A study commissioned by former Secretary of State Colin Powell found that in the 50 largest US metropolitan areas, only 52% of pubic high school students graduate after four years.  

A study by the John Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools identified high-school "Dropout Factories," or schools with gradutation rates of 60% or lower.  Every non-magnet Dallas ISD high school is on that list. 

A Study issued by the America's Promise Alliance pegs the Dallas ISD's graduation rate as the 7th worst in the nation: 44.4%.

According to the Texas Education Agency's statistics, only 20% of students who graduate from Dallas ISD are college-ready.

Only 36.7% of Dallas ISD's graduates enroll in college - the lowest of any district in Texas.  But since only 20% of graduates are deemed college-ready, the remainder enter college without adequate preparation.

According to the Urban Institute, White students nationwide have a graduation rate of 75%, compared to 53% for Hispanics and 50% for Blacks.

The Advisory Committee on Student Aid notes that recent estimates indicate that financial barriers alone prevent nearly one-half of all college-qualified low- and moderate-income high school graduates from enrolling in a four-year program of college study. 

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, while the U.S. continues to lead the world in the proportion of adults with four-year degrees, the proportion of young adults enrolled in higher education is now higher in several other advanced nations than it is in the United States.

On average, those who graduate from a high school in a low-income community will only be able to read and do math at the level of eighth-graders in high-income communities, according Center for Urban Education.

Collegeboard.com notes that in 2003, black SAT test takers scored an average of 100 points lower on each section of the test than did their white counterparts.

The National Center for Education Statistics reveals that more than 60 percent of urban students are economically disenfranchised and participate in federal free- or reduced- meal programs.

The National Center on Education Statistics has demonstrated the following:

·        For both high- and low-income students, college attendance is related to achievement in secondary school. The higher the level of achievement, the better the chance a student will attend college, whether from a background of wealth or poverty.

·        At each achievement level, the advantage for upper-income students is hard to ignore. At the lowest achievement level, a wealthy student is about twice as likely to attend college as a low-income one.

·        Most remarkable of all, a high-achieving student of limited means has about the same chance of attending college (78 percent) as a low-achieving student from a more advantaged background (77 percent).