Following a discussion in Moneybox, I have decided to post here the summary of a news release from an organization headed by Colin Powell and his wife, on what they regard as the 'catastrophic' high school dropout rates in the major U.S. metropolitan areas. [And I will try to post the data below as a reply to this; Fray would not allow me to post it all in the same post, saying the message was 'too long'.] For those posters (like Sovereign and Phil) who do not regard education as being one of the major (if not THE major) problem facing America, my questions are simple: What do YOU propose we do with these many millions of functionally illiterate people? What kinds of jobs will we be able to find for them? If any? And how can we possibly hope to preserve the American middle class in the face of such educational 'performance'??
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Colleen Wilber
Phone: (202) 657-0647
Email: colleenw@americaspromise.org
Becky Watt Knight
Phone: (202) 745-5050
Email: bwattknight@gymr.com
April 1, 2008
America's Promise Alliance Launches National Campaign to Combat Nation's High School Dropout and College-Readiness Crisis
Report Finds America’s Largest Cities
Struggle to Keep Majority of Students in School with Big Disparities
Between Urban and Suburban Graduation Rates
America’s
Promise Alliance Chair Alma Powell Announces Nationwide ‘Dropout
Prevention Summits’; General Colin Powell Says Dropout Crisis Affects
Economy and National Security
WASHINGTON, DC – A report
to be released today finds that only about half of all students served
by the main school systems in the nation's 50 largest cities graduate
from high school. Cities in Crisis: A Special Analytic Report on High
School Graduation released today by the America’s Promise Alliance and
prepared by Editorial Projects in Education Research Center further
reveals that in the metropolitan areas surrounding 35 of the nation’s
largest cities, graduation rates in urban schools were lower than those
in nearby suburban communities. In several instances, the disparity
between urban-suburban graduation rates was more than 35 percentage
points.
The report was released by Alma J. Powell, chair of
the America’s Promise Alliance (Alliance), which is kicking off a
national campaign to reduce high school dropout rates and prepare
children for college, work and life. The campaign will include a series
of ground-breaking, high-level Dropout Prevention summits to be held in
every state and 50 communities over the next two years. General Colin
Powell, founding chair of the Alliance, joined his wife in making the
announcement – citing the dropout crisis as a threat to our economy and
national security.
Nationwide, nearly one in three U.S. high school
students drops out before graduating. In total, approximately 1.2
million students drop out each year – about 7,000 every school day, or
one every 26 seconds.
The lead sponsor for the Dropout Prevention
Campaign is the State Farm Insurance Company. State Farm is joined by
AT&T, The Boeing Company, Ford Motor Company Fund, Casey Family
Programs, ING Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The
J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation.
In response to today’s report, Alma Powell was
joined by Alliance Founding Chair General Powell; U.S. Secretary of
Education Margaret Spellings; Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico);
Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina); State Farm Chairman and CEO
Edward B. Rust Jr.; National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial
and others to launch the campaign. The campaign will bring mayors and
governors, business owners, child advocates, school administrators,
students and parents together to develop workable solutions and action
plans for improving our nation’s alarming graduation rates. Several
summits have already been held or are scheduled in Detroit, Tucson,
Iowa and Mississippi. An additional 40 cities and states have
committed.
“When more than one million students a year drop
out of high school, it’s more than a problem, it’s a catastrophe. Our
economic and national security are at risk when we fail to educate the
leaders and the workforce of the future,” said General Powell. “It’s
time for a national ‘call to arms,’ because we cannot afford to let
nearly one-third of our kids fail.”
Research shows that the more support youth have,
both inside and outside of the classroom, the more likely they are to
stay in school. Specifically, research demonstrates that the more young
people experience five essential wrap-around supports, what the
Alliance calls the “Five Promises” – caring adults, safe places, a
healthy start, effective education and opportunities to help others –
the greater their chance for future success.
“The number one predictor of a young person’s
future success is whether they graduate from high school,” said Alma
Powell, chair of America’s Promise Alliance. “But just conferring a
diploma is not enough. Students today must graduate with the knowledge
and skills necessary for success in college, work and life. We must
invest in the whole child, and that means finding solutions that
involve the family, the school and the community.”
