High School Dropout Rate Is Highest in This State

High school dropouts surged during the coronavirus pandemic, and not all states have seen their numbers inch back to normal rates.

High school dropout statistics vary significantly based on the state and its education system, with some states falling undeniably to the bottom of the pack.

In a new study from Teach Simple, five states were ranked the worst for their high school dropout rates: New Mexico, Nevada, Louisiana, Arizona and Mississippi.

New Mexico had the highest dropout rate across the board at 8.51 percent, with the other states all resting between 7.42 and 6.87 percent.

“Recent reports revealed that since the pandemic, an estimated 50,000 students were missing from any kind of U.S. school,” Cole Vineyard, the founder of Teach Simple, said in a statement. “Therefore, teachers across the country face a huge responsibility of educating the next generation, and with more resources and support, the more achievable this will be.”

Meanwhile, on the other end, a few states stood out from the rest of the pack, boasting far higher graduation rates than the national average. In the top ranking was New Jersey, which saw a high school dropout rate of just 3.25 percent. Behind that, Massachusetts, Virginia, Hawaii and Connecticut also had some of the lowest rates, all between 3.49 and 3.69 percent.

The numbers reflected Teach Simple’s other study looking at most and least educated states based on factors like average ACT scores and the number of people in state-run adult education programs.

In that study, Massachusetts was ranked as the most educated state, with a score of 81.09 out of 100. Meanwhile, New Mexico once again came in dead last with a low score of 23.9 out of 100. Across the state, only 30 percent of people over age 25 have a Bachelor’s degree or higher.

According to Tiffany Sorya, the founder of homeschooling agency Novel Education Group, many things can affect how successful a student is in a public school program.

Typically, performance is impacted by class size and funding, but safety and instructors also have a huge influence on high school dropout rates, she said.

“Our families in New Mexico seek out homeschooling due not only to complete lack of flexibility from the schooling system but also parents being disappointed in the quality of teachers,” Sorya told Newsweek.

In the cases of New Mexico and other low-tier states like Louisiana and Arizona, money might be the fundamental make-or-break factor.

“Unfortunately, it really often boils down budget, funds for hiring and keeping enough quality teachers to handle the amount of students in the public school classrooms,” Sorya said, adding that states with higher teacher salaries tend to produce higher ACT scores.

Altogether, teacher quality may be the strongest predictor of student achievement, Sorya said, but finding and recruiting the best of the best educators can be difficult if the budget is not there.

“Budget cuts surely have an impact on the quality of public-school education with funds declining over the past decades,” Sorya said. “Teachers are asked to do more, but there is not the funding to support this. In the end, it is the students who are the losers.”

When schools don’t support students with digital learning plans and tutoring outside of the classroom, dropout rates often soar, especially during a challenging education time that teachers and students navigated during the pandemic.

New Mexico, the lowest-ranking state, has addressed its lower education outcomes this year by implementing a new rule that would mandate school calendars to be at least 180 days long. The state is also looking into literacy programs at the Kindergarten level as well as technical education and internship programs to help students stay motivated.

“We’ve been the last and the worst performing state in the union. We know that this isn’t reflective of who we are, and we’re going to do everything we can to challenge and change that,” New Mexico Public Education Secretary Arsenio Romero told The Associated Press. “This is about doing what’s right for kids, even if it’s hard.”

Last spring, New Mexico state testing found just 38 percent of students were proficient in reading, with math proficiency at a stark 24 percent.