The American High School Graduate

Christian Party

Far worse for the US education system than scoring dead last on 17 of 34 TIMSS subject areas, and spending twice as much as a percent of GDP for education than those countries whose 12th graders scored more than 100 TIMSS points higher than ours, is failing to graduate more than twenty five million 18 year olds from high school over the last three decades.

	One third of American 18 year olds don't even graduate from high school.
	The two thirds in High School scored dead last on 17 of 34 TIMSS subject areas.
	No classroom has fewer students per teacher than American high schools.
	Our education system created a very Naive American Woman Voter.

highschoolgraduates.gif (34581 bytes)

Considering how much we spend for education, this failure is a CRIME against humanity.

Even though the following table is missing some key information, it's a serious indictment of our failure in education. While it shows that only one country, South Africa, scored lower than the US, a far more important point is that none of the much higher scoring Asian nations, the ones who scored as much as 150 TIMSS points higher than the US, are on the list. So where the highest scoring students, boys in Denmark, scored 227 points higher than the lowest scoring students, girls in South Africa, it omits the millions of Asian students who scored at least another 100 points higher than that.

Population by age and state http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/nation/e90s/

SAT test takers http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/ce/c9622d01.html

Year	HS grads 1,000s	SAT takers 1,000s	% of HS grads	% mino rities	Mean	Verb al Mean	std Dev	% over 600	Math Mean	std Dev	% over 600	Est Number 18 year olds 1,000s	18 Yr olds 1,000s	% 18 Year Olds who graduate HS	Nbr 18 Year Olds Who Didn't Grad uate 1,000s
1972	3,001	1,023	34.1	--	937	453	111	11	484	115	17	3,927	3,927	76.4%	926
1973	3,036	1,015	33.4	--	926	445	108	10	481	113	16	4,022	4,022	75.5%	986
1974	3,073	985	32.1	--	924	444	110	10	480	116	17	4,098	4,098	75.0%	1,025
1975	3,133	996	31.8	--	906	434	109	8	472	115	15	4,209	4,209	74.4%	1,076
1976	3,148	1,000	31.8	15	903	431	110	8	472	120	17	4,302	4,302	73.2%	1,154
1977	3,155	979	31	16.1	899	429	110	8	470	119	16	4,307	4,307	73.3%	1,152
1978	3,127	989	31.6	17	897	429	110	8	468	118	15	4,309	4,309	72.6%	1,182
1979	3,117	992	31.8	17.1	894	427	110	7	467	117	15	4,349	4,349	71.7%	1,232
1980	3,043	992	32.6	17.9	890	424	110	7	466	117	15	4,357	4,357	69.8%	1,314
1981	3,020	994	32.9	18.1	890	424	110	7	466	117	14	4,277	4,172	72.4%	1,152
1982	2,995	989	33	18.3	893	426	110	7	467	117	15	4,213	4,133	72.5%	1,138
1983	2,888	963	33.3	18.9	893	425	109	7	468	119	16	4,102	4,028	71.7%	1,140
1984	2,767	965	34.9	19.7	897	426	110	7	471	119	17	3,909	3,799	72.8%	1,032
1985	2,677	977	36.5	20	906	431	111	7	475	119	17	3,750	3,695	72.4%	1,018
1986	2,643	1,001	37.9	20.9	906	431	110	8	475	121	17	3,661	3,607	73.3%	964
1987	2,694	1,080	40.1	21.8	906	430	111	8	476	122	18	3,658	3,667	73.5%	973
1988	2,773	1,134	40.9	23	904	428	109	7	476	120	17	3,740	3,780	73.4%	1,007
1989	2,727	1,088	39.9	25.3	903	427	111	8	476	121	18	3,822	3,906	69.8%	1,179
1990	2,588	1,026	39.7	26.6	900	424	111	7	476	123	18	3,849	3,671	70.5%	1,083
1991	2,493	1,033	41.4	28	896	422	111	7	474	123	17	3,824	3,425	72.8%	932
1992	2,483	1,034	41.6	28.5	899	423	112	7	476	123	18	3,805	3,360	73.9%	877
1993	2,481	1,044	42.1	30	902	424	113	7	478	125	19	3,785	3,331	74.5%	850
1994	2,479	1,050	42.4	31	902	423	113	7	479	124	18	3,765	3,326	74.5%	847
1995	2,553	1,068	41.8	31	910	428	113	8	482	127	21	3,745	3,586	71.2%	1,033
Total	68,094												93,365	72.9%	25,271

The following international comparison of school-age populations is from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001034.pdf

17yoinhighschoolcountry.gif (55237 bytes)

Table 102.