Experts say that dropping out of high school
affects not just students and their families, but the country overall –
including businesses, government and communities. The Alliance for
Excellent Education estimates that high school dropouts from the Class
of 2006-07 will cost the U.S. more than $329 billion in lost wages,
taxes and productivity over their lifetimes. Young people of color are
most affected, because nearly half of all African-American and
Native-American students will not graduate with their class, while less
than six in 10 Hispanic students will. Experts say that those who drop
out are more likely to be incarcerated, rely on public programs and
social services, and go without health insurance than those who
graduate from high school.
“Economic success is dependent upon educational
opportunities. If we are to compete, it is essential that we address
America’s growing dropout crisis,” said Edward B. Rust, Jr., chairman
and CEO of State Farm Insurance Company. “I urge other businesses to
join us in this campaign to ensure that all young people earn a high
school diploma and are ready not only for college, but to succeed in
tomorrow’s workforce.”
In announcing the summits, the Alliance emphasized
that they are designed to both raise awareness and develop actual
action plans that will help put local high schools on the road to
improved graduation rates with a curriculum that better prepares young
people for the workforce. The Alliance also underscored that these
state and local efforts would need to be buttressed by strong federal
action, including passage of ‘The Graduation Promise Act’ and the
‘Every Student Counts Act.’ Similarly, the Alliance offered its own
solutions to the dropout crisis rooted in work the organization already
has underway around health care access and insurance, middle-school
student civic and vocational engagement and using schools as hubs for
the delivery of comprehensive resources to kids.
“The key to increasing graduation rates is to stop
working in isolation and to start working together,” said Marguerite
Kondracke, president and CEO, America’s Promise Alliance. “That’s why
we are convening these summits. We need curriculum reform, after-school
programs, efforts to improve health care and nutrition programs,
increased resources and greater accountability. Most of all, we need to
recognize that no one entity can solve this crisis alone, but working
together, we can make enormous strides to ensure our children succeed.”
Report Findings:
Other findings of the analysis released today include:
Students in suburban
(74.9 percent) and rural (73.2 percent) public high schools were more
likely to graduate than students in the country’s urban public high
schools (60.4 percent).
Seventeen of the nation’s 50 largest cities had a graduation rate lower than 50 percent in the principal (largest) school district serving the city.
- Those with the lowest graduation rates
included Detroit City School District (24.9 percent), Indianapolis
Public Schools (30.5 percent), Cleveland Municipal City School District
(34.1 percent), Baltimore City Public School System (34.6 percent) and
Columbus Public Schools (40.9 percent).
Thirty-five of the urban districts
in the areas including and surrounding the nation’s 50 largest cities
had high school graduation rates below the national average of 70
percent.
- Those in which the smallest percentages of
students graduate included Baltimore, Md. (34.6 percent); Columbus,
Ohio (40.9 percent); Cleveland, Ohio (42.2 percent); Atlanta, Ga. (46.1
percent) and Denver, Colo. (46.8). In each, more than five in 10
students do not graduate with their class.
- Those areas in which the highest percentage
of students graduate included Colorado Springs, Colo. (83.7 percent);
San Jose, Calif. (80.9 percent); Nashville, Tenn. (77.0 percent); San
Francisco/Oakland, Calif. (73.2 percent); Phoenix/Mesa, Ariz. (70.5
percent); and San Diego, Calif. (70.4 percent).
Seventeen of the metropolitan areas
surrounding the nation’s 50 largest cities had a greater than 20
percentage-point gap between their urban and suburban graduation rates.
Within 28 of those metropolitan areas, the urban-suburban graduation
rate disparity was 10 percentage points or greater.
- Those with the greatest variances were
Baltimore, Md. (47.0 points); Columbus, Ohio (42.0 points); Cleveland,
Ohio (35.9 points), New York, N.Y. (35.5 points); and Denver, Colo.
(34.1 points).
The report analyzes school district data from the
U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data (2003-04). The
country’s 50 largest cities are determined based on 2006 population
reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
# # #
About the America’s Promise Alliance
America’s
Promise Alliance is the nation’s largest partnership alliance comprised
of corporations, nonprofit organizations, foundations, policymakers,
advocacy and faith groups committed to ensuring that children receive
the fundamental resources – the Five Promises – they need to lead
successful, healthy and productive lives and build a stronger society.
Building on the legacy of our founder General Colin Powell, the
Alliance believes a child’s success is grounded in experiencing the
Five Promises – caring adults; safe place; a healthy start; an
effective education; and opportunities to help others – at home, in
school and in the community. For more information visit: www.americaspromise.org.
