A little more than a year ago, America's
Promise Alliance marked the beginning of the
Alliance's Dropout Prevention Campaign with
the release of Cities in Crisis, an
in-depth
report analyzing school performance on the
dropout issue in the nation's 50 largest
cities and metropolitan areas. This was more
than the launch of a report - it was the
launch of 105 Dropout Prevention Summits, and
the beginning of a national dialogue.
Today, America's Promise Alliance released
the second edition of Cities in
Crisis. This
new report again looks at the graduation
rates in the 50 largest cities and the
urban-suburban graduation gap. It also
analyzes ten-year trends and highlights the
economic landscape for high school dropouts.
The bottom line is: our cities are still in
crisis. Despite progress in several of the
50 cities, graduation rates in these school
districts are still well below the national
average - and the economic landscape is
especially bleak for those with lower levels
of education.
The report, prepared for America's Promise
Alliance by the Editorial Projects in
Education Research Center, shows that despite
some progress made by several cities from
1995-2005, the average graduation rate of the
50 largest cities is well below the national
average of 71%, and there remains an 18
percentage point urban suburban gap.
Cities in Crisis 2009 finds that only
about
half (53%) of all young people in the
nation's 50 largest cities are graduating
from high school on time.
Read the entire report at www.americaspromise.org
Michigan's Children, as the home of
Michigan's Promise, is proud to partner with
America's Promise, over 20 Michigan
communities, and over 40 public and private
partners at the state level to focus our
efforts on making sure that all Michiganders
are ready for post-secondary, work and life.
The foundation for this readiness is
educational success.
As part of this partnership, Michigan's
Children in October 2008 co-convened the
America's Promise Dropout Prevention
Leadership Summit in Lansing, and continues
to provide support and leadership to
post-summit partnership work around the
state. Michigan philanthropy has also taken
a lead in this effort through the Mott
Foundation's Out-of-School Youth Initiative,
and the support of the State Farm Insurance
Agency.
For more about Michigan's Children's work on
dropout prevention, click
here.
