WASHINGTON — Despite rising national graduation rates, low-income and minority students continue to lag behind their peers in finishing high school, according to a study released Wednesday. ADVERTISING WASHINGTON — Despite rising national graduation rates, low-income and minority students continue
WASHINGTON — Despite rising national graduation rates, low-income and minority students continue to lag behind their peers in finishing high school, according to a study released Wednesday.
While the national graduation rate for the year 2015 was 83.2 percent, it was only 77.8 percent for Hispanic students and 74.6 for black students, said the report by Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University. The report represented an analysis of federal data released in December and policy recommendations.
On the bright side, those students are catching up faster than their peers. Graduation rates have increased 7.6 percentage points for black students and 6.8 percentage points for Latino students since 2011, compared to 3 to 4 percentage points for white students, said Jennifer DePaoli, a researcher with Civic Enterprises and the lead author of the report. The groups behind the report have been leading the GradNation campaign that advocates for a graduation rate of 90 percent by 2020.
“When we look at the big picture, this is good news. We have the highest graduation rates that this country has ever seen,” said DePaoli. But for low-income and minority students and students with disabilities, more help is needed. States “are getting stuck with getting certain students across the finish line,” DePaoli said.
Hawaii’s statewide four-year graduation rate for all students was 81.6 percent, below the 83.2 percent national average in 2014-15, according to the report.
Broken down by population, 82.8 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander, 74 percent of black, 75 percent of Hispanics and 79 percent of white or Caucasian students graduated within four years. The study did not provide further breakdown the Asian/Pacific Islander population to provide data on Native Hawaiian graduation rates.
The graduation rate for low-income students in Hawaii was 75.9 percent, just a tad under the national average of 76.1 percent.
New Mexico was the worst performing state, with a statewide graduation rate of 68.6 percent, the only state below the 70 percent mark. Iowa was the first state to reach a 90 percent graduation rate. Other high-achieving states were Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Texas, Tennessee and Kentucky.
The graduation rate among students with disabilities was 64.6 percent, a difference of nearly 20 percentage points from the overall rate. In Hawaii, just 60 percent of students with disabilities graduated. Similarly, English language learners had a graduation rate of 65.1 percent nationwide while Hawaii saw a graduation rate of 46 percent.
DePaoli said increased access to early childhood education has been shown to increase academic outcomes, including graduation rates. “States need to focus heavily on equity,” DePaoli said. “So many states have focused on increasing their graduation rates, now is the hard part.”
Abigail Swisher, an education expert with New America said dual enrollment — allowing students to enroll in college-level courses while still in high school — has been shown to improve graduation rates for underprivileged groups of students.
“We found that the counterintuitive solution would be to actually give them more challenging coursework in the form of opportunities to complete college level work in high school,” she said. “When they have this opportunity … they are more likely to enroll in college and persist with their degree in college as well.”
West Hawaii Today staff contributed to this report.
