Grad Nation/Dropout Prevention

Written by: Learn and Serve – Michigan Team

In March, The First Annual “Building A Grad Nation Summit” was held in Washington, DC. The event commemorated the launch of America’s Promise Alliance Grad Nation campaign. This partnership between America’s Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, and Johns Hopkins University’s Everyone Graduates Center released the Building A Grad Nation Report, and brought together hundreds of education stakeholders from across the country to discuss solutions to the high school dropout crisis in America.

According to the report, a student drops out of high school every 26 seconds. It is because of this statistic that America’s Promise Alliance launched a dropout prevention campaign in 2008 called “Building a Grad Nation.” The overall goal of this campaign is to reach a 90 percent graduation rate by 2020. In order to achieve this high benchmark, the report created several sub goals. For example, one goal is to increase the number of students reading at grade level by fifth grade. Another is to reduce chronic absenteeism by 2012, which is an indicator of high school dropouts. A recent study reported by education week (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2011/04/the_disquieting_side_effect_of.html) supports this idea that dropouts can be identified early in students’ education by stating that “a student who can’t read on grade level by third grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time.”

Building a Grad Nation is a newer initiative that builds on America’s Promise Alliance ongoing youth development work. America’s Promise Alliance was founded in 1997. Since then, they have introduced “The Five Promises,” developmental resources young people need for success. Ever since, they have continued to help communities create systems that allow youth to thrive. For example, one aspect of “The Five Promises” is the “Opportunities to Help Others” initiative. This promise is critical to youth service participation within the community. According to America’s Promise Alliance, young people gain a better sense of responsibility when provided with an opportunity to help others. Subsequently, one graduation rate indicator promoted by Grad Nation is youth participation in community service.

Recent research shows service-learning is a promising strategy for dropout prevention because of the skills and activities students learn during their projects. The Learn and Serve – Michigan program encourages its grantees to embrace these skills and activities, which include; creating a connection and establishing a relationship between school and work, gaining communication skills, and community engagement. Additionally, studies by RMC Research evaluations conducted in the 2009-2010 school year show students who attended schools with Learn and Serve – Michigan grants scored higher on measures of academic competence and school attachments than students who do not attend schools with these grants. Additionally, these students scored higher on the Michigan assessment of language arts, math, and science tests. This research may suggest classrooms in Michigan that engage youth in service-learning as a teaching method better prepare their students for success than those classrooms that do not use service-learning as a teaching method.

How do these concepts from America’s Promise Alliance, Building a Grad Nation, and research about service-learning as a dropout prevention strategy intersect? What can we continue to do here in Michigan to prevent students from dropping out of high school? Comment, and let us know what you think!

For more information on 26 seconds, visit http://www.26seconds.com.

For more information on service-learning as a dropout prevention strategy, visit the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse’s fact sheet: http://www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/fact_sheets/k-12_facts/dropout_prevention.

For more information on America’s Promise Alliance, visit http://www.americaspromise.org/.