Public high school graduates, by state: 1969-70 to 1999-2000

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             | Percent
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |   Estimated |   Estimated | change,
          State          |    1969-70  | 1979-80  | 1980-81  | 1985-86  | 1990-91  | 1995-96  |1996-97\1\|1997-98\1\|    1998-99  |   1999-2000 |1990-91 to
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             | 1999-2000
 ________________________|_____________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|_____________|_____________|__________
            1            |       2     |    3     |    4     |    5     |    6     |    7     |    8     |    9     |       10    |       11    |    12
 ________________________|_____________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|_____________|_____________|__________
    United States .......|   2,588,639 |2,747,678 |2,725,285 |2,382,616 |2,234,893 |2,273,109 |2,358,403 |2,440,288 |\2\2,485,024 |\2\2,545,317 |     13.9
                         |_____________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|_____________|_____________|__________
 Alabama ................|      45,286 |   45,190 |   44,894 |   39,620 |   39,042 |   35,043 |   35,611 |   38,089 |      39,133 |      37,893 |     -2.9
 Alaska .................|       3,297 |    5,223 |    5,343 |    5,464 |    5,458 |    5,945 |    6,133 |    6,462 |       6,450 |       6,975 |     27.8
 Arizona ................|      22,040 |   28,633 |   28,416 |   27,533 |   31,282 |   30,008 |   34,082 |   36,361 |\3\   38,285 |      42,369 |     35.4
 Arkansas ...............|      26,068 |   29,052 |   29,577 |   26,227 |   25,668 |   25,094 |   25,146 |   26,855 |      27,719 |\3\   26,622 |      3.7
 California .............|     260,908 |  249,217 |  242,172 |  229,026 |  234,164 |  259,071 |  269,071 |  282,897 |\3\  291,888 |\3\  303,169 |     29.5
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 Colorado ...............|      30,312 |   36,804 |   35,897 |   32,621 |   31,293 |   32,608 |   34,231 |   35,794 |\4\   36,958 |\3\   38,078 |     21.7
 Connecticut ............|      34,755 |   37,683 |   38,369 |   33,571 |   27,290 |   26,319 |   27,029 |   27,885 |      28,587 |      29,858 |      9.4
 Delaware ...............|       6,985 |    7,582 |    7,349 |    5,791 |    5,223 |    5,609 |    5,953 |    6,439 |\4\    6,322 |       6,356 |     21.7
 District of Columbia\5\ |       4,980 |    4,959 |    4,848 |    3,875 |    3,369 |    2,696 |    2,853 |    2,777 |\4\    2,675 |\3\    2,530 |    -24.9
 Florida ................|      70,478 |   87,324 |   88,755 |   83,029 |   87,419 |   89,242 |   95,082 |   98,498 |\4\   98,933 |      99,930 |     14.3
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 Georgia ................|      56,859 |   61,621 |   62,963 |   59,082 |   60,088 |   56,271 |   58,996 |   58,525 |      60,229 |      66,635 |     10.9
 Hawaii .................|      10,407 |   11,493 |   11,472 |    9,958 |    8,974 |    9,387 |    8,929 |    9,670 |\3\   10,418 |      10,152 |     13.1
 Idaho ..................|      12,296 |   13,187 |   12,679 |   12,059 |   11,961 |   14,667 |   15,407 |   15,523 |\4\   15,704 |      15,700 |     31.3
 Illinois ...............|     126,864 |  135,579 |  136,795 |  114,319 |  103,329 |  104,626 |  110,170 |  114,611 |     112,557 |     111,230 |      7.6
 Indiana.................|      69,984 |   73,143 |   73,381 |   59,817 |   57,892 |   56,330 |   57,463 |   58,899 |      58,341 |      58,364 |      0.8
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 Iowa ...................|      44,063 |   43,445 |   42,635 |   34,279 |   28,593 |   31,689 |   32,986 |   36,008 |      34,447 |      34,149 |     19.4
