Free Republic

The nation's oldest black college, Cheyney University, one of Pennsylvania's 14 state-run universities, is on the verge of a financial meltdown that threatens its ability to continue operating, a state official said on Wednesday. Cheyney's student body has shrunk by two-thirds, to about 1,000, since its 1983 peak, and its four-year graduation rate is just 9 percent. A quarter of students never receive a degree, and student loan defaults are high.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Graduation rates at high schools have improved to their highest level in nearly 40 years, driven by a surge in the percentage of Hispanic students earning diplomas, a government study released on Tuesday showed. ... Education Secretary Arne Duncan said .. he was especially encouraged by the improvement among Hispanic students, whose graduation rates surged 10 percent to 71.4 percent between 2006 and 2010, .. ... Across the United States, four-year graduation rates were highest for students of Asian and Pacific-Islander heritage at 93.5 percent, .. white students at 83 percent, and Hispanic students at 71.4 percent,...

Rounding Up Usual Suspects Malcolm A. Kline, July 27, 2010 In the cinematic classic Casablanca, corrupt police chief Louis Renault deflects official attention away from a troublesome crime scene by instructing his minions to “round up the usual suspects.” The Education Establishment appears to be engaged in a similar exercise when it tries to explain dropout rates and other such problematic measurements. In fact, they had such a confab on July 22, 2010. After reporting a 73.4 percent high school graduation rate and an 8 percent dropout rate in public secondary schools (which does not compute), the College Board goes...

Diplomas Count by: Emily Kanyi, June 18, 2009 A report released by Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center shows that despite a marked improvement in the national high school graduation rate, three out of ten U.S. public schools students still fail to get a high school diploma. The U.S. national graduation rate rose from sixty-six percent in 1996 to sixty-nine percent in 2006. From 1997 to 1999 the statistics recorded a yearly sixty-six percent graduation rate and between 2000 and 2003 there was an improved annual graduation rate of sixty-eight percent. In 2003 to 2005...

CAPping Off Failure by: Daniel Allen, March 23, 2009 Experts and pundits warn that if we do not improve our college graduation rate, our nation’s power and status may decline more quickly, in comparison to the rise of other powers in an increasingly multi-polar world. The Center for American Progress (CAP) hosted a panel on March 18th to discuss fast-track and early college programs among low-income and minority students, and how current legislation can help the country’s youth achieve their potential. CAP invited two sponsors of the Fast-Track to College Act, a bill that would increase federal spending directed at...