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High
school dropouts: The gender gap
The high school dropout rate is declining.
Between 1970 and 1998, the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds who
dropped out of high school declined from 17.3 percent to 13.9 percent.
The characteristics of high school dropouts have also changed over
time. Twenty-five years ago, girls were more likely to drop out of
school than boys were. This trend reversed in the late 1970s, and
today, boys are more likely to drop out of high school than their
female classmates. The latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show
that the dropout rate among young women is less than 12 percent,
compared with 15.8 percent among males in the same age group. |
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