Just Released: Building a Grad Nation
In collaboration with Civic Enterprises and the “Everyone Graduates Center” at Johns Hopkins University, America’s Promise Alliance has come out with its latest report on graduation rates across the nation. While the general trend is encouraging—the graduation rate in 2008 increased by 3% since 2002—there remains a troubling gap based on race and ethnicity. In 2008, 80% of white students graduated, while less than 65% of black and Hispanic students earned a high-school diploma.
John Bridgeland, CEO of Civic Enterprises and one of Building a Grad Nation’s authors, appeared on the PBS NewsHour to discuss the study’s findings. Pursuing root causes of the high dropout rate, the study’s authors for the first time “talked to the customers”—students who dropped out. They found that many of these young people had big dreams to be doctors, lawyers, and journalists, but that they “didn’t see the relevance between what they were learning in the classroom and what they wanted to be in life, to their dreams.”
Classroom, Inc.’s career-based simulations close the “disconnect” between classroom realities and students’ goals for their future. At the same time, our program consistently improves students’ academic progress.
“[Classroom, Inc.’s program] makes me tell myself that if I want to drop out, don’t, because there’s still hope for me.” —7th grader at Emmet Till School, Chicago
