Pennsylvania: Life as a Teenager - Graduation Gap

Every year in Pennsylvania, one out of five high school students fails to graduate. Of the 153,523 ninth graders who started high school in 2000-01, those not reaching graduation four years later (2003-04) totaled 33,349 or 21.7 percent - more than one in five students. Nationally, only 71 percent of ninth graders graduate four years later (National Education Summit on High Schools, NGA and Achieve, Inc., 2005).

(2005; Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children) (source: www.papartnerships.org/dropouts/index.asp)