Re-engaging Youth

This paper presents a landscape analysis of how blended learning currently is being used as a strategy to serve young adults, age 16-24, who have re-engaged in education in an effort to obtain a high school diploma or equivalency.

The analysis is based on a review of relevant empirical research and interviews with program developers, practitioners and policy makers in the field.  Contributing to a nascent body of literature, this report highlights examples of how blended learning is being implemented in schools and community-based organizations.

Stemming from the Don’t Call Them Dropouts report, based on careful listening to young people who didn’t graduate in four years, America’s Promise Alliance’s Center for Promise released Back to School: Exploring Promising Practices for Re-Engaging Young People in Secondary Education. The paper explores ways to strengthen and expand re-engagement options for young people who need more time or different pathways to finish school. The paper is designed as a resource for educators, practitioners, community stakeholders, communications professionals and policymakers interested in supporting out-of-school youth who wish to obtain a high school credential. A high school diploma is by no means a guarantee of success, but failure to complete high school is a devastatingly accurate predictor of lifelong struggle and unrealized human potential. If birth is life’s starting line, then high school graduation is life’s second starting line for success. 

“Don’t Call Them Dropouts,” a report by America’s Promise Alliance based on research conducted by its Center for Promise at Tufts University, was funded by Target. In the largest nationwide study of its kind to date, young adults who left high school without graduating spoke at length about their experiences and the reasons they did not complete high school on time. As the nation reaches the all-time high of an 80 percent on-time high school graduation rate, this report listens deeply to what the remaining 20 percent say is happening in their lives, and what they need to stay in school.