Opinion
Don’t Call Them Dropouts: Our Partners Are Changing the Conversation
July 03, 2014
Six weeks have passed since America’s Promise Alliance releasedDon’t Call Them Dropouts. We are heartened to see so many friends, partners and allies joining us in this important conversation about how to support young people who have left school so that they can realize their potential as students, workers, and citizens.
Here are just a few partners who are joining the conversation:
- National League of Cities cited the report in their excellent series on re-engagement on the “Cities Speak” blog
- MENTOR conducted a Q&A with America’s Promise Alliance John Gomperts and publicized the video documentary
- YouthBuild USA has positioned the report front and center on their website and inspired the Skoll Foundation to re-post the Huffington Post blog by YouthBuild USA founder and CEO, Dorothy Stoneman
- The Alliance for Excellent Education shared the report and video on their site
- National Human Services Assembly disseminated it through their Human Services Policy Network
We also have been thrilled to have received posts on our new GradNation blog from Magic Johnson and Thom Jackson of Edison Learning, David Shapiro of MENTOR, Pam Cantor of Turnaround for Children, Reba Dominski of Target, Patrick Riccards of Eduflack, Charlene Lake of AT&T, Jim Clark of Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Cathy Tisdale of Campfire, and Mayor Alvin Brown of Jacksonville. If you’re looking for some beach reading for 4th of July weekend, read on!
Thank you to our Alliance partners and friends who have promoted this research and who are working with us to change the conversation about young people who leave school before graduating. Our goal is that the voices of these young people become part of the solutions developed in communities and by policymakers. With our partners, and with you, we can make this goal a reality.
The GradNation Action Platform
These six platform areas are based on the collective experience and expertise of individuals at organizations engaged with young people across the country, the experience of young people themselves, and our own research. The platform areas are a statement of best practice – they are what has been demonstrated to work to improve graduation outcomes for young people:
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