By 1966, about half of the workforce aged 25 and older had completed high school and about 10 percent had completed college. By 2006, more than 90 percent of adults in the labor force had a high-school education and more than 20 percent held at least a bachelor’s degree.
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.