Young women who drop out of high school are more likely to become pregnant at earlier ages and are more likely to be single parents. Dropouts are more likely to receive public assistance than graduates of high school. Dropouts comprise a disproportionate percentage of the nation's prison and death row inmates. The new report examines data for the school year ending October 1995 and historic data dating back to 1972. This eighth annual report of dropout statistics goes into more detail than previous reports.
Hispanic students are more likely to leave school than black or white students.
Nearly 40 percent of the 1995 dropouts were students 15-17 years of age. Since 1972, the dropout rate has ranged from 4 percent to 6.7 percent. The dropout rate among students of similar ages has decreased in the last decade. Among those students who completed their sophomore years in 1980, 9.9 percent ended up dropping out by August of 1982. Among the 1990 sophomore class, 5.6 percent were counted as dropouts by August of 1992.