Dropout Campaigns Envisioned for States, 50 Key City Districts

But effectiveness of community 'summits' not clear.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his wife, Alma J. Powell, added their voices last week to an expanding network of prominent civic and education leaders who are calling for more aggressive measures to drive down alarming dropout rates in many of the nation’s high schools.

The Powells—through the America’s Promise Alliance , a nonprofit organization that Mr. Powell served as its founding chairman and that Ms. Powell now serves as chairwoman— announced a national campaign that will feature “summit” meetings in all 50 states and in 50 key cities over the next two years.

The dropout-prevention summits “will not just be meetings to talk about the problem,” Ms. Powell said at the April 1 event here, which was packed with education policy officials, leaders of community organizations, and education-related nonprofit groups. “They...