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In honor of Halloween, we'd like to slay some zombies. In this case, the zombie is an old data point that keeps rising from the grave.
With a quick google, the internet will tell you that less than half of teen moms earn a high school diploma. Statistics like these seem to reinforce the theme that teen parents are doomed to failure before they even start. But is this true?
The "less than 50% high school graduation rate" is based off of legitimate research from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth -- but it's looking at a cohort of young people who were teens in 1996 (the ones wearing scrunchies and slip dresses the first time around). Is it possible things have changed in the last 25 years? Birth certificate data suggests so.
Looking at Texas teens who gave birth in 2019, 52% already had a high school diploma at the time of birth. In fact, 10% had already enrolled in college and 1% had completed their associates degree. Even if not a single one of these young parents set foot in a classroom after giving birth, the "less than 50%" statistic would already be untrue.
Early parenthood can make it harder to achieve educational goals, but many school districts work hard to provide intensive support to teen parents to give them their best chance at success.
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