In case you missed it America’s Promise Alliance-Colin Powell’s organization-recently released a report on the graduation rates of our nation’s largest cities. Although challenges remain for school districts serving these cities, progress is being made. Over the past decade graduation rates in the majority of these cities have increased. BoardBuzzwould like to give a special shout out to NSBA‘s Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) members in Philadelphia, Tucson, and Kansas City, MO which made the largest gains-over 20 percentage points- in graduation rates during this period. Keep up the good work!!
Of course even with these increases the report points out that our nation’s cities still have a ways to go to close the graduation rate gap with their suburban neighbors. While about three quarters (77 percent) of suburban students graduate high school on-time, just over half (59 percent) of urban students do so. The report points out that narrowing this gap would not only increase future income for the individual graduate but would have a significant positive impact on the cities’ economies as a whole.
For more information on this report check out the Center for Public Education for a quick summary.