 Kansas .................|      33,394 |   30,890 |   29,397 |   25,587 |   24,414 |   25,786 |   26,648 |   27,856 |      28,621 |      28,964 |     18.6
 Kentucky ...............|      37,473 |   41,203 |   41,714 |   37,288 |   35,835 |   36,641 |   36,941 |   37,270 |      36,956 |      36,956 |      3.1
 Louisiana ..............|      43,641 |   46,297 |   46,199 |   39,965 |   33,489 |   36,467 |   36,495 |   38,030 |      37,440 |\3\   35,184 |      5.1
 Maine ..................|      14,003 |   15,445 |   15,554 |   13,006 |   13,151 |   11,795 |   12,019 |   12,171 |\4\   12,671 |      12,871 |     -2.1
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 Maryland ...............|      46,462 |   54,270 |   54,050 |   46,700 |   39,014 |   41,785 |   42,856 |   44,555 |\4\   46,821 |      48,106 |     23.3
 Massachusetts ..........|      63,865 |   73,802 |   74,831 |   60,360 |   50,216 |   47,993 |   49,008 |   50,452 |\3\   50,452 |\3\   50,537 |      0.6
 Michigan ...............|     121,000 |  124,316 |  124,372 |  101,042 |   88,234 |   85,530 |   89,695 |   92,732 |      94,200 |     100,600 |     14.0
 Minnesota ..............|      60,480 |   64,908 |   64,166 |   51,988 |   46,474 |   50,481 |   48,193 |   54,494 |\4\   57,048 |      57,603 |     23.9
 Mississippi ............|      29,653 |   27,586 |   28,083 |   25,134 |   23,665 |   23,032 |   23,388 |   24,502 |      24,022 |      26,375 |     11.5
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 Missouri................|      55,315 |   62,265 |   60,359 |   49,204 |   46,928 |   49,011 |   50,543 |   52,031 |\3\   51,796 |\3\   53,500 |     14.0
 Montana ................|      11,520 |   12,135 |   11,634 |    9,761 |    9,013 |   10,139 |   10,322 |   10,656 |      10,877 |      10,893 |     20.9
 Nebraska ...............|      21,280 |   22,410 |   21,411 |   17,845 |   16,500 |   18,014 |   18,636 |   19,719 |      20,173 |\3\   22,093 |     33.9
 Nevada .................|       5,449 |    8,473 |    9,069 |    8,784 |    9,370 |   10,374 |   12,425 |   13,052 |\4\   13,259 |      13,922 |     48.6
 New Hampshire ..........|       8,516 |   11,722 |   11,552 |   10,648 |   10,059 |   10,094 |   10,487 |   10,843 |      10,211 |      10,383 |      3.2
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 New Jersey .............|      86,498 |   94,564 |   93,168 |   78,781 |   67,003 |   67,704 |   70,028 |   65,106 |\3\   66,777 |\3\   68,946 |      2.9
 New Mexico .............|      16,060 |   18,424 |   17,915 |   15,468 |   15,157 |   15,402 |   15,700 |   16,529 |\4\   17,317 |      17,254 |     13.8
 New York ...............|     190,000 |  204,064 |  198,465 |  162,165 |  133,562 |  134,401 |  140,861 |  138,531 |     140,200 |     141,800 |      6.2
 North Carolina .........|      68,886 |   70,862 |   69,395 |   65,865 |   62,792 |   57,014 |   57,886 |   59,292 |\4\   59,776 |      61,463 |     -2.1
 North Dakota ...........|      11,150 |    9,928 |    9,924 |    7,610 |    7,573 |    8,027 |    8,025 |    8,170 |\4\    8,422 |       8,635 |     14.0
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 Ohio ...................|     142,248 |  144,169 |  143,503 |  119,561 |  107,484 |  102,098 |  107,422 |  111,211 |\3\  115,000 |\3\  115,000 |      7.0
 Oklahoma ...............|      36,293 |   39,305 |   38,875 |   34,452 |   33,007 |   33,060 |   33,536 |   35,213 |      35,858 |      36,759 |     11.4
 Oregon .................|      32,236 |   29,939 |   28,729 |   26,286 |   24,597 |   26,570 |   27,720 |   27,754 |\4\   28,678 |      28,700 |     16.7
 Pennsylvania ...........|     151,014 |  146,458 |  144,645 |  122,871 |  104,770 |  105,981 |  108,817 |  110,919 |     112,310 |     114,160 |      9.0
 Rhode Island ...........|      10,146 |   10,864 |   10,719 |    8,908 |    7,744 |    7,689 |    7,850 |    8,074 |       8,088 |       7,498 |     -3.2
