Grad Nation
Grad Nation is a national movement to mobilize Americans to end the high school dropout crisis and prepare young people for college and the 21
st century workforce. It’s a call to action for concerned citizens, businesses, community leaders, policy makers, educators and the nation. With leadership and focus, this is a solvable problem. Support for education reform is essential, but this alone is not enough. We must also build the public and political will necessary to sustain a successful national movement. And we must work together to see that more young people receive the fundamental resources they need to succeed. We call these the
Five Promises. If we focus on organizing communities to bring the needed support to students who attend or will attend high schools with graduation rates of less than 60%, while aggressively supporting education reform, then we can help end the dropout crisis and transform the lives of our most vulnerable children.
Community Action
Initiatives such as Promise Places, 100 Best Communities for Young People, Featured Communities, and Promise Zones focus on action being taken at the community level to improve the well-being of young people across the nation.
Gallup Student Poll
To determine community needs and targeted solutions to the graduation crisis, we must tap into the attitudes of young people themselves. That’s why America’s Promise Alliance has partnered with Gallup and the American Association of School Administrators on a breakthrough measurement of the thoughts, feelings and needs of America’s young people. The Gallup Student Poll is the first comprehensive survey to give young people a clear voice in the national dialogue about what they need to succeed.
Dropout Prevention
Nationwide, nearly one in three U.S. high school students fails to graduate with a diploma. In total, approximately 1.2 million students drop out each year – averaging 7,000 every school day or one every 26 seconds. Among minority students, the problem is even more severe with nearly 50 percent of African American and Hispanic students not completing high school on time. In an effort to reduce America’s high school dropout rates, the Alliance introduced the Dropout Prevention Campaign in April 2008.