Graduate Race-Divide Getting Worse

Black and Hispanic teenagers in New York state graduate from high school at roughly half the rate of white students — nearly the largest disparity in the nation, a new study shows.

While the 81-percent high school graduation rate for whites in New York held steady between 1997 and 2002 — the years the study examined — the rates slipped to 42 percent from 47 percent for blacks and to 36 percent from 39 percent for Hispanics.

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