Dropout rates for the 2009-2010 school year have increased by six students from last year’s low number of four. Freedom’s average dropout rate hovered around 10 students yearly between the 2000-2001 and the 2006-2007 school years. Starting with the 2007-2008 year, rates greatly dropped to only three students dropping out, followed by four the next year. The number has spiked back up to ten this school year. With an average each of these years of 580 students, we’re standing with a drop out percentage of 5.8, compared to .01 percent last year. Dropout rates throughout the Beaver County area seemed to all hover around two percent in 2005; Riverside, Ambridge, Ellwood, and Freedom each had a rating of about that . This area is known for having low dropout rates compared nationally. 1.2 million students drop out of high school each year; broken up, that’s one student every twenty-six seconds. Most dropouts occur in inner-city schools. Nationwide, there are nearly 2,000 schools that have a dropout rate of approximately 40 percent. 8.7 percent of students dropped out in 2007 across the United States. In Pennsylvania alone, 22 percent of high school students enrolled in public school fail to graduate in four years. According to Dr. Staub, Freedom offers more options than most Beaver County schools. For example, Phase Four, Vo Tech, and night school. Night school recently underwent renovations to the program: students are no longer taught here four nights a week by Freedom teachers; instead, they are sent to a different area for studies, which Dr. Staub feels has been less impactful. As stated in The Wall Street Journal, high school dropouts make, on average, $300,000 less in their lifetimes when compared to high school graduates, and over $800,000 less than college graduates. About 65 percent of inmates in state prisons dropped out of high school, affirmed by The Wall Street Journal. The spike in Freedom’s dropout rate is not unheard of, and only is significantly greater than the last two years.