males from historically disadvantaged minority groups consistently fall at or below the 50 percent mark.

Across all urban school systems, the data show six out of every 10 students from the class of 2007 graduating. In districts characterized by high levels of racial or socioeconomic segregation and those serving communities with high rates of poverty, graduation rates typically range from 55 percent to 60 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, the EPE Research Center identifies 21 “urban overachievers,” big-city districts where the actual 2007 graduation rate is 10 percentage points higher than expected based on their circumstances.

There is a major historic opportunity at the moment, that I'm afraid we're missing out on. If the president would get more vocal on this issue and really push minority kids to get their education, if he would dedicate one day a week to touring the country talking to minority kids and working to make this issue a priority, he could still salvage something good out of the disaster of his time in office.

As it is, I fear his time in office will pass without it making a ripple on the education culture in the country.