An important point: the high school dropout rate has been declining for many years. In the past, students who weren’t making it would simply stop attending. Now

An important point: the high school dropout rate has been declining for many years. In the past, students who weren’t making it would simply stop attending. Now they are mostly still in school, and probably not doing a whole lot better, which makes the stats look like they are getting worse. Overall dropout rate has dropped by nearly 50% since 1972: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/02/u-s-high-school-dropout-rate-reaches-record-low-driven-by-improvements-among-hispanics-blacks/ft_14-10-01_h-s-dropout_2/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/02/u-s-high-sc...