Chart of the Week: More Students Are Graduating High School than Ever Before
As students head back to school, Secretary Arne Duncan hit the road this week on the Department of Education’s annual back-to-school bus tour to discuss how we can help every student receive a complete and competitive education in order to reach their full potential.
After all, a high-quality education is a pre-requisite to success in today’s economy. It's a national imperative that every student graduate from high school prepared for college and for a career. And thanks to the dedication of our teachers and educators and the hard work of our students, more young people are graduating and earning their high school diplomas than ever before.
Check out the chart below to see how our high school graduation rate is the highest it has ever been -- then share it with everyone who needs to know.
Inspiring students to take charge of their own future by graduating high school and completing some form of postsecondary education is the focus of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher initiative. And under President Obama, college enrollment has already grown by almost 2 million students.
And to ensure every child has the opportunity of a higher education, the Obama administration is making comprehensive investments to get more students from high school through the college gates. The President’s Race to the Top initiative is a historic approach to spur change and improvement in America’s public schools by promoting college- and career-ready standards, improving teacher effectiveness, using data effectively in the classroom, and adopting rigorous strategies that will turn around America’s struggling schools.
The Obama administration has secured key investments in America’s teachers and educators, helping to preserve and create more than 400,000 teaching and education jobs in our schools. Under President Obama, we’ve increased funding for Pell Grants by more than $40 billion, allowing more students to receive these crucial grants to go to college and raising the maximum award by more than $900.
But the President knows there’s more work to do to help students afford higher education and earn a postsecondary credential or college degree. That's why he's working with Congress to keep student loan interest rates low and to help students manage their debt by capping repayment of loans at 10 percent of monthly income.
