The Level of Education Attainment

In 2000, 80 percent of the U.S. population over the age of 25 had a high school diploma and 24 percent had a bachelor’s degree. In 2007, 86 percent and 29 percent of Americans had attained at least a high school diploma and bachelor’s degree, respectively.

Until recently, few school districts were required to report publicly the percentage of 9th-graders who earned a diploma within four years. Instead, school districts typically reported how many 12th-graders did or did not make it to graduation. This method dramatically underestimates dropouts, many of whom leave school in 9th or 10th grade. Moreover, since only nine states have a longitudinal data system that can track each student’s progress over time and across K-12 education and higher education, truly accurate high school graduation rates are difficult to compute and compare across schools, districts and states.

Researchers now estimate that graduation rates for 9th-graders who finish within four years are, on average, between 68-70 percent. Only about 50 percent of African-American and Latino students earn a diploma within four years. Although all 50 governors have pledged to adopt a common method of reporting graduation rates within the next several years, and the U.S. Department of Education announced plans in early 2008 to ensure states are using consistent graduation rates for No Child Left Behind, currently, no single methodology is universally accepted, and, as a result, states may overestimate their true graduation rates.