Too many students in high-poverty, urban communities drop out of high school, and too few graduate prepared for college and careers. Three national organizations--Talent Development Secondary, City Year, and Communities In Schools--have formed Diplomas Now in an effort to transform urban secondary schools so fewer students drop out and more…

The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) was assigned the task of compiling, analyzing, and summarizing the data for Indicator 1--Graduation--from the FFY 2011 Annual Performance Reports (APRs) and amended State Performance Plans (SPPs), which were submitted by states to the Office of Special Education…

States and districts are under increasing pressure to ensure all students complete high school in four years; however, many students who fall off-track on the way to graduation take longer than the traditional four years to earn a high school diploma or its equivalent. Unfortunately, those schools and districts serving overage, under-credit…

In the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in the northwest corner of South Carolina, high schools' attempts to curb student dropouts may not match what many people picture when they hear talk of the nation's "dropout factories." Yet one-fifth of the 2,000 high schools nationwide categorized that way by researchers at Johns Hopkins…

"Check & Connect" aims to help students stay in school by continually monitoring school performance and providing individualized attention through mentoring, case management, and other supports. In 2006, the WWC published a systematic review of all the studies that examined the impact of "Check & Connect" on high school…

What kinds of challenges do educators face in increasing Native American high school graduation rates, and what kinds of adaptations to a traditional high school are understood as necessary to achieve this outcome? This case study explored these questions as part of a larger multiple case study that investigated practices and processes related to…

In this article, the authors discuss a recent study they carried out at a mid-sized state university that used a polling method called deliberative polling. This type of polling differs from conventional polling in that respondents are polled before and after a deliberative session in which they discuss issues based on pertinent and…

The Advanced Virtual Academy (AVA) Twilight High School (THS) provides Houston Independent School District (HISD) high school students opportunities to earn credits toward graduation and pass state-mandated assessments. The program targets students who are at risk of not completing courses required to earn a high school diploma. This 2014-2015…

Nationally, more than one million youth drop out of high school each year. One in four young people do not graduate with their age mates. Thus, in recent years, national leaders have directed sustained attention to what they term the "dropout crisis," particularly in high schools that are graduating less than two-thirds of their…

If the U.S. is to increase the number of college graduates and boost our national competitiveness, we must redouble our efforts to ensure all students graduate from high school prepared for postsecondary learning and careers. This means creating comprehensive education systems that provide learning options that enable a range of pathways to…

One-in-five of Arizona's youth did not complete high school and a similarly large proportion of the state's youth is disconnected from either work or education. These youth face higher risks of unemployment and economic insecurity and are more reliant on government supports. This situation, which fails to ensure that the state's youth are…

This report describes the AISD at-risk student population and expenditures for 2012-2013, results from program evaluations conducted in 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, and the longitudinal disparity between performance of at-risk and not-at-risk students.

In 2006, as part of the compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Mississippi implemented a state-wide dropout prevention plan. The Mississippi Department of Education through the Office of Dropout Prevention supplied a skeletal format to serve as a guideline for all 152 individual school districts within the state. The school…

The Talent Development program at Johns Hopkins, City Year, and Communities in Schools have created a new middle school and high school model that reduces dropout risk. Diplomas Now integrates strategies that are designed to raise student achievement, promotion, and graduation rates in the nation's most challenged high-poverty secondary schools. A…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Building a Grad Nation": New Report Finds More than Half of States Increased High School Graduation Rate, Number of "Dropout…