Student Drop-Out Rates...why?

That sounds like an average rather than a median.

No, that's the definition of median.

One family making $500,000,000 against several
million in the $40,000 range would have little effect on the average
and a big hit on median.

Nope. Backwards.

The "median" is the value of the sample in the middle. If you take the
highest number and increase it by a factor of a bazillion, the median is
unchanged.

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.