Summit Propels National Movement to End America’s Silent Dropout Epidemic

May 9, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today’s “Summit on America’s Silent Epidemic” launched a national movement to end the high school dropout crisis, including a sea change in education policy at the local, state and federal levels. More than 100 organizations representing a broad spectrum of education and community stakeholders endorsed a 10-point plan to provide students with a more challenging, relevant high school education and extra support to graduate. The plan also calls for raising state compulsory school age requirements and promoting the National Governors Association (NGA) Graduation Counts Compact—a common formula for measuring graduation rates and identifying dropouts, establishing more college and work preparatory learning in high schools, creating more alternative paths through high school, and implementing early warning systems to support struggling students.

With First Lady Laura Bush delivering the keynote address, the summit issued a call to action that asked: “Do you know your school’s on-time graduation rate? What will you do about it?” An Education Week online mapping tool released at the summit makes it possible to learn the graduation rate of every school district in the nation, as well as the grade level at which each district tends to lose students. Such data can help communities effectively target solutions that reduce dropouts.

More than 500 superintendents, teachers, parents, students, state and federal policy-makers, and other education and community leaders attended the summit, which was spearheaded by Civic Enterprises, the National Governors Association, TIME magazine, MTV, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mindful of those most affected by a lack of challenge and support for staying in school, MTV provided a powerful summit platform for teen voices to share their angst and ideas for changing the current state of America’s high schools.

“Ours can be the generation of students, parents, teachers, administrators, community leaders, and policy-makers that meets its vow to ensure that every student graduates from high school ready for college, career, and life—without exception. Our nation at risk can be transformed into a nation of hope. Let us begin,” the summit’s partners said in a welcome letter.

Getting honest about graduation rates: The first step
To bring the issue home, headline summit speakers referenced their hometown’s on-time graduation rates. Getting an accurate accounting of how many students drop out and how many graduate is imperative for solving our nation’s dropout crisis. In a TIME magazine story about stopping the exodus of dropouts, Melinda Gates said “getting the nation to look at graduation rates in the right way” has been the foundation's top achievement in education to date.

There are nearly 2,000 high schools in the United States with low graduation rates. Inaccurate graduation rates have historically masked the magnitude of the problem, obscuring the 1 million students who give up on school each year. That includes nearly half of all African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans who fail to graduate from public high school with their class.

Momentum builds in addressing the issue
The summit capitalizes on a march of progress in raising awareness and changing local, state, and federal policies. Since the first Silent Epidemic report was released last year, more than 34 governors have committed to an "all students college ready" agenda. In signing NGA’s Graduation Counts Compact, all 50 governors agreed to a common formula for measuring graduation rates and identifying dropouts. Legislation in the U.S. Senate provides strong support for schools to increase graduation rates and prepare students for college and life. The Bush administration is making increasing graduation rates a top policy priority.

The energy behind the national movement launched at the summit is fueled by solutions and turnaround examples across the nation. By providing students with multiple pathways through high school and into college and work, students are engaging in more relevant, rigorous learning and have more opportunities to prepare for the “next steps” of life—college and career. Participating governors, including New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, and Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri, have all created state policy initiatives to ensure all students graduate ready for college and work. Other solutions and concrete action steps sparked by the summit to combat the dropout problem include:

* Under new No Child Left Behind policies and a requested doubling of support in the FY 2008 budget, states and localities will be better able to track student progress to identify those who need the most support. Schools will be held accountable for their progress to improve graduation rates as a measure of “adequate yearly progress” by 2012, ensuring that schools have a balance of incentives to improve both academic performance and graduation rates. States will also work to report graduation rate data by racial and ethnic subgroups at the district level in 2007-2008 and at the school level by 2012.

* Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University released a new resource, “What Communities Can Do to End the Dropout Crisis,” with a host of proven solutions from around the nation. These solutions are a prime match with the Education Week online mapping tool released at the summit, which makes it possible to learn the graduation rate of every school district in the nation, as well as the grade level at which each district tends to lose students. Such data can help communities effectively target solutions that reduce dropouts

* The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation launched Strong American Schools, a national public awareness campaign to make educational standards, effective teachers, and improved support for students key national issues. See http://www.strongamericanschools.org/.

* The Case Foundation commissioned a comprehensive study of the effectiveness of service learning programs in helping to reduce the incidence of high school dropouts. This study builds on a primary finding of The Silent Epidemic report—that 81 percent of high school dropouts said that opportunities for real-world learning, such as service learning, would improve students’ chances of staying in high school.

* See a detailed list of all the initiatives sparked by the summit on the summit fact sheet at http://www.silentepidemic.org/.

Source: Gates Foundation