Friday, October 24, 2008

One in four students dropping out of school

Report: Kids less likely to graduate than parents

Your child is less likely to graduate from high school than you were, and most states are doing little to hold schools accountable, according to a study by a children's advocacy group. More than half the states have graduation targets that don't make schools get better, the Education Trust says in a report released Thursday.

The numbers are dismal: One in four kids is dropping out of school, a rate that hasn't budged for at least five years.

The United States is now the only industrialized country where young people are less likely than their parents to earn a diploma, the report said, citing data compiled by the international Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

High schools are required to meet graduation targets every year as part of the 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law. But those targets are set by states, not by the federal government. And most states allow schools to graduate low percentages of students by saying that any progress, or even the status quo in some cases, is acceptable. Click here to read the full report by the Education Trust.


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