For Immediate Release
Monday, March 21, 2011
“BUILDING A GRAD NATION SUMMIT” HIGHLIGHTS PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES IN ADDRESSING THE HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DROPOUT CRISIS
Participants include: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, White House Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes; Governors Jeb Bush, Martin O’Malley and Robert McDonnell; Mayors Gregory Ballard, Cory Booker, Mick Cornett; Randi Weingarten; Vicki Phillips; Fashion Mogul and Education Advocate Marc Ecko
New Data on Progress in Nation’s Dropout Crisis Includes Reduction in Number of Lowest-Performing High Schools and Details on Progress
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The America’s Promise Alliance (the Alliance), Civic Enterprises, Johns Hopkins University’s Everyone Graduates Center and the Alliance for Excellent Education today announced that the first Building a Grad Nation Summit will be held March 21-23 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. The summit will bring together key stakeholders and community leaders from across the country in education, politics, business, media, nonprofits and research to focus on progress and discuss the remaining challenges in the nation’s efforts to reduce the dropout rate. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will help kick-off the summit at its opening night reception on March 21. The Summit is being sponsored by Grad Nation Presenting Sponsor State Farm Insurance Companies, Premier Sponsors, AT&T and Target and Signature Sponsors, the Pearson Foundation and PepsiCo Foundation.
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, will be released during the Summit’s first plenary session on March 22. The update shows that the number of dropout factories—those schools graduating 60 percent or less of students on time—continued to decline between 2008 and 2009.
“Our nation finds itself at a critical threshold in our work to improve education and life outcomes for our young people and this summit is crucial to maintain national focus on our education crisis,” said Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO, America’s Promise Alliance.
Kondracke continued “More than one million young people drop out of high school every year, two thirds of those who do graduate are not prepared for entry-level college courses in English, math, and science and only 12 percent of minority youth graduate from college. We must accelerate the progress we’re seeing to save our young people and our nation’s future.”
"After years of gloomy reports, many states and school districts are beating the odds and boosting high school graduation rates by rising to a standard of excellence," said John Bridgeland, CEO of Civic Enterprises. "A new Civic Marshall Plan to end the dropout epidemic provides the nation a clear path to reach the goal of 90 percent high school graduation rates by the Class of 2020. Key institutions across America are stepping up to help that class of students -- those in 3rd grade today -- have the supports they need to graduate on time."
The role of elected officials and policy makers in helping students stay in school and succeed will be highlighted throughout the Summit beginning with opening session remarks from the White House Director of Domestic Policy Melody Barnes and former Governor Jeb Bush. Later that day, attendees will hear from a bi-partisan panel of state and local leaders including: Govs. Martin O’Malley (D-MD) and Robert F. McDonnell (R-VA); Mayor Cory Booker (D-Newark, NJ); Mayor Gregory A. Ballard (R-Indianapolis, IN); and Mayor Mick Cornett (R-Oklahoma City, OK).
As part of its commitment to helping children read proficiently by the end of third grade, Target will highlight with attendees its plans to donate $1 billion by the end of 2015 to support education. Summit attendees will also be the first to learn about new programs and investments in the dropout prevention movement from AT&T and State Farm Insurance Companies. State Farm will publicly unveil for the first time their new dropout prevention public awareness campaign titled “26 Seconds” featuring NBA star LeBron James. The campaign will focus strongly on the voices of young people and include public service announcements and information. An announcement from the State Farm Companies Foundation on a college scholarship program for 26 students will also be featured. AT&T will announce a new $2 million investment to support the dropout prevention work of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Data Quality Campaign and Civic Enterprises.
In addition to the new data on low performing high schools, two reports on using data to drive change in education and a new survey featuring the perspectives of business leaders and college and university presidents on the “skills gap” will be unveiled. Across the Great Divide: Perspectives of CEOs and College Presidents on America’s Skills Gap surveyed a national cross section of 450 business leaders and 751 post-secondary leaders for their perspectives on the challenges, goals, and work ahead to close the skills gap and restore America’s place as first in the world in higher education attainment by the end of this decade. Education as a Data-Driven Enterprise: A Primer for Leaders in Business, Philanthropy and Education provides leaders from business, philanthropy and education with background on major data issues, describes challenges to integrating data across the education system, and makes recommendations to help all stakeholders in our nation's schools continue to transform the public education system into a data-driven enterprise.
Summit attendees will also hear from some of the nation’s most highly regarded practitioners and thought leaders on subjects such as: early warning systems and dropout prevention; transforming secondary schools to improve student success; best practices in wraparound support services; state-level strategies for raising graduation rates; the challenges of rural education; ensuring teacher effectiveness; importance of grade level reading in students success; family engagement; and alternative pathways to dropout recovery. The full summit agenda can be found at: http://www.americaspromise.org/Our-Work/Grad-Nation/Summit.aspx
On March 23, there will be a special Summit roundtable on the educational needs of military children featuring Deborah Mullen, military families advocate and spouse of Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In addition, a group of about 150 summit attendees will meet with their Congressional representatives to discuss dropout prevention and supporting the Alliance’s Grad Nation Campaign, a 10-year initiative to mobilize the nation to take action to meet the national goal of 90 percent high school graduation by 2020. Attendees will also hear from key staff members of the House and Senate Education Committees on priority work and legislation for the 112th Congress.
“Summit attendees are on the front lines of education reform,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “They are the individuals working to turn around the lowest-performing schools and raise high school graduation rates. It’s vitally important that congressional offices have the opportunity to hear from these individuals about lessons learned and the best ways that policy can support their work, especially as Congress works to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind.”
More than 650 people from across the nation are expected to attend the Summit.
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 21st 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.
The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, DC-based national policy and advocacy organization that works to improve national and federal policy so that all students can achieve at high academic levels and graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship in the twenty-first century. It focuses on America’s six million most at-risk secondary school students—those in the lowest achievement quartile—who are most likely to leave school without a diploma or to graduate unprepared for a productive future.
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