Focusing on academics alone is sufficient for young people’s success in school and life, we thought a good first step would be to review ESSA state plans to see how new accountability systems are shifting to reflect the high school experience.

On January 31, 2019, Child Trends released an impressive policy analysis examining the representation and coverage of the WSCC framework in state statutes and regulations. The report offers an extensive look at how the framework manifests nationally and includes detailed analyses for every state.

The opportunities for young people to do meaningful service and reap those benefits are inequitably distributed, just as are access to a multitude of caring adults, a healthy start in life, an excellent education and safe places to learn and grow. These are the promises that every child needs to thrive and we as adults need to provide.

Right now, more than 437,000 children in the United States are in the foster care system – and even more alarming is the fact that this number has increased by 10 percent since 2012 and continues to grow.

A new report released today, From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope, helps answer the question: “How do we as a country shift from focusing purely on academics to fostering young people’s social and emotional growth, too?”

How do you build systems that naturally incorporate physical and emotional wellness into learning? What types of conversations motivate people in different roles in a school community to understand that health is an important part of educational success?

America’s Promise Alliance, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Peace First are partnering to create opportunities for more young people to be agents of change in their local communities.

Schools should foster an environment where students feel safe, trusted, and are focused on learning and growing. Making students feel as if they’ve done something wrong before they walk into the building diminishes that objective.

About one in 10 high schools in America graduates 67 percent or less. In more than 800 of these schools, graduating is a 50-50 proposition for students. And on average, nearly three of every four students in these schools are students of color.

Although racial inequity in student debt is a complex issue with no easy answers, education leaders and policymakers must take steps to reduce borrowing before students get to college, as well as to protect borrowers after they graduate.

Maybe blood will drip from the back of my knees, maybe the stain on my shirt will be seen, maybe God will come down and work this problem out for me and I can give Mrs. Smith all the answers she hopes to beat out of me.

Finding ways to better help young people succeed in life is a constant pursuit for communities, practitioners, and policymakers, and one that requires us all to take what we at the Center for Promise call a youth systems approach.