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 South Carolina .........|      34,940 |   38,697 |   38,347 |   34,500 |   32,999 |   30,182 |   30,829 |   31,951 |      34,000 |      34,500 |      4.5
 South Dakota ...........|      11,757 |   10,689 |   10,385 |    7,870 |    7,127 |    8,532 |    9,247 |    9,140 |       8,991 |       9,420 |     32.2
 Tennessee ..............|      49,000 |   49,845 |   50,648 |   43,263 |   44,847 |   43,792 |   41,617 |   39,866 |\4\   40,823 |\3\   41,719 |     -7.0
 Texas ..................|     139,046 |  171,449 |  171,665 |  161,150 |  174,306 |  171,844 |  181,794 |  197,186 |     203,541 |     212,966 |     22.2
 Utah ...................|      18,395 |   20,035 |   19,886 |   19,774 |   22,219 |   26,293 |   30,753 |   31,567 |\4\   31,574 |      32,303 |     45.4
                         |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 Vermont ................|       6,095 |    6,733 |    6,424 |    5,794 |    5,212 |    5,867 |    6,181 |    6,469 |\4\    6,482 |       6,763 |     29.8
 Virginia ...............|      58,562 |   66,621 |   67,126 |   63,113 |   58,441 |   58,166 |   60,587 |   61,777 |\3\   65,345 |\3\   66,868 |     14.4
 Washington .............|      50,425 |   50,402 |   50,046 |   45,805 |   42,514 |   49,862 |   51,609 |   53,679 |      54,473 |      57,246 |     34.7
 West Virginia...........|      26,139 |   23,369 |   23,580 |   21,870 |   21,064 |   20,335 |   19,573 |   20,164 |\4\   19,498 |      19,582 |     -7.0
 Wisconsin ..............|      66,753 |   69,332 |   67,743 |   58,340 |   49,340 |   52,651 |   55,189 |   57,607 |      58,330 |      59,438 |     20.5
 Wyoming ................|       5,363 |    6,072 |    6,161 |    5,587 |    5,728 |    5,892 |    6,381 |    6,427 |\4\    6,348 |       6,300 |     10.0
                         |=============|==========|==========|==========|==========|==========|==========|==========|=============|=============|==========
    Outlying areas       |             |          |          |          |          |          |          |          |             |             |
 American Samoa .........|\6\      367 |      --- |      --- |      608 |      597 |      719 |      710 |      665 |\3\      679 |\3\      698 |     16.9
 Guam ...................|         972 |      --- |      --- |      840 |    1,014 |      --- |    1,103 |      923 |\3\      926 |\3\      936 |     -7.7
 Northern Marianas ......|         --- |      --- |      --- |      --- |      273 |      325 |      309 |      374 |\3\      388 |\3\      403 |     47.6
 Puerto Rico ............|      24,917 |      --- |      --- |   31,597 |   29,329 |   29,499 |   29,692 |   29,881 |\3\   30,026 |\3\   30,373 |      3.6
 Virgin Islands .........|\6\      432 |      --- |      --- |    1,044 |      981 |      937 |    1,076 |    1,069 |\3\    1,024 |\3\      988 |      0.7
 ________________________|_____________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|__________|_____________|_____________|__________

---Not available.
\1\Revised from previously published data.
\2\National total includes estimates for nonreporting states.
\3\Data imputed by the National Center for Education Statistics based on previous year's data.
\4\Actual count.
\5\Beginning in 1985-86, graduates from adult programs are excluded.
\6\Data are for 1970-71.

NOTE: Data include graduates of regular day school programs, but exclude graduates of other programs and persons receiving high school equivalency certificates. Some data have been revised from previously published figures. All 1998-99 and

1999-2000 data are state estimates unless otherwise indicated.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data surveys. (This table was prepared April 2000.)