SAN DIEGO, Calif.
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Education policies that hold high schools accountable and give schools the resources to adequately prepare students for college and the modern workforce are necessary to improve graduation rates, reverse dropout trends, and strengthen the economy, according to a coalition of educational reform and civil rights groups.
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The Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), a coalition of leading civil rights groups working for education reform, gave education leaders at a policy briefing on Dec, 5 recommendations from its white paper, "High School Policy Reform: A Plan for Success." The briefing coincided with the California School Boards Association's annual education conference.
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"The economic crisis that is looming large in California and across the country is inextricably connected to education policy," said Michael Wotorson, CHSE executive director. "A high-quality high school education represents real dollars and employability, especially vital to the financial health of California, a state that has one of the world's largest economies. We can't afford to wait any longer for education policies that hold high schools accountable for graduating every student and preparing them for college and the 21st century workplace."
The coalition warned that the California dropout crisis had reached epidemic proportions, which is reflective of national trends. Ten percent of California's high schools are considered “dropout factories” --- schools where more than 60 percent of the freshman class fails to graduate within four years.
While 70 percent of all California students graduate, two out of every five African American and Latino students do not, and more than 50 percent of California's Cambodian, Laotian, and Hmong students did not graduate in 2000, according to the California Department of Education.
The nearly 162,000 non-graduates from California's class of 2008 will forgo more than $40 billion in lifetime earnings, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education. If California can raise the graduation and college enrollment rates of students of color to the levels of their white peers by 2020, the state would see more than $101 billion injected into its economy. Nationally, it is estimated that the same increase in graduation rates would add, conservatively, more than $310.4 billion to the U.S. economy.
