The nation saw an increase in high school graduation rates in 2010, the highest it’s seen since 1976. With only a 3 percent dropout rate, NBC Latino reported that part of this rise is due to better graduation rates among Latino students.
A new report by the National Center for Education Statistics found that 71.4 percent of Latino students graduated on time in 2010 – a 10-point increase since 2006. Nationally, in the 2009-2010 school year Latinos saw a 5 percent drop out rate.
Researchers have pointed to several reasons for the higher high school graduation rates. One is the 2008 recession where the nation saw an increase in unemployment and the realization that jobs without a high school graduation are becoming less available.
Experts also look to another reason in the increase. Harvard economist Richard Murnane told the Wall Street Journal the dramatic reduction in teen pregnancy in the last 15 years helps in explaining the rise in graduation rates, since pregnancy is one of the top reasons for dropping out of school. From 2007 to 2011, Latino pregnancy rates dropped 34 percent.
The report says one of the states that saw the biggest increase in graduation rates was New York. The state with the highest dropout rate of 8 percent was Arizona. New Mexico on the other hand saw an increase of 1 percent in the dropout rate.
Photo © Charline Tetiyevsky via Flickr
