child care - Digital Library Collections

L-__T.HE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK 1998
Spotlight on Education
Asolid education is a key to success for every child. It opens the door to good job opportunities
and is the surest route out of poverty for poor children. Today's college graduates can
expect to earn twice the wages ofhigh school graduates and nearly triple the wages ofa high
school dropout. Sadly, many young people leave school early or without acquiring essential
skills and knowledge. America's educational system is failing to prepare millions of our
chHdren for the future, particularly those with the greatest needs in the poorest communities in
America.
Expanded opportunities (or some. In the past 25 years America's educational system has
undergone many changes, and by several measures, progress has taken place. For some children,
access to education has dramatically improved. A 1974 CDF report, Children Out of
School in America, documented the plight of more than 2 million children not enrolled in
schools, including hundreds of thousands of children with disabilities. The following year,
Congress addressed the exclusion of these children with the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act (the forerunner oftoday's Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which was
reauthorized with strong bipartisan support in 1997). The 1975 law greatly expanded educational
opportunities for children with disabilities, marking one of the most significant changes
in education in the past 25 years.
Children Out ofSchool in America also focused on children excluded by language-"non­
English-speaking children who sit uncomprehendingly in classrooms conducted in English"­
and urged more resources for bilingual-bicultural programs. The Supreme Court, in its 1974
decision in Lau v. Nichols, ruled that public schools must provide appropriate services to
children with limited proficiency in English, thereby helping expand educational opportunities
for millions more children who had been denied them.
Academic advances have also occurred. National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) reports show modest but real gains in the reading and mathematics performance of
U.S. students from 1973 to 1996. Additionally, the gaps between Whites and Blacks in reading
and math achievement and high school graduation rates narrowed. In 1973, 80.2 percent of all
students had completed high school, but the figure for Whites, 84.0 percent, was much higher
than that for Blacks, 64.1 percent. By 1995 the overall percentage of young adults with a high
school diploma or an equivalency certificate had increased to 86.9 percent, and the differential
between White and Black students had shrunk from about 20 percentage points to less than 6
(92.5 percent of White students and 86.8 percent of Black students were graduates). High
school completion rates for Hispanic students, however, have changed little in 25 years and
continue to lag far behind those for Blacks and Whites, with only 52.3 percent of Hispanics in
1973 and 57.2 percent in 1995 receiving a high school diploma or equivalency certificate.
Progress halted. There are disturbing signs that progress has not been sustained. Almost all
of the improvement in educational performance and high school completion occurred in the
1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s the racial gap in academic achievement is either staying the same
or widening, depending on grade and subject area. According to NAEP data, the gap in reading
48 CHI LOR EN'S 0 E FEN S E FUN 0