High School Graduation Rates in the United States: Implications for the Counseling Profession

This article reviews a troubling report of a nationwide study of U.S. public high school graduation rates conducted by J. P. Greene (2001) of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. The statistics revealed that fewer students were graduating from high school in the United States than is being reported by school districts, states, and the National Center for Education Statistics. They also revealed that graduation rates were much lower for African American and Latino students than for White students. The author summarizes the research on the consequences of dropping out of school and discusses the implications of these findings for counselors and the counseling profession.