Graduation Rate Report Prompts Raise in High School Funding
Graduation Rate Report Prompts Raise in High School Funding
Just one day after a report released by nonprofit organization America's Promise Alliance claimed that the national high school graduation rate is rising; the U.S. Department of Education announced that it will provide "an unprecedented amount of aid to turn around struggling high schools."
Following the economic stimulus plan of 2009, the government has put $3.5 billion toward improving the nation's schools that have maintained consistently low performance rates. To date, 730 schools across the country have developed strategies to improve the academic performance of their students and to increase their chances of success after graduation. Nearly half of these schools are high schools; a surprising fact as federal aid is typically used to fund elementary and middle schools that qualify for Title Ia section of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that provides funding to school districts with high percentages of low-income families.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that in the past, high schools that performed poorly were often overlooked by the turnaround efforts of school districts, which often focused their attention at children of a younger age. But these high schools are receiving an average of $1.5 million "to implement staff shake-ups, leadership changes or other major interventions."
Education reform has been a hot-topic for quite some time. The No Child Left Behind law was passed by Congress under the Bush administration in 2001; a year when the national high school graduation rate had fallen to 72 percent. The rate reached a high point in the year 1970 at 78 percent and today, it lingers around 75 percent.