Blacks Erase Gap In Graduation Rates 87 Percent Of Both Whites And Blacks Complete High School
The rate of blacks in their mid- to late 20s who have completed high school rose to nearly 87 percent last year - the same rate as for whites, the U.S. Census Bureau says.
The percentage of whites between the ages of 25 to 29 who have earned a high-school diploma or passed a high-school equivalency test has hovered around 87 percent for the past decade.
The rate for blacks, meanwhile, has risen from 80.6 percent in 1985 to 86.5 percent last year.
“They’re getting the message,” said Sandra Ford Johnson, director of school attendance and records for the District of Columbia’s public schools. “They’re realizing how tough it is to get employment out there without having a high-school education or without some secondary schooling.”
The findings released Thursday are based on data collected in the bureau’s Current Population Survey in March 1995.
The report says the education level for all adults 25 and older reached nearly 82 percent - the highest since it first was measured by the bureau in 1947.
The percentage of adults 25 and older who said they have completed at least high school peaked not only for the entire population but also for each sex and for both blacks and whites, the bureau said. The proportion of adults who have earned a bachelor’s degree also was at a record high - 23 percent last year.
In the general adult population, high-school completion rates for men and women were roughly equal at about 82 percent. But 26 percent of the men had earned college bachelor’s degrees compared with only 20 percent of the women.
In the 25-and-older category, sizable differences in the numbers of people who have completed high school remained between whites and blacks. Eighty-three percent of whites were high-school graduates compared with 74 percent for blacks.
But when the bureau looked at only the youngest segment of the adult population - 25- to 29-year-olds - blacks and whites were almost equal last year, at 87.4 percent for whites and 86.5 percent for blacks.
“This is a very profound change in one of the country’s long-running, deep-seated problems - the disparity between whites and blacks in education,” said Michael Casserly, director of the Council of the Great City Schools, which represents the nation’s 50 largest urban school districts.
People of Hispanic origin have the lowest proportions of completed education, the report said. “A contributing factor may be the large proportion of foreign-born Hispanics with less than a highschool education,” it said.
Fifty-three percent of Hispanic adults 25 and older are high-school graduates, up from 48 percent in 1985, the report said. The rate rises to 57 percent for 25- to 29-year-old Hispanics, but that’s still too low, said Gloria Zamora, director of the educational programs office for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities.
She said any gains reflect increased awareness of the importance of education and efforts by various organizations to keep Hispanic students in school.