GOT GRADUATION? Evidently Not, From LA to Detroit

Yesterday, another horrifying report came out about urban graduation rates. This particular report, put out by a Washington DC-based nonprofit named America’s Promise Alliance, looks at the graduation rates for the main school districts in America’s 50 largest cities and finds that only half of our kids are managing to get diplomas.

As bad as that 50 percent figure is, it is the average—-meaning that, for a lot of urban school districts, the graduation rate is much, much lower.

For instance, LAUSD comes in 9th from the bottom out of the 50 with a graduation rate of 45.3 percent, according to the study. (Here’s the LA Times take.)

And for all those about to scream that our nation’s schools are going to hell in a hand-basket because of illegal immigration, don’t bother. Out of the 50 cities, the top of the heap in terms of graduation rates is Mesa, Arizona, a city with immigration issues up the wazoo. Nonetheless, Mesa’s biggest urban district is graduating 77.1 percent of its kids, as compared with Detroit, which graduates…..(honestly, it’s hard to believe I’m reading this right)….24.9 percent. In other words, three-quarters of Detroit’s kids drop out of school between 9th grade and graduation.

Good lord.

The bottom ten are, in descending order:

Oakland – 45.6
Los Angeles – 45.3
New York 45.2
Dallas -44.4
Minneapolis – 43.7
Columbus – 40.9
Baltimore – 34.6
Cleveland – 34.1
Indianapolis – 30.5
Detroit – 24.9

In all the cities mentioned, suburban school districts in the same area seems to do almost twice as well as their urban counterparts.

America’s Promise Alliance is an interesting organization. Its Board of Directors is led by, among other people, Colin Powell and his wife Alma Powell.

The stated purpose of the AP Alliance is to focus attention on what they call the Five Promises that kids need if they are to be successful in life. They are:

Caring Adults, Safe Places, A Healthy Start, Effective Education, Opportunities to Help Others (A good, balanced list, I thought.)

The APA folks go on to cite figures showing how many American children and adolescents do not have these five needs met.

For instance, according to the APA:

Between one-fourth and one-third of all young people “never” or only “sometimes” feel safe at school and in their communities.

More than 40% of young people ages 8-21 say they want more adults in their lives to whom they can turn for help.

Interestingly, 94 percent of young people want to help make the world a better place, but only 50 percent see a way to do so.

There’s more and it’s worth checking out. We simply can’t talk about these issues too much.

PS: Yesterday, NPR had a worthwhile discussion (about the graduation study and the No Child Left Behind policy) that featured my favorite education blogger, Andy Rotherdam of eduwonk.