Rewind a decade. America’s graduation rate lingered under 75 percent and there was a clear sense that something needed to change. That’s when the GradNation campaign was born to unify and mobilize the nation to respond to the “dropout epidemic.”

Joshua Dantzler is a rising junior in the School of Public Affairs at American University pursuing a degree in political science and a minor in communication studies.

The State of Young People reinforced an important lesson for me:  when working on challenging issues, we must stick to the value of servant leadership.

Parents’ love for their children is the single greatest—and most underutilized—natural resource in education.

In early June, more than 200 young people met in Menlo Park, California for a first-of-its-kind summit to send a strong message to national nonprofit and corporate leaders: We need you to hear us, and

Improving graduation rates for young people most at risk of not graduating is not purely about coursework, credits, and grades.

The heartbreaking photo of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his not-even-two-year old daughter, Valeria, made me want to simultaneously scream, envelop my own two young sons in a hug, and do something—anything—to help. Almost a year ago to the day, America’s Promise Alliance released a statement on the forced separation of children at the U.S. border. This image shows the appalling lack of progress we’ve made in a year.

In 2017, in partnership with the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, the Multi-Agency Alliance for Children (MAAC) began an educational coordination pilot called LEADS (Learn, Educate, A

The chatter of hundreds of high school students, teachers, mentors, and community volunteers fill the Lansing Convention Center in Lansing, Mich. with a hum of excitement.

BEST Kids is a nonprofit organization that provides one-on-one mentoring for over 150 youth in foster care in the Washington DC Metro area. We match caring and consistent adult mentors with youth to provide them not only the guidance and support they need to grow up, but also to help them navigate challenges specific to growing up in foster care.

Focusing solely on four-year graduation rates discounts students who may need just a bit longer to graduate and can further perpetuate the inequities that persist within and across school systems. 

We view readiness as a set of academic and life skills young people develop over time that supports their growth and can help them succeed in school, in their post-grad career(s), and life.