
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 24, 1993                   TAG: 9311240127
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

NOT ALL TEEN WORRIES IN SCHOOL

American teen-agers are holding their own in school, even improving math skills, but they face dramatic challenges outside the classroom that threaten to drag them down, according to a statistical portrait of the country's youth.

On Tuesday, Education Secretary Richard Riley released his department's "Youth Indicators 1993: Trends in the Well-Being of American Youth."

The 153-page study found that a much higher percentage of students are completing high school than in the 1950s and college enrollment is at a record high. In 1991, 86 percent of high school seniors said they recognized the value of a good education.

The study also shows children have a lot more to worry about than doing well in school:

Twenty-four percent of children lived in single-parent families. In 1970, only 11 percent did. Among black children, 57 percent live with only one parent.

Young people are three times as likely to be murdered and twice as likely to commit suicide as teen-agers were in 1950, and the proportion of teens getting arrested has soared 30-fold.

Eighty-eight percent of high school seniors drink alcoholic beverages, but illegal drug use has declined, from 65 percent in 1980 to 41 percent in 1992.

Science scores for 9- and 13-year-olds were about the same in 1990 as they were in 1970, but fell for 17-year-olds. Proficiency in math was "significantly higher" in 1990 than it had been in 1978.

Reading skills showed no overall improvement from 1971 to 1990, but "increases in the scores of black and Hispanic 17-year-olds suggest improvements were made in the education of our less-advantaged students."

by CNB