Christopher B. Swanson, Ph.D.
Director
Editorial Projects in Education Research Center
Prepared with support from the America’s Promise Alliance
and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
APRIL 2009
Cities in Crisis 2009
Closing the Graduation Gap
Educational and Economic Conditions in America’s Largest Cities
Cover photograph: iStockphoto
Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Graduation Gap
Copyright © 2009 by Editorial Projects in Education, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication shall be
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Closing the Graduation Gap
EPE Research Center
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1. Introduction—The Rising Stakes of Graduation
The condition of the nation’s high schools stands as a central concern among both educators and policymakers. In particular,
independent research—once viewed as controversial but now increasingly acknowledged by elected and appointed officials in the
highest levels of government—has revealed a state of affairs in which three in ten students fail to finish high school with a diploma
and in which barely half of historically disadvantaged minority students graduate (Exhibit 1.1). The term “crisis” has frequently, and
rightly, been used to describe the challenges facing America’s high schools.
The extent to which graduation has factored into recent debates over educational reform, the nation’s economic vitality, and the
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