These students are the least likely to graduate from high school
“The country’s high school graduation rate continues to climb, but disparities remain when it comes to who has the best shot at donning that cap and gown. Currently, the national high school graduation rate is 83.2%, representing an all-time high, according to an annual report from researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s Everyone Graduates Center and Washington, D.C.-based public policy firm Civic Enterprises. All told, some 2.8 million more students have graduated from high school since 2001, the report found. Additionally, the number of large high schools with low graduation rates has dropped — today fewer than 900,000 students are enrolled in them, versus 2.5 million in 2002. But not all students in the U.S. are feeling that progress. Nearly 14% fewer students from low-income backgrounds graduate from high school when compared with their middle- and upper-income peers. And that gap can be much larger at the state level — in 11 states, including Colorado and Michigan, the low-income graduation rate is below 70%.”