School is cool! Don't become a statistic!

I recently came across some interesting facts while reading an article about high school dropouts which prompted me to investigate further. Since I didn't want to bombard you with too many facts, I turned some of the data into graphs. Please take a look!

Did you know?

• Each year over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States.

• Students who don't read proficiently by the 3rd grade are 4 times more likely to drop out of school.
  

• While males roughly made up half of the 16- to 24-year-old age group in 2013, they made up 54 percent of the dropouts.

• The percentage of graduating Latino students has significantly increased. In 2010, 71.4% received their diploma vs. 61.4% in 2006.

• Asian-American and white students are still far more likely to graduate than Latino & African-American students.

• Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students.

• These “dropout factories” account for over 50% of the students who leave school every year.

• 1 in 3 minority students (32%) attend a dropout factory, compared to 8% of white students.

Earnings and Unemployment Rates by Educational Attainment 2014

Education attained	Unemployment rate (%)	Median weekly earnings
Doctoral degree	2.1	$1591
Professional degree	1.9	$1639
Master's degree	2.8	$1326
Bachelor's degree	3.5	$1101
Associate's degree	4.5	$792
Some college	6.0	$741
High school diploma	6.0	$668
High school dropout	9.0	$488

• A high school dropout will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate over his/her lifetime. And almost a million dollars less than a college graduate.

• 90% of high school dropouts are on welfare.

• High school dropouts exact an economic toll on society. Each year's class of dropouts will cost the country over $200 billion during their lifetimes in lost earnings and unrealized tax revenue.

Be smart! Graduate!

Help!

I would like to start a library literacy program with teen volunteers who are willing to partner with elementary school students who need to improve their reading and comprehension skills. Please contact me, if you are interested in volunteering and making a difference in your community! This is your chance to prevent future high school students from becoming dropouts and to change the statistics! Not to mention that it also looks good on college applications... ;) 

Sources

Graphs: 

Child Trends Data Bank. (2014). High School Dropout Rates. In Indicators. Retrieved from

http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=high-school-dropout-rates
Facts:
DoSomething.Org . (2015). 11 Facts About High School Dropouts. In Facts. Retrieved from
https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates
National Dropout Prevention Center . (2015). Economic Impacts of Dropouts. In Statistics.
Retrieved from http://www.dropoutprevention.org/statistics/quick-facts/economic-impactsdropouts