Friday, April 28, 2006
Tweet[IWS] EPI: RETHINKING HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATES [20 April 2006]
IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
Economic Policy Institute (EPI)
by Lawrence Mishel and Joydeep Roy
Rethinking High School Graduation Rates [20 April 2006]
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm?id=2335
or
http://www.epi.org/books/rethinking_hs_grad_rates/rethinking_hs_grad_rates-FULL_TEXT.pdf
[full-text, 108 pages]
See press release, 20 April 2006
http://www.epi.org/newsroom/releases/2006/04/060420-highschoolpr-final.pdf
[excerpt]
EPI president Lawrence Mishel and economist Joydeep Roy provide a rigorous examination of all of the possible data sources. The gold standard NELS data, which track individual students over time and verify diplomas against actual transcripts, show overall national graduation rates of 82%, and rates for black and Hispanic students of about 75%.
The authors show that other national surveys that either track individual students or survey households, such as the decennial Census and the Current Population Survey used to track unemployment, confirm these higher graduation rates. The decennial Census data for 2000, when corrected for various measurement problems, show that whites graduate with a regular diploma at a rate about 15 percentage points higher than blacks and about 13 points higher than Hispanics. However, the black-white graduation gap has shrunk greatly since the 1960s and the Hispanic-white gap has shrunk over the last 10 years (the only period for which the necessary data are available). "The very low graduation rates that are being cited are out of sync with what the most reliable data sources tell us," said Mishel. "We hope this report will clear the fog, create a better understanding of the true challenges we face and the progress we've made, and help lead the way to better targeted solutions for continuing to close the remaining gaps. Understanding where we are and how far we've come can help identify what has been working in American public education."
Table of contents
INTRODUCTION
I. Motivation: The debate
II. National longitudinal data
III. Graduation rates using school enrollment and diploma data
IV. Census Bureau Household Survey data
V. Using the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series from the 2000 census to assess high school completion and potential biases in the CPS
VI. Historical trends
VII. The General Education Development (GED) test issue
VIII. Comparing alternative measures of high school completion
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX A: National longitudinal studies
APPENDIX B: Case studies based on longitudinal data from Florida, Chicago, and New York City
APPENDIX C: Methodology of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) data analysis
Endnotes
References
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky *
Director, IWS News Bureau *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor *
New York, NY 10016 *
*
Telephone: (607) 255-2703 *
Fax: (607) 255-9641 *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu *
****************************************
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10016
________________________________________________________________________
Economic Policy Institute (EPI)
by Lawrence Mishel and Joydeep Roy
Rethinking High School Graduation Rates [20 April 2006]
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm?id=2335
or
http://www.epi.org/books/rethinking_hs_grad_rates/rethinking_hs_grad_rates-FULL_TEXT.pdf
[full-text, 108 pages]
See press release, 20 April 2006
http://www.epi.org/newsroom/releases/2006/04/060420-highschoolpr-final.pdf
[excerpt]
EPI president Lawrence Mishel and economist Joydeep Roy provide a rigorous examination of all of the possible data sources. The gold standard NELS data, which track individual students over time and verify diplomas against actual transcripts, show overall national graduation rates of 82%, and rates for black and Hispanic students of about 75%.
The authors show that other national surveys that either track individual students or survey households, such as the decennial Census and the Current Population Survey used to track unemployment, confirm these higher graduation rates. The decennial Census data for 2000, when corrected for various measurement problems, show that whites graduate with a regular diploma at a rate about 15 percentage points higher than blacks and about 13 points higher than Hispanics. However, the black-white graduation gap has shrunk greatly since the 1960s and the Hispanic-white gap has shrunk over the last 10 years (the only period for which the necessary data are available). "The very low graduation rates that are being cited are out of sync with what the most reliable data sources tell us," said Mishel. "We hope this report will clear the fog, create a better understanding of the true challenges we face and the progress we've made, and help lead the way to better targeted solutions for continuing to close the remaining gaps. Understanding where we are and how far we've come can help identify what has been working in American public education."
Table of contents
INTRODUCTION
I. Motivation: The debate
II. National longitudinal data
III. Graduation rates using school enrollment and diploma data
IV. Census Bureau Household Survey data
V. Using the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series from the 2000 census to assess high school completion and potential biases in the CPS
VI. Historical trends
VII. The General Education Development (GED) test issue
VIII. Comparing alternative measures of high school completion
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX A: National longitudinal studies
APPENDIX B: Case studies based on longitudinal data from Florida, Chicago, and New York City
APPENDIX C: Methodology of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) data analysis
Endnotes
References
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
# posted by SBasefsky : 9:55 AM
