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News 
Tracking the Graduation GapPublication Date: June 22, 2005 With support from the Annie E. Casey and William Penn Foundations, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children (PPC) has released a fact sheet illustrating troubling high school dropout rates in the Commonwealth. PPC's analysis of Pennsylvania Department of Education data indicates that nearly 22 percent of the students who began ninth grade in 2000-01, did not graduate from high school in the same district. This “Graduation Gap” is particularly acute in urban areas -- 51 percent in Philadelphia, for example -- but rural and suburban schools are also losing young people before graduation at alarming rates. A number of school districts are trying to address the Graduation Gap through a variety of methods, including promoting more intimate learning environments, hiring career counselors to help students plan their futures more effectively, and implementing more rigorous core curriculum standards. PPC plans to explore these practices and their policy implications in a subsequent report. The fact sheet, including county-specific data on graduation gaps and child well-being indicators is available through PPC's site.
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