Is the high school dropout rate an increasing function of the proportion of the population in the US cities that is Hispanic? Exploratory evidence.

This empirical note seeks to provide preliminary insights into factors that may have influenced the high school dropout rate in the US cities. For some 300-plus cities for the year 2011, OLS estimates reveal that the dropout rate is a decreasing function of both the per cent of the population that is Hispanic and per pupil public education spending at the elementary and secondary levels. In addition, the estimates find that the dropout rate is an increasing function of the per cent of the population that consisted of families with children and that was classified as being at or below the poverty level and the per cent of the population aged 25 years and older that did not have a high school diploma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]