How Educated Are We - High School Graduates

The percentage of 17-year-olds graduating high school soared in the 100 years from 1870 to 1970, reaching a peak of 76.9%¹ in 1970. Since then, the percentage of graduates has fallen to 70.6%. The fluctuations in the percentage of graduates from 1970 to 2000 could be explained by the fluctuations in the number of dropouts during this time period. From 1970 to1980, the number of dropouts increased by nearly 550,000. From 1980 to 1990, nearly 1.4 million fewer students dropped out. But, there was another slight increase in the number of dropouts (112,000) from 1990 to 1999².

Before 1874, high schools were rare. In the colonial days, Latin grammar schools were the secondary schools. They taught Latin and Greek grammar to prepare a few boys to attend Harvard. The first Latin grammar school was established in 1635. In the early 19th century, Latin grammar schools lost favor. Academies replaced them. These were private secondary schools that taught more varied and "practical" courses. Public high schools became more popular after the Kalamazoo case of 1874: the Supreme Court of Michigan held that school districts should support high schools with taxes. Because high schools were free and trained students for jobs in our industrializing society, more and more students (who may not have been able to attend private schools for economic reasons) attended these public high schools.

The rise in graduation rates coincided with new laws mandating school attendance and curbing child labor. In 1842, Connecticut enacted a law prohibiting the employment of any child under 15 without proof of school attendance. By 1918, all states had enacted compulsory attendance laws. Later legislation expanded these early statues. Most states now make it mandatory to attend school until at least age 16. The Fair Labor Standards Act also restricts the hours and type of work done by children under 18. As the 20th century progressed, so did economic prosperity. Families needed fewer hands to support the common enterprise. As a result dropout rates decreased and graduation rates soared. The drop in graduation rates in the last 30 years may have been due to a belief that getting a General Education Development certificate (GED) was equivalent to getting a high school diploma. States that made it easier for students to take the GED experienced higher dropout rates³.

Starting around 1900, the percentage of students graduating from public high schools was much greater than the percentage of those graduating from private schools. The popularity of private high schools was still high — nearly 35% of graduates came from such institutions. But this waned in the next 40 years to a low of 6.4% in 1940. The 14% decline from 1920 to 1930 may have been due to the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression. Fewer people had money to spend on private education. After World War II, economic prosperity was on the rise, but most of us still sent our children to public schools. During the 1950s and 1960s, the percentage of graduates from private high schools saw a slight increase (11.4% in 1950 and 12.4% in 1960). In the 1970 to 2000 period, it has been about 10%.

Next we'll look at college and university graduates.

Sources: U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Digest of Education Statistics 2000. Online. Available: http://nces.ed.gov. March 19,2002. Education history data: College of Education Online. University of Arkansas at Little Rock. "American Education." Online. Available: http://www.ualr.edu. March 20, 2002. U.S. Department of Labor. Employment Standards Administration. Wage and Hour Division. "Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards (FLSA) For Nonagricultural Occupations." Online. Available: http://www.dol.gov. November 29, 2001. Vicky Grocke. "Compulsory Education." History of American Education Project. Online. Available: http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/compulso.html. March 21, 2002. Jay P. Greene. "GED proves it's not equivalent to high school degree." Detroit News, 7 April 2002.