Building a Grad Nation – 2010 -2011 Annual Update, written by Robert Balfanz, Joanna Hornig Fox, John M. Bridgeland and Laura A. Moore, for the Everyone Graduates Center, reports on US efforts to meet the high school dropout challenge. Dropout factories are high schools that graduate only 60% or less of their students. This report is part of a series, continuing until 2020, and focusing on progress in eliminating dropout factories.

To combat low graduation rates a Civic Marshall Plan was established. The Civic Marshall Plan provides actionable steps that states and districts can take to raise graduation rates. It recommends three specific approaches with specific steps to improve the education system.

 

Overall, between 2008 and 2009, 25 of the 50 states decreased the number of dropout factory high schools, 17 states increased the number of dropout factories, and 8 states stayed the same. The states that increased by 5 or more included Georgia (10), New York (10), and Ohio (5). States that decreased by 10 or more included California (25), South Carolina (25), Illinois (20), North Carolina (16), Connecticut (13), and Tennessee (10). The number of students attending a dropout factory declined by 8% (2.6 million students in 2002 to 2.1 million students in 2009).

National progress and challenge in reducing the number of dropout factories

 

To conclude the writers recommended that seven specific principles become part of federal education policy:

Source: Building a Grad Nation – 2010-11 Annual Update