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Greeley Evans: A Whole Community Approach to Student Retention & Engagement

November 01, 2019

America’s Promise leads the GradNation Acceleration Initiative, which includes work in three communities and two statewide programs to improve graduation rates for students from varying backgrounds, including students in foster care, low-income students, and English learners. Out of a large pool of applicants, Greeley-Evans School District 6 was selected at one of the acceleration communities.

Type: Opinion

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign

GradNation: A Decade of Progress & Lessons Learned

October 01, 2019

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.”

Type: Opinion

promises: Effective Education

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign

Georgia LEADS the Way With Educational Supports For Foster Youth

May 30, 2019

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, Achieve, Dream, Succeed) with the goal of continuing the work of Project Graduate to increase high school graduation rates for students in foster care in Fulton and DeKalb counties—the counties where Atlanta sits.
Relationships Shine at the Jobs for Michigan’s Graduates Career Development Day

May 09, 2019

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. The students are about to face off in a series of competitions. Not as part of a spelling bee or sports event, but as a test of their employability skills.

Type: Opinion

promises: Caring Adults, Effective Education

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign

Mentoring and Young People in Foster Care: Why Relationships Matter

May 08, 2019

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.

Type: Opinion

promises: Caring Adults

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign

“All Means All” When It Comes to High School Graduation: Measuring Extended-Year Graduation Rates

April 18, 2019

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. 
Advancing Advanced Placement: Better Measuring for College Readiness

March 13, 2019

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.
How ESSA Accountability is Changing for the Better

February 28, 2019

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.
Curriculum for change: Addressing students’ social and emotional needs

January 15, 2019

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?”
Youth Voice: The Answer to School Shootings? Mental Health and Gun Control, Not Metal Detectors.

October 30, 2018

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.

Type: Opinion

promises: Safe Places

campaigns & initiatives: GradNation Campaign