America's Promise Alliance

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

NEW RESEARCH ON NATION’S HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT CRISIS FINDS NUMBER OF SCHOOLS WHERE 60% OR FEWER STUDENTS GRADUATE CONTINUES TO DECLINE

Number of Schools Often Referred to as “Dropout Factories” Fell by 112 Between 2008 and 2009 With Greatest Progress in Rural America and California

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 22, 2011)– A  report released today by America’s Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises and Johns Hopkins University’s Everyone Graduates Center shows the nation continues to make progress in its efforts to keep students in school. The report found that the number of high schools graduating 60 percent or less of students on time decreased by 112 between 2008 and 2009.

These schools—often identified as “lowest performing” or “dropout factories” – totaled 1,634 in 2009. This is down from 1,746 in 2008 and a high of 2,007 in 2002.  As a result, 183,701 fewer students attended dropout factories in 2009 than 2008. These numbers and additional analysis are detailed in an update to the November 2010 report, Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, authored by Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center, sponsored by AT&T. 

“Our data and case studies show that improvement is continuing and even accelerating in some areas,” said Robert Balfanz, one of the authors of the update and a senior research scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Everyone Graduates Center. “This means that real progress is possible when school districts and community partners confront this crisis strategically and commit themselves to solving it.”

Other findings from the report update include:

• Rural school districts significantly outpaced their city, suburban and town counterparts. They posted a 15.5 percentage-point decline, a drop of 54 in the number of schools from 349 in 2008 to 295 in 2009.

            Cities and suburbs continue to make progress with a decline of 3.4 and 4.7 percentage points, respectively, while towns saw more progress with a decline of 7.5 percentage points.

• The following states saw the greatest change, decreasing the number of “dropout factory” schools by more than 10 between 2008 and 2009:  California (-25); South Carolina (-25); Illinois (-20); North Carolina (-16); Connecticut (-13); and Tennessee (-10).
• The number of schools increased in a few states  between 2008 and 2009 including: Georgia (+10); New York (+10) and Ohio (+5)
• Overall, the number of students attending dropout factories has declined from 2.6 million in 2002 to 2.1 million in 2009 – nearly a 20 percent improvement.

Researchers analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Common Core of Data (CCD) at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). They used two indicators to determine students’ progress – the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) and promoting power, both calculated from grade-level enrollment numbers and, in the case of AFGR, district-level data on the number of diplomas awarded.

The report update also includes four case studies highlighting success: Baltimore, MD; Canton, OH; Cincinnati, OH; and Hillsborough County, FL. These overviews provide a closer look into the work, programs and resources that these communities are deploying and the success they are seeing as a result. All communities share the themes of strong leadership with clear graduation rate goals and a commitment to raising standards.  All have support and involvement from many sectors and rely heavily on data to inform decision-making. 

“Some States and school districts continue to make impressive gains in addressing the high school dropout epidemic,” says John Bridgeland, CEO of Civic Enterprises. “With our ‘Civic Marshall Plan,’ we can accelerate the good progress over the last decade to reach 90% graduation rates by 2020.”

The complete findings of the Building a Grad Nation report update along with  a road map for helping  all communities make progress, referred to as the Civic Marshall Plan, will be discussed by two of the report’s authors, Robert Balfanz and John Bridgeland, at the first plenary session of the  Building a Grad Nation Summit.  The plenary session will take place March 22 at 8:30 a.m. at the Marriot

Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. Members of the media are invited to cover this session.  The session will also be webcast live at: http://www.americaspromise.org/Our-Work/Grad-Nation/Summit.aspx

“This report is critical to understanding what initiatives are working in the quest to lower the number of ‘dropout factories’ and provide a brighter future for our students,” said Charlene Lake, AT&T Services, Inc. Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer. “It’s a great example of how verifiable data is being used to drive student outcomes.”

The summit, which is being convened by America’s Promise Alliance, the Alliance for Excellent Education, Civic Enterprises and the Everyone Graduates Center, is bringing together the nation’s key stakeholders  in education, politics, business, media, nonprofits and research to discuss the progress and remaining challenges in the nation’s efforts to reduce the high school dropout rate.  Confirmed attendees include: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, Indianapolis Mayor Gregory Ballard and President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten.

