Facing The Influence of Poverty on Graduation Rates in Public High Schools

46.2 million Americans live below the official poverty line (Census Bureau, 2011). Nationally, only about two-thirds of all students who enter 9th grade are able to graduate with traditional high school diplomas. This paper examines the influence of poverty on graduation rates in public high schools in the United States for the 2007-2008 school year. We seek a correlation between the graduation rates and the poverty rates in 50 states and the District of Columbia. Graduation rates and poverty rates were analyzed through Correlation Analysis (bivariate analysis). The result indicates that there is a negative moderate association between graduation and poverty rates (r=- 0.530).