The Facts
Achievement Academy of Durham directly addresses the problem of high school dropouts.
- Durham has a four-year graduation rate of only 52%
- North Carolina’s graduation rate, 63%, was ranked 42nd in the nation
- North Carolina’s graduation rate for African Americans was 55%
- North Carolina’s graduation rate for Latinos was 38%
- North Carolina’s graduation rate for Caucasians was 68%
| Education Level |
Median Annual Earnings |
| Below 9th Grade Education |
$18,868 |
| 9th – 12th Grade Education – Dropout |
$20,506 |
| HS or GED Graduate |
$27,384 |
| Some College |
$31,789 |
| Associate’s Degree |
$35,274 |
| Bachelor’s Degree and Above |
$50,929 |
Quella's Success Story
I am 17. When I was younger, my father slapped me around most of the time and my mother didn’t have time for me. One night when my father came home drunk, he beat me very badly. That was the first time life that I ever fought back, but it didn’t help me at all. That was the beginning of me rebelling against my father. By the time I was 13, my parents divorced. My mother started dating and seeing new people. I struggled with my mother because she put her ‘relationships’ before my sister and me. At 14 years old I was going through hell. I started having thoughts about killing myself and hurting the people around me. My life was defined by problems at school and problems at home. At 15 I was getting in fights and hanging out with the wrong crowd in school. I eventually got into a fight that resulted in my getting expelled from school for the rest of the year. At the age of 16 I had to start ninth grade all over again. That was very depressing and hard for me to face.
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