Did you know that... The U.S. national graduation rate for the public school class of 2000 was 69%. The rate for white students was 76%; for Asian students it was 79%; for African-American students it was 55%; for Hispanic students it was 53%; and for Native Americans it was 57%. Wisconsin had the lowest graduation rate among African-American public school students with 41%, followed by Florida, Oregon, and Tennessee. The highest rate of graduation among African-American students was 74% in West Virginia, followed by Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Virginia. Mississippi had the lowest graduation rate among Hispanic public school students with 23%, followed by New York, Oregon, and Florida. The highest rate of graduation among Hispanic students was 73% in Louisiana, followed by Wyoming, Hawaii, and Virginia. Nebraska had the lowest graduation rate among Native American public school students with 40%, followed by Minnesota, Nevada, and Oregon. The highest rate of graduation among Native American students was 86% in Alabama, followed by Illinois, Oklahoma, and Texas. Graduation rates for African-American, Hispanic, and Native American public school students were particularly low in a number of states; for each group there were six different states with graduation rates below 50%. Rhode Island had the lowest graduation rate among Asian public school students with 66%, followed by Tennessee, Hawaii, and Massachusetts. The highest rate of graduation among Asian students was 95% in Illinois, followed by Missouri, Oklahoma, and Maryland. Florida had the lowest graduation rate among white public school students with 60%, followed by Tennessee, Georgia, and Alaska. The highest rate of graduation among white students was 89% in North Dakota, followed by South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) finds a national high school completion rate of 86.5% for the class of 2000. The discrepancy between the NCES’ finding and this report’s finding of a 69% rate is largely caused by NCES’ counting recipients of General Educational Development (GED) certificates and other alternate credentials as high school graduates, and by its reliance on a methodology that is likely to undercount dropouts. Source: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research at www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_31.htm. This website: Copyright © 2005 Dream World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or the previous publisher of original republished materials.