There was cause for celebration in February when the Grad Nation report indicated for the first time the country was on track to meet the goal of a 90 percent graduation rate by the class of 2020.
Yet progress is uneven and some states are struggling to keep students from dropping out. To help educators and policymakers boost graduation rates in their communities, America’s Promise Alliance has released a new, free online toolkit. The Community Guidebook, written by Robert Balfanz and Joanna Hornig Fox of the Everyone Graduates Center and John Bridgeland and Mary Bruce of Civic Enterprises, contains resources to help communities determine their actual graduation rates and strategies to keep more kids in school.
It includes research-based information about tracking attendance, analyzing student performance, and establishing early-warning systems to help intervene with students before they drop out. The tool kits cover issues of education reform, school transformation, Common Core State Standards, social-emotional learning, and multiple pathways to graduation.
The book is available on the American’s Promise website and has ready-to-print tools and links to other online resources. It will be used at Grad Nation community summits, which are scheduled in 15 cities later this year.