Drop Out Rates in New York and L.A. Schools

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L.A.: http://unitela.com/slcnewsmar05/html/dropout.html
Harvard researchers found an overall graduation rate of 71 percent for 2002. Graduation rates for non-Asian minority students were significantly lower, with a 57 percent rate for blacks, 60 percent for Latinos and 52 percent for American Indians. For minority males, the figures were even worse: 50 percent for blacks, 54 percent for Latinos and 46 percent for American Indians. Nearly 75 percent of the district's 746,000 students are Latino. In the LAUSD, just 39 percent of Latino students and 47 percent of African-American students graduate in four years. To comply with requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, districts in California are asked to have an 82.5 percent graduation rate. If they haven't reached that, they are expected to improve their current rate by at least one-tenth of 1 percent. Even so, the LAUSD failed to comply this year because the districtwide graduation rate fell to 67.7 percent from 72 percent.

New York: http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/si.../rising_rates/
While nationwide 50 percent of minority youth graduate within four years, in New York the figure stands at 35 percent.

Too many children are being left behind.