Trends over time in the educational attainments of single mothers

Abstract

Although high school dropout rates have been declining among members of virtually all major demographic groups, the dropout rates of single mothers remain high. This is troubling, given that the author finds that over the last quarter century single mothers who do not graduate from high school have been more likely to go on welfare than single mothers who do graduate. In fact, single mothers on welfare are more than twice as likely to be high school dropouts than are single mothers who are not on welfare. The author also discovers that the welfare participation rate of single white mothers who are high school dropouts has been rapidly rising and is approaching the welfare participation rate of black single mothers who are dropouts. Data are from March supplements of the Current Population Survey.