Graduation rates for African Americans in Missouri are above the national average for African Americans, according to data provided by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
In 2010, the most recent year comparative data were available, 64.9 percent of black students in Missouri graduated, compared to 61.7 percent of blacks nationwide.
These numbers reflected improvement from 2009, when blacks in the state also did better than nationwide. In 2009, 61 percent of black students in Missouri graduated, compared to 58.7 percent nationwide.
For all students, Missouri ranks eighth in the nation for graduating 80.7 percent of its high school students in 2010, according to the Diplomas Count 2013 report released by Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center.
This was the second year the state has been in the top 10 and the fourth consecutive year the state has seen growth in its graduation rate.
According to this report, the 2010 graduation rate in Missouri was 1.4 percent higher than in 2009, which was reported at 79.3 percent.
Improvement was seen in 2010 graduation rates for both black and white demographic groups in Missouri. The black subgroup increased 3.9 percent from 2009 (61 percent) to 2010 (64.9 percent). The white population increased slightly by .6 percent from 82.6 percent in 2009 to 83.2 percent in 2010.
Rates declined for individuals of Hispanic descent in Missouri. The Hispanic population dropped a mere .2 percent from 68.7 in 2009 to 68.5 in 2010.
Diplomas Count 2013 also included an analysis of “recoverable” youths – young adults between the ages of 16 and 21 who are not in school and who have not completed a high school education.
In Missouri, more than 39,000 individuals, or 7.7 percent of this age group, are considered recoverable and would benefit from educational intervention aimed at earning a diploma or other high school credential. Moreover, 68.4 percent of this group of recoverable youth in Missouri is not working.
The graduation rate also increased nationwide by 1.8 percent over the previous year, from 72.9 percent to 74.7 percent. According to the report, the current rate is the highest level of high school completion since 1973. While the U.S. is producing fewer dropouts, the report projects that one million students in the class of 2013 will fail to graduate.
More information about the Diplomas Count report can be found on Education Week’s website at www.edweek.org.
