By Lawrence Mishel and Joydeep Roy, Economic Policy Institute (April 20, 2006)

In a knowledge-driven economy, those without at least a high school diploma will be far more limited in their work prospects than those with one. But scholars and educators disagree on the rate of graduation in U.S. high schools. Some new statistics seriously understate minority graduation rates and fail to reflect the tremendous progress in the last few decades in closing the black-white and the Hispanic-white graduation gaps.

Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends analyzes the current sources of available data on high school completion and dropout rates and finds that, while graduation rates need much improvement, they are higher, and getting better.

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Book Contents:

Table of contents

INTRODUCTION

I. Motivation: The debate

II. National longitudinal data

III. Graduation rates using school enrollment and diploma data

IV. Census Bureau Household Survey data

V. Using the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series from the 2000 census to assess high school completion and potential biases in the CPS

VI. Historical trends

VII. The General Education Development (GED) test issue

VIII. Comparing alternative measures of high school completion

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX A: National longitudinal studies

APPENDIX B: Case studies based on longitudinal data from Florida, Chicago, and New York City

APPENDIX C: Methodology of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) data analysis

Endnotes
References
About EPI

About the Author:

Lawrence Mishel came to the Economic Policy Institute in 1987. As EPI’s first research director and now president, he has played a significant role in building EPI’s research capabilities and reputation. He is a labor market economist and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin. He is principal author of EPI’s flagship publication, The State of Working America, which provides a comprehensive overview of the U.S. labor market and living standards. He is also one of the principal authors of How Does Teacher Pay Compare? Methodological Challenges and Answers and The Charter School Dust-Up: Examining the Evidence on Enrollment and Achievement, as well as a co-editor of The Class Size Debate.

Joydeep Roy joined the Economic Policy Institute after receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton University. His areas of research interest include the economics of education, education policy, and related fields in public and labor economics, including socio-economic segregation.

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