Get The Facts

A student drops out of high school every 26 seconds. That’s 1.2 million per year – or 6,000 a day.

More than a quarter of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.

Over two thirds of new jobs being created require college education or advanced training. 

Seventy percent of 8th graders can’t read at their grade level – and most will never catch up.  

In fact, more than 12 million students in grades 7-12 are taught academic courses by teachers who have no degree in the subject they’re teaching.

For each additional year of school, the odds that a student will someday commit a crime like murder or assault are reduced by almost one-third.

The majority of employers and college professors say today’s high school graduates do not have the skills to succeed.  The majority of high school graduates say they regret not learning more in high school.

Jobs that pay enough to support a family but do not require a bachelor's degree now demand the same level of preparation as college.

More than a third of middle and high school math classes are taught by someone who lacks even a college minor in a math related field.

Although 80 percent of tenth graders plan to earn a college degree, more than three in ten college freshmen have to repeat high school courses and nearly half fail to graduate.

Out of 24 countries, the U.S. was one of the only two that showed no increase in bachelor's degree attainment between 2000 and 2004.

Even America’s top math students rank 25th out of 30 countries when compared with top students elsewhere in the world.

25 million students attend school in states that have set proficiency standards for 4th grade reading below even the most basic level.

America’s high school graduation rate ranks 21st in the world. (Forty years ago, we were first.)

View the sources of these statistics here.