Skip to main content
  • About
    • The Five Promises
    • Our History
    • Join the Alliance
    • Funders
    • Our Team
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
    • Financial Information
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Opinions
    • Press Releases
    • Press Room
    • Media Mentions
  • Our Work
    • Center for Promise
    • Every School Healthy
    • GradNation
    • How Learning Happens
    • Power of Youth Challenge
    • Youth Voice - The State of Young People
    • The Yes Project
  • Resources
    • GradNation Resources
    • Great American High School Campaign
    • High School Graduation Facts: Ending the Dropout Crisis
    • Building a GradNation Report
  • Events
  • Press Room
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Email
  • Legal
Show Navigation
DonateFacebookTwitterLinkedInInstagram
  • About
      • The Five Promises
      • Our History
      • Join the Alliance
      • Funders
      • Our Team
      • Careers
      • Contact Us
      • Financial Information
  • News
      • Latest News
      • Opinions
      • Press Releases
      • Press Room
      • Media Mentions
  • Our Work
      • Center for Promise
      • Every School Healthy
      • GradNation
      • How Learning Happens
      • Power of Youth Challenge
      • Youth Voice - The State of Young People
      • The Yes Project
  • Resources
      • GradNation Resources
      • Great American High School Campaign
      • High School Graduation Facts: Ending the Dropout Crisis
      • Building a GradNation Report
  • Events
  • Press Room

America's Promise Alliance logo

Resource

Who’s Minding the Neighborhood?

October 04, 2016

The role of adult capacity in keeping young people on a path to graduation

 

America's Promise

Download the Full Report
Download the Brief

A new brief from the Center for Promise explores whether increasing the number of adults in a community results in more young people on a positive path to adult success.

While there has been a steady improvement over the last 40 years in the overall rate of youth leaving school, researchers have long noted substantial variation by state, city and neighborhood. Using Decennial Census data (1970-2010), Center for Promise researchers looked into reasons for the variation.

Focused solely on metropolitan areas throughout the United States, lead author Dr. Jonathan Zaff and co-author Thomas Malone examined the ratio of adults (age 25+) to school-aged youth (age 6 to 17) in a zip code to understand whether the number of adults affects the “status dropout rate” or the number of young people who leave school before graduating. The authors find that:

  • The adult capacity in a community is related to a decrease in the rate of youth leaving school. A 1 percent increase in the adult-to-youth ratio results in a 1 percent decrease in the rate of young people leaving school. In real-world terms, this result means that for every seven more adults in the neighborhood, one fewer young person leaves school.
  • Race matters, specifically in predominantly Black or African-American communities, in amplifying this effect. The effect of the adult-to-youth ratio is amplified in neighborhoods that are comprised mostly of Black or African-American residents, increasing the effect by 30 percent in those communities – in other words, for every approximately five more adults in a community, one fewer young person leaves school. Since the average black or African-American resident lives in a neighborhood that is approximately two-thirds black or African American in 11 of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country, the potential benefits of this amplified effect cannot be underestimated.
  • Income matters in increasing the effect of adult capacity. The adult-to-youth ratio effect is amplified in higher-income communities. The analysis shows that doubling a neighborhood’s mean income increases the effect size of the ratio by 12 percent. This finding indicates that adults need institutional, social and economic resources – supported by income – to most effectively help young people.
  • A higher level of educational attainment among adults in the community did not have a significant effect. Therefore, all adults, regardless of their educational attainment, can play a role in keeping young people on a path to graduation.

The research suggests that comparisons by zip code within a city and its neighborhoods may uncover disparities in adult capacity that can support the efforts of activists and leaders in the public, private and nonprofit sectors as they work to meet the needs of young people.  Read the full brief. 

Want to see how this plays out in your neighborhood?

Through a partnership with Community Commons—a nonprofit collaboration powered by the Institute for People, Place and Possibility, the Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems, and Community Initiatives — you can find out the adult-to-youth ratio in your zip code and add other meaningful data to create maps and reports that explore your community’s health.

About the Author

Center for Promise Squared
Center for Promise

The Center for Promise, in collaboration with Boston University School of Education, is the first-ever research center for America’s Promise Alliance. The mission of the Center is to develop a deep knowledge and understanding about what is needed to help create the conditions so that all young people in America have the opportunity to succeed in school and life. The Center’s work will add to the academic exploration of these issues and help give communities and individuals the tools and knowledge to effectively work together to support young people.

Thriving Low-Income Using Data Black/African-American
The 5 Promises

The 5 Promises represent conditions children need to achieve adult success. The collective work of the Alliance involves keeping these promises to America’s youth. This article relates to the promises highlighted below:

Caring Adults Caring Adults Safe Places Safe Places A Healthy Start A Healthy Start Effective Education Effective Education Opportunities to Help Others Opportunities to Help Others

Other Resources

October 27, 2020
Finding A Way Forward: Young People's Experiences Navigating the World of Work
September 23, 2020
What Drives Learning: Young People’s Perspectives on the Importance of Relationships, Belonging, & Agency
June 11, 2020
The State of Young People during COVID-19
January 28, 2020
Creating Cultures of Care: Supporting the Whole Child through Trauma-Informed Practice
April 24, 2019
Achieving a 90 Percent Graduation Rate Webinar: Making Effective Work-Based Learning Real for All Students
April 08, 2019
Building Systems of Integrated Student Support
  • About
  • News
  • Our Work
  • Resources
  • Events
  • Press Room
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Email
  • Legal

America's Promise Alliance

1110 Vermont Avenue, N.W.
Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202.657.0600Fax: 202.657.0601
© Copyright 2021 All rights reserved.