Nearly 8 percent of Pennsylvania's high schools have high dropout rates, with 60 percent or less of their incoming freshmen making it to graduation.

Forty-seven of the state's high schools are among about 1,700 nationwide that were identified by Johns Hopkins University researchers as having exceptionally high dropout rates.

More than half of the Pennsylvania schools on the list are in Philadelphia, while five are in Pittsburgh. They also include schools in smaller urban districts, such as Erie, Reading and Harrisburg, and those in rural districts, such as Grove City Area in Mercer County and Susquenita in Perry County.

Included in the list are Kittanning Senior High School in the Armstrong School District: and George Junior Republic High School in the Grove City Area School District.

The list also includes six charter schools.

High-school graduation rates are one factor that determines whether Pennsylvania schools and school districts are complying with the federal No Child Left Behind law. Schools must achieve either an 80 percent graduation rate or a higher rate than in the previous year.

State officials have been developing various strategies in recent years to ensure that children stay in school, such as tutoring for struggling students, Education Department spokesman Michael Race said.

"We tend to focus more on remedies than punitive measures," Race said. "We have to recognize there's an underlying issue that's driving dropout rates."