One year ago, with the support of President Obama and Secretary Duncan, America’s Promise Alliance launched Grad Nation, a 10-year campaign to mobilize the nation to reverse the dropout crisis and help achieve the national goal of increasing the graduation rate for all students to 90 percent by 2020.

A full copy of the report update is available online at: www.americaspromise.org.  

About the Funder

AT&T is committed to advancing education, strengthening communities and improving lives. Launched in April 2008, AT&T Aspire, a $100 million program, is one of the largest-ever corporate commitments specifically focused on confronting the high school dropout crisis to help ensure our students graduate prepared for the future challenges of continuing education and the workforce.

America’s Promise Alliance is the nation’s largest partnership organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and youth by raising awareness, supporting communities, and engaging in nonpartisan advocacy. Through our Grad Nation campaign, we harness the collective power of our partner network to mobilize Americans to end the high school dropout crisis and prepare young people for college and the 21^st century workforce. Building on the legacy of our Founding Chairman General Colin Powell, the Alliance believes the success of our young people is grounded in the Five Promises – caring adults; safe places; a healthy start; an effective education; and opportunities to help others. For more information about America’s Promise Alliance, visit www.americaspromise.org.

Civic Enterprises is a public policy development firm created to inform issues of importance to the nation. Civic Enterprises issued the report, The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts and other reports on the dropout challenge and was a co-leader of the National Summit on America’s Silent Epidemic, prompting further action at the national, state and local levels. For more information about Civic Enterprises, visit www.civicenterprises.net.

The Everyone Graduates Center, part of the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University, seeks to identify the barriers to high school graduation, develop strategic solutions to overcoming these barriers and build local capacity to implement and sustain the solutions so that all students graduate prepared for adult success. For more information about Everyone Graduates Center, visit www.every1graduates.org.

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Region	Number of Low-Grad Rate High Schools in 2008	Number of Low-Grad Rate High Schools in 2009	Change in Number of Low-Grad Rate High Schools 2008-2009	Change in Number of Students Attending Low-Grad Rate High Schools
Northeast
Connecticut	14	1	-13	-14,492
Pennsylvania	59	53	-6	-9,307
New Jersey	20	16	-4	-5,930
Rhode Island	8	8	0	-54
New Hampshire	0	1	1	444
Vermont	0	1	1	511
Maine	1	2	1	411
Massachusetts	21	24	3	2,311
New York	129	139	10	6,178
Subtotal	252	245	-7	-19,928
Midwest
Illinois	56	36	-20	-25,599
Missouri	20	17	-3	-383
Kansas	10	7	-3	-4,533
Indiana	18	16	-2	-3,954
South Dakota	3	1	-2	-2,848
Minnesota	7	5	-2	-2,478
Iowa	2	1	-1	-1,283
North Dakota	1	1	0	4
Nebraska	5	5	0	-286
Wisconsin	9	12	3	1,667
Michigan	75	78	3	-5,397
Ohio	63	68	5	2,269
Subtotal	269	247	-22	-42,821
South
South Carolina	84	59	-25	-29,294
North Carolina	108	92	-16	-13,783
Tennessee	34	24	-10	-11,877
Florida	147	138	-9	-29,682
Texas	163	159	-4	5,999
Alabama	45	41	-4	-1,560
Kentucky	25	22	-3	-2,243
Delaware	10	8	-2	-4,217
Louisiana	54	54	0	-529
West Virginia	2	2	0	991
Oklahoma	16	18	2	2,320
Maryland	27	29	2	2,966
Mississippi	38	42	4	4,918
Virginia	25	29	4	4,736
Arkansas	8	14	6	2,932
Georgia	120	130	10	9,492
Subtotal	906	861	-45	-58,831
West
California	146	121	-25	-60,811
Nevada	34	28	-6	-6,045
Arizona	29	26	-3	3,614
Colorado	24	21	-3	-1,218
New Mexico	27	24	-3	-2,115
Oregon	4	3	-1	-1,343
Idaho	5	4	-1	-198
Wyoming	1	1	0	-1
Utah	2	2	0	975
Hawaii	11	11	0	-52
Washington	23	24	1	1,375
Alaska	6	7	1	2,364
Montana	1	2	1	1,384
Subtotal	313	274	-39	-62,071
TOTAL	1,740	1,627	-113	-183,651

 

* The District of Columbia is not included because it is not a state. When DC is included in the national total, the number becomes -112