The Forgotten Half Revisited
American Youth and Young Families, 1988-2008
The following is an excerpt from our new publication -- The Forgotten Half Revisited
Unless otherwise indicated, these data derive from tabulations of the Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University.
| Good News | Bad News |
|---|---|
| The percentage of Americans age 16 or over who completed a high school diploma or GED rose from 29.2 percent in 1990 to 32.1 percent in1997, while those earning a bachelor's degree or higher rose from 17.8 to 21.0 percent. | Educational attainment continues to be heavily influenced by family income. High school graduation rates for those in the lowest family income quartile are 25 percent lower than for those in the top quartile, while those in the top in income quartile may be as much as ten times more likely to earn a college degree than those in the bottom quartile. (Barton, 1997) |
| The nation's annual dropout rate for youth age 16 or over fell from 9.5 percent in 1985 to six percent in 1991, (but then rose again to 7.3 percent in 1996). "The Forgotten Half" (those adults with 12 grades of schooling or less) fell from 46.4 percent in 1990 to 44.2 percent in 1997. | Despite a strong economy and generally rising educational attainment, the full- and part-time employment rates of 16-24 year-olds in 1997 were one to three percentage points lower than in 1989. Minority youth had full-time employment rates 20 to 30 percentage points below their white counterparts |
| Among 16-24 year-olds, those enrolling in a postsecondary education program leading to a degree rose from 35.5 percent in 1983 to 47.4 percent in 1996, a one-third increase in only 13 years. The high school graduating class of 1996 enrolled in two- and four-year colleges at a record 65 percent. | In March 1997, more than one-quarter of out-of-school youth, although working full-time, were earning less than poverty line income standard for a four-person family. Young men under age 25 were earning about one-third less (inflation-adjusted) than their counterparts were earning a generation earlier; young women 16.5 percent less. |
| Parent's educational levels rose sharply from 1970 to 1990: The percentage of fathers with less than a high school education declined from 43 to 19; mothers with less than a 12th grade education fell from 38 to 17 percent. Fathers with a bachelors degree or higher rose from 13 to 23 percent. (Condition of Education 1997) | Except for children living in families headed by four-year college graduates, poverty rates for children were higher in 1997 than in 1989. |
| African American stuents today are almost as likely to earn a high school diploma as are white students. The percentage of blacks ages 25-29 who completed high school rose from 58.8 percent in 1971 to 86 percent in 1996. But only 42.5 percent of graduates earned an educational credential beyond high school within ten years of their graduation, compared with 52.7 percent of whites. (Nettles, 1997) | Home ownership among young families fell from 49 percent in 1980 to 38 percent in the 1990s. |
| Annual earnings for African Americans who earned associate's, bachelors' and advanced degrees were comparable to whites, but those with only a high school diploma earned less than their white counterparts. | The number of incarcerated young men under age 25 doubled between 1986 and 1995. Ten percent of all 20-29 year-old males were either in jail, in prison, on probation or on parole. |
| Of the four million births annually, one in eight is to a teenager;one in four to an unmarried mother; one in four to a mother with less than a high school education; one in three to a mother living in poverty. (Zill, 1992) | |
| Among teenage mothers ages 15-17, those who are unmarried tripled from 23 percent in 1950 to 84 percent in 1996. Older unmarried teen births (ages 18-19) increased eightfold, from nine percent in 1950 to 71 percent in 1996. | |
| The rate of teen (15-19) deaths by accident, homicide and suicide rose between 1985 and 1995 from 63 to 65 per 100,000. (Kids Count, 1998) | |
| The juvenile violent crime arrest rate (ages 10-17) rose from 305 to 507 per 100,000 between 1985 and 1995. (Kids Count, 1998) | |
| The teen birth rate (per 1,000 females ages 15-17) rose from 31 to 36 between 1985 and 1995. (Kids Count, 1998) | |
| The percentage of families with children headed by a single parent rose from 22 to 26 between 1985 and 1995. (Kids Count, 1998) Black children are three times as likely as whites to live in a single-parent family. |