ATLANTA — Six of SREB’s 16 member states beat the national public high school graduation rate, although nearly one-third of all students in SREB states fail to graduate from high school, according to Diplomas Count, a special report released today by Education Week.
While the report shows that Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, Virginia and West Virginia exceeded the national average on-time graduation rate of 69.9 percent in 2004, all 50 states fell well short of the Southern Regional Education Board’s Challenge to Lead Goals for Education target of having all students graduate from high school. The report listed South Carolina as having the lowest on-time high school graduation rate of any state, at just under 54 percent. Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi also ranked among the lowest 10.
Without a diploma, students are not able to prepare fully for further education, careers and the workplace. Based on the Cumulative Promotion Index developed by the EPE Research Center from 2003-2004 data, Diplomas Count mirrors similarly poor graduation rates in many states found by other calculation methods.
SREB states are working to address this long-standing problem. Georgia is the only state in the nation that provides graduation coaches for every high school in the state. Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi are among the states that in recent years have passed career pathways legislation designed to help students take more courses that fit their interests.
Nationwide, Diplomas Count shows that about 66 percent of male high school students graduated on time in 2004, compared with about 74 percent of female students. The U.S. graduation rates for minorities were even lower: about 53 percent for black students and about 58 percent for Hispanic students, compared with about 76 percent for white students.
Ten SREB states surpassed the national average graduation rate for black students. Texas, the SREB state with the largest Hispanic population, and five other states in the region beat the national average graduation rate for Hispanic students.
Improving both high school graduation rates and student achievement is a major focus at SREB. SREB recommends many specific actions that states can take to increase graduation rates, including holding schools and districts more accountable for bringing all groups to higher graduation targets as part of compliance with No Child Left Behind, helping students make smoother transitions from the middle grades to ninth grade, providing assistance to at-risk students, strengthening career/technical education programs and more.
For details about all states, see Diplomas Count at www.edweek.org. SREB uses federal graduate rate data to monitor states’ progress on graduation rates. Visit www.sreb.org for more information.
To talk with SREB policy experts about Diplomas Count or about high school improvement in SREB states, contact SREB Communications. Also see the landmark SREB report Getting Serious About High School Graduation at www.sreb.org.
SREB, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, advises state education leaders on ways to improve education. SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.
