Ending

The Silent Epidemic

The 10-Point Plan

More than 100 organizations that represent a full range of educator and community stakeholders with disparate political stripes support these 10 action steps to reduce dropouts.

  1. Support Accurate Graduation and Dropout Data: Schools and communities cannot adequately address the dropout problem without an accurate account of it. The National Governors Association established a 50-state compact to ensure a common definition for high school graduation rates. These rates, and the data systems that will allow states to collect and publish graduation and dropout rates, should be made available at the district and school levels and the data should be disaggregated by racial and ethnic subgroups. States and school districts should set benchmarks for raising graduation rates and should monitor progress toward such goals.
  2. "Establish Early Warning Systems to Support Struggling Students: Research shows that you can predict with 66% accuracy a student in elementary school who will go on to drop out from high school. Because dropping out of school is a slow process of disengagement for most students, we have an opportunity to identify and address early indicators that signal the need for more support for students to stay in school. High schools need to develop early warning systems to help them identify students who are in need of extra academic or other supports and to have strong partnerships with elementary and middle schools to ensure students stay on track.
  3. Boy studying by his lockerProvide Adult Advocates and Student Supports: Students need adult advocates who can help identify academic and personal challenges early and get students the support they need. Schools need to connect to communities in ways that offer a wide range of supplemental services and intensive assistance strategies for struggling students—attendance monitoring, school and peer counseling, mentoring, tutoring, double class periods, internships, service learning, summer school programs, after school programs, and more—with strong adult advocates who can help identify academic and personal crises early and get students the support they need from schools and communities.
  4. Support Parent Engagement and Individualized Graduation Plans: Research shows that parents' engagement in their children's school lives results in multiple benefits to the students, such as improved school attendance, educational performance, classroom behavior, and emotional well-being. Parental involvement also provides benefits to schools, such as more parental support for the mission of their children's school, a better understanding among parents of their roles, and more overall support for schools among parents. Schools and parents need to strengthen their interactionsaround student performance. Schools should also develop an individualized graduation plan for each student, have the expectation that students will graduate ready for college and the workforce and regularly communicate with parents about progress towards completing such a plan.
  5. Establish a Rigorous College and Work Preparatory Curriculum for High School Graduation: Students taking a rigorous core curriculum in high school are better prepared to succeed in college and in the workforce than students taking less challenging coursework. States and schools need to have high standards for all students and tie high school graduation requirements to the expectations of colleges and employers.
  6. Provide Supportive Options for Struggling Students to Meet Rigorous Expectations: Student learning needs and styles differ widely; in response, states and districts should develop support options that allow all students to graduate from high school prepared for college and the workplace. These choices may include 9th grade academies that support entering freshmen, second chance schools where student dropouts can continue earning course credit, and other entirely new school models that combine personalized learning environments with high expectations. Schools should establish safe school environments, expand choices for students to make school more relevant to their lives and goals, and promptly address their special needs to keep them on track for graduating.
  7. Raise Compulsory School Age Requirements under State Laws: Most states passed their compulsory school age requirements in the late 19th or early 20th century when the country had a very different economy, permitting students to leave school at 16 or 17 to enter the workforce. Over the last decade, many states have raised their compulsory school age from 16 to 18, recognizing that a high school education is the minimum required to compete in today's global economy. Research supports the relationship between raising the compulsory school age and reducing the dropout rate.
  8. Expand College Level Learning Opportunities in High School: Dual enrollment, early college programs, and Advanced Placement (AP) programs allow high school students to earn credit toward high school and college simultaneously. States and school districts should expand access to these programs.
  9. Focus the Research and Disseminate Best Practices: The Government Accountability Office noted that while states and school districts have implemented numerous interventions designed to increase high school graduation rates, there has been too little focus at the national level to evaluate and disseminate existing research and best practices. Clearinghouses of well-evaluated best practices should be established to assist states and schools.
  10. Make Increasing High School Graduation and College and Workforce Readiness a National Priority: Local, state and federal policymakers, educators and students should be brought together with experts and innovators through national and state summits, regional and local conferences and public forums in schools and communities to discuss the incidence of, causes of and solutions to the dropout epidemic. All avenues to invest leaders in a better understanding of the problem and common solutions should be undertaken to focus national attention on the dropout epidemic.