However, most of the progress over the past forty years occurred in the 1970s and early 1980s. Since then, for example, the high-school graduation rate for 25-to-29-year-olds has not increased, and the college completion rate has risen only modestly (U.S. Department of Education, 2007b). One trend is particularly disappointing: Both high-school and college completion rates for minorities continue to lag.
3 Over the past ten years, the high-school completion rate for whites aged 25 to 29 hovered above 93 percent, while the rate for blacks of the same age stayed near 87 percent; the rate for Hispanics, though trending up over the period, was only 63 percent last year. The gaps in college completion are wider.