Girls are at a disadvantage in other ways, too, and have a higher drop-out rate than boys.

ECONOMIST: No school, no future

The drop-out rate in the district is more than twice the state average.

ECONOMIST: Richard Riordan��s conjuring trick

But among the children of Hispanic immigrants, the drop-out rate is much lower.

ECONOMIST: The Americano dream

Such a drop-out rate has its roots in the earliest years of school, when under-performing students are pushed through the system.

ECONOMIST: Education

The high-school drop-out rate, for example, would fall only from 17.3% to 16.1%, and the proportion of teenage mothers from 20% to 18%.

ECONOMIST: Can��t buy me love

But because of a high drop-out rate, and its failure to meet student recruitment targets, South Bank has been obliged to cut academic jobs, and give back some of its grant to the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the primary government funding agency for universities.

ECONOMIST: Higher education

It should fall steadily next year, as this year's VAT and energy-price increases drop out of the annual rate, reaching the 2% target by December, says Simon Hayes of Barclays Capital.

ECONOMIST: Tackling the slump

And students with disabilities drop out of school at twice the rate of their able-bodied peers.

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