Ben Levin, former Deputy Minister for Education in Ontario and author of the new book, More High School Graduates, joins us to talk about what it will take to raise our extremely low high school graduation rates and save more kids from dropping out. Only 72% of American students who enter high school currently graduate — a huge problem for the kids and for our economy. But the problem is not limited to the so-called dropout factories. Even in the best schools in the U.S. there are kids who should graduate, but don’t. During Ben Levin’s tenure as Deputy Minister for Education over the last decade, high schools in Ontario raised their graduation rate from 68% to 81%. It can be done in the U.S. as well and Ben Levin talks about what it will take in this fascinating interview.
Q: Thank you for taking time to speak with us today, Ben. Let’s start out by talking about the big picture and look at the high school graduation situation today in the U.S. and why it’s imperative that schools, districts and states work to change this situation.
Ben Levin: Well I think this is pretty well known to most educators that a generation ago, you could do okay with a high school education or even without a high school education. You could go into what were pretty well paying and secure jobs in manufacturing, for example, and you could live out your life in them, and that’s just simply no longer the case. So the returns to advanced education in fact have actually have been increasing in the US and it’s more and more important that high school, which used to be quite a good qualification in the labor market, is now really the very basic qualification anyone has to have to be able to either proceed to more study, let alone to have a decent job and to be able to earn a decent living and have a decent life.
Q: Our current high school graduation rate of 72% in the US is highly problematic on so many levels, especially considering that the rate is even lower among African-American, Latino and Native American students. The costs to society, our economy, and to each individual who fails to graduate are enormous.