LOS ANGELES, March 24 (UPI) -- A report released Thursday said that the high-school dropout rate in California is higher than state officials admit, especially for black and Latino boys.
"Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis in California" was prepared by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
"Large urban school districts in California have become dropout factories," said Gary Orfield, the project's director. "The economic and social impacts of this dropout crisis are too enormous for Californians to ignore."
The California Education Department reports the overall graduation rate as 87 percent and does not provide statistics broken down by racial group. The Harvard report said that 57 percent of African-American students and 60 percent of Latino students graduate on time. The report said that 78 percent of white students and 84 percent of Asians graduate.
In all ethnic groups, girls had a higher graduation rate than boys.
Harvard has been doing state reports across the country in an effort to reduce racial disparities in education.
