I gathered this data on Graduation Rates from United States Public Schools by race from Education Weekly.
As you can see, graduation rates differ greatly between races. Students who identified as Asian or Pacific Islander had a 91% graduation rate, the highest out of all races. On the other hand, students who identified as American Indian or Alaska Native had a 72% graduation rate, the lowest out of all races and almost 20% lower than Asian/Pacific Islander. The chart also tells us that students who were English-Learners had a graduation rate of 67%, while students with disabilities had a graduation rate of only 66%.
I believe that this chart shows us that there are some issues with our education system. The low graduation rates for English Learners and Students with Disabilities tells us that schools should be dedicating more resources to these demographics. Students learning English or students with learning disabilities often face challenges that students without disabilities who speak English already do not face. In order to overcome these challenges and succeed, more educational resources need to be allocated in these areas.
I agree that the education system has flaws and needs to prioritize how and where resources are used. In terms of english learners and students with disabilities, I feel as though a large portion of the students who didn’t graduate could have resulted from them refusing to go to specialized classes and schools for the issues they are dealing with in the classroom. I do think there are a lot of issues with the education system and the graduation rates should be higher, but it would be interesting to see more information on where the numbers are coming from.
I think that reform on education is contingent on funding. It is clear that native Americans and native alaskans are underfunded and need help to raise the quality of their schools. I am also curious to know how the area where graduation rates are lower. does the area reflect the graduation rates.
Good read!
I think it’s weird that students with disabilities were included in this graph as if these students were another race because of their disability rather than their disability be just an intersection of their identity on top of their racial identity. What are the races of those with the disabilities in this graph?