• Event Dropout Rates
• Status Dropout Rates
• High School Completion Rates
• Method of High School Completion

Event dropout rates for 1998 describe the proportion of youth ages 15-24 who dropped out of grades 10-12 in the 12 months preceding October 1998. Demographic data collected in the Current Population Survey (CPS) permit event dropout rates to be calculated across various individual characteristics, including race/ethnicity, sex, region of residence, and income level.

• About 5 out of every 100 young adults enrolled in high school in 1997 left school before October 1998 without successfully completing a high school program. This estimate of 4.8 percent (tables A and B) was similar to the estimates reported over the last 10 years, but lower than those reported in the early 1970s (figure A).

• Hispanic students were more likely than white and black students to leave school before completing a high school program: in 1998, 9.4 percent of Hispanic students were event dropouts, compared with 3.9 percent of white and 5.2 percent of black students (tables A and B). The event dropout rates of white students were not significantly different from those of black students.

• In 1998, young adults living in families with incomes in the lowest 20 percent of all family incomes were four times as likely as their peers from families in the top 20 percent of the income distribution to drop out of high school (table B).

• Although dropout rates were highest among students age 19 or older, about two-thirds (69 percent) of the current-year dropouts were ages 15 through 18; moreover, about one-third (34 percent) of the 1998 dropouts were ages 15 through 17 (table B).

Table A.—Percentage of 15- through 24-year-olds who dropped out of grades 10-12, percentage of 16- through 24-year-olds who were dropouts, and percentage of 18- through 24-year-olds who completed high school, by race/ethnicity: October 1998

Table B.—Event dropout rates and number and distribution of 15- through 24-year-olds who dropped out of grades 10-12, by background characteristics: October 1998

Over the last decade, between 350,000 and 550,000 10th- through 12th-grade students left school each year without successfully completing a high school program. Each year some of these young adults return to high school or enter an alternative certification program, and others pass out of this age group. Status dropout rates represent the proportion of young adults ages 16 through 24 who are out of school and who have not earned a high school credential.

• In October 1998, some 3.9 million young adults were not enrolled in a high school program and had not completed high school. These youths accounted for 11.8 percent of the 33 million 16- through 24-year-olds in the United States in 1998 (tables A and C). As noted with event rates, this estimate is consistent with the estimates reported over the last 10 years, but lower than those reported in the early 1970s (figure A).

• The status dropout rates of whites remain lower than those of blacks, but over the past quarter of a century, the difference between the rates of whites and blacks has narrowed. In addition, Hispanic young adults in the United States continue to have higher status dropout rates than do either their white or black counterparts (tables A and C).

• In 1998, 4.1 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander young adults were status dropouts, compared with 29.5 percent of Hispanics, 13.8 percent of blacks, and 7.7 percent of whites (tables A and C).

• Forty-four percent of Hispanic young adults born outside the 50 states and the District of Columbia were high school dropouts. Although the dropout rates of Hispanics born in the United States were lower than those of their Hispanic peers who were non-U.S.-born, they were higher than the dropout rates of non-Hispanics born in the United States (table C).

The high school completion rate represents the proportion of 18- through 24-year-olds who have completed a high school diploma or an equivalent credential, including a General Educational Development (GED) credential.

• In 1998, about 85 percent of all 18- through 24-year-olds not enrolled in high school had completed high school (tables A and D), a slight increase since the early 1970s (figure A).

• High school completion rates have increased for white and black young adults since the early 1970s, with rates of 90.2 percent for whites and 81.4 percent for blacks in 1998. However, Hispanic young adults have not shared in this improvement: 62.8 percent were reported as having completed high school in 1998 (tables A and D). In addition, Asian/Pacific Islander young adults in 1998 were more likely than their white, black, and Hispanic peers to complete high school.

Most young adults complete a regular diploma and graduate from high school; others complete high school by an alternative route, such as passing the GED test.

• During the 1990s, the percentage of young adults not enrolled in high school who have earned a high school credential has remained relatively unchanged; however, the percentage with an alternative certification increased from 4.9 percent in 1990 to 10.1 percent in 1998, and the percentage with regular diplomas decreased by a similar amount.

Table D.—High school completion rates and number and distribution of 18- through 24-year-old completers not currently enrolled in high school or below, by background characteristics: October 1998