Capacity 
Point 
Exemplary
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Locating the Dropout Crisis
To solve the nation’s dropout crisis, it is necessary to know where to concentrate resources and focus efforts. Since 2001, EGC researchers have been working to locate the schools, school districts, and states that produce most of the nation’s dropouts in order to identify the locations where additional resources and supports are needed most. Researchers are working to identify the locations where the most progress has been made over the past decade.
Locating the Dropout Crisis
Approximately 15% of the nation’s high schools produce more than half of its dropouts and close to 75% of its minority dropouts. Half of these schools are found primarily in the cities of the North, Midwest, and West. The other half are found throughout the South and Southwest in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
Find out more by reading our report Locating the Dropout Crisis. Which High Schools Produce the Nation’s Dropouts? Where Are They Located? Who Attends Them? Robert Balfanz and Nettie Legters. Johns Hopkins University 2004.
See the Graduation Challenge Database school district, state and national level analysis of the nation’s graduation challenge.
Fifty State Profiles
For the nation’s 50 largest cities and 50 states we have constructed 10-year profiles of graduation rates using several different indicators including promoting power, average freshmen graduation rate, and 12th graders who earn diplomas. We have also created visual diagrams of the progression of the Class of 2005 from 1st grade to Diploma, highlighting the key points where students are falling off the graduation path. This enables identification of the states and cities that have made the most progress over the past decade in increasing their graduation rates. These resources, plus updated promoting power profiles, are featured in the Graduation Challenge Database.
Seventeen State Project
EGC researchers are working with Jobs for the Future to profile the challenges faced in the 17 states that produce 75% of the nation’s dropouts and to identify the policies and responses that will be required to insure that schools and school districts in these states have the tools, resources, and accountability systems needed to enable all students to graduate college and career ready. The first report profiling the challenges is scheduled for release in February 2009.
The High Schools Hispanics Attend
Size and Other Key Characteristics
Latino students are much more likely to attend high poverty high schools with 1500 or more students and high student-teacher ratios. This means they attend schools with many students in need of support and fewer adults to provide it.
The High Schools Hispanics Attend -
Size and Other Key Characteristics
Rick Fry, Pew Hispanic Center, November 1, 2005
Read the report online here or download the pdf here.
Studies on Dropouts
Pittsburgh
Estimating Graduation
and Dropout Rates with
Longitudinal Data:
A Case Study in the Pittsburgh
Public Schools
John Engberg and Brian Gill.
July 2006.
Prepared for the Pittsburgh Public Schools
Visit their website here or view the report online here.
Chicago
Graduation and Dropout Trends in Chicago:
A look at cohorts of students from 1991 through 2004
Elaine Allensworth. January 2005.
Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago. Visit their website here or view the report online
here.
New York
Multiple Pathways Research and Development: Summary Finding and Strategic Solutions for Overage, Under-credited Youth.
New York City Department of Education. View the report online
here.