movement. this includes so many of you from grad nation communities. those communities on the front lines of helping young people succeed in school, work and life. all communities can join in this america's promise alliance initiative and become grad nation communities. by working across sectors to pursue the grad nation goals and sharing best practices. to date, nearly 40 communities have joined the grad nation community network. from large, urban centers, such as houston, texas to small, rural communities such as kenston, north carolina. whether you've been a part of the grad nation campaign for a while now, or whether you're new to the movement, we think you'll be able to learn a lot over the next several days. and we hope you can learn and share your experiences much as you can while you're here so you can be more involved and most importantly, inspire others to join us when you return home. you'll learn from all different

sectors about what's working, from communities, government, business, nonprofits, and young people themselves. we hope you'll be really attuned to these success stories, because many of them can be replicated in your own community. we also hope you'll be attuned to the new ways you can work with others in your community. one thing we have learned, cross sector collaboration is critical if communities are going to succeed in raising graduation rates and preparing young people for success in college and in careers. we can't do it in silos. everyone can help end the community dropout crisis. parents, youth, business, leaders, policymakers and others. united together. we can ensure all of our young people can live up to their full

potential and truly realize the american dream. thank you. our first speaker, randall stevenson, is a long-time friend and supporter of america's promise alliance. as chairman of at&t, the world's largest telecom company, he helped spearhead the mobile internet revolution. and he is passionate about education. under his leadership, at&t launched aspire in 2008. its $100 million commitment to high school success and work force readiness. now, we're all familiar with the statistics surrounding the dropout crisis. but it's good to be reminded about the young people behind those numbers.

so before i invite him to the stage, i want to show you a short video about the way aspire is changing lives. ♪ >> half the people i grew up with aren't even in high school, or are dead. >> when people say, you went to blue, i'm sorry that people hear that name. they automatically think of death row and you're going to die. >> my mom is currently incarcerated. so that has been hard. >> i mean, you try, but it's hard to try to be a positive role model.

because it's so negative. >> i refuse to be a statistic, another african-american female either pregnant, on welfare. no. >> jack is jobs for americans and graduates. it's a program that prepares you for once you graduate and the career where things are pretty different once you leave school. so it helps you to be prepared. how to act. what to do, what not to do. >> it's like a skills development class. it helps you for the work force. and also as a person to get mentally ready, mentally prepared. >> how to work with people. how to cooperate with others. how to be a team and how to be a leader. >> the class is very diverse. it prepares you if you wanted to just go -- you know, look for a job after high school. if you wanted to go to college, it supported you going to college. and it has alternatives if you wanted to go into a trade or different work fields.

>> work experience, i made a resume, how to do stuff. it wasn't just straightforward education. it was fun education. >> it's good to have people who tell you that i believe you. and i think you can do it. i also like to sing. musical theater is my dream. >> i want to be a journalist. >> and that's all i want. i want somebody to be at my graduation clapping. because once you prove them wrong, or prove that, there is nothing they can have over your head. >> honestly, i already said once i walk across the stage, i'm going to bust out in tears. >> i did it. it's now your turn to do it. >> powerful statements. please join me in welcoming my friend and the friend of america's promise alliance, randall stevenson.

>> good morning. it's good to be here. it's actually an honor to be here. and i just want to start by saying thanks to alma and michael for all that you guys are doing. they're an inspiration to those of us who are involved in this cause, and it's just terrific being with them. i also want to recognize ken smith, who is the president for jobs for america's graduation. or graduates. and ken, it was good seeing you. you know, america's promise and j.a.g. do some incredible work. and i will tell you, it's an organization -- a couple organizations we love standing beside and being involved in this cause. and the young people that you saw in this video, and there are a lot of them like that. but they're here today. and it's great having the kids from ballou high school here with us this morning.

i had a chance to spend -- yeah. in fact, why don't you stand up, kids? where are you? they're here at one of the tables. stand up. please, stand up. i had an opportunity this morning to meet with all of these kids. you notice some of those faces are the same faces you saw on the screen up here. and i have got to tell you, you walk away excited. you have a little bit of an adrenaline rush. and that's what i'm talking about, right? that's what this is all about, and that's what we're trying to accomplish. so congratulations to you guys, and after meeting with you, i have no doubt you guys are going to be successful in whatever avenue you pursue. you know, what's being achieved at ballou says a lot. it says a lot, first of all, about these kids. the character that they have and the drive that they have. i think it says just as much about the teachers at ballou, and it screams a lot about the administrators at ballou, that they're driving these kind of

programs inside their school. and over the past couple of years, almost 100% of j.a.g. students at ballou have graduated. did you hear that? it's an incredible achievement and an area we're really proud of at&t to be part. i get asked a lot, why is a company like yours involved in programs like this one? and to me, it's really simple. it's because if the united states is going to win in the future, and alma said this, it's going to be by education. you know, our economy gets more and more global. and skilled labor pools, whether they like it or not, are becoming fungible. which means that economic opportunity is flowing to those markets that have the best prepared talent. an educated, highly skilled work force, historically, has been america's greatest competitive advantage when you look around the globe. and as we move into the future, that competitive advantage is

going to be even more important. and i -- i'm pleased we're making progress, and it's thanks to programs like jobs for america's graduates, america's promise, there are a lot of other programs making a difference. but there are still more we have to do. if we don't, we're going to have more young people entering adulthood without the skills they need to succeed. we're going to have american businesses struggling to fill good jobs here in the united states. and once that happens, then the economic center of gravity will

shift to where those labor pools reside. so i believe it's in corporate america's best interest, i obviously believe it's in our nation's interest to step up our investment in high school graduation. and so in 2008, you heard al huh talk about it. but we launched a program called at&t aspire with this purpose behind it. many of you are familiar with it. it was concentrated on high school graduation and work force readiness. and as you heard, we committed $100 million over a four-year time period. and i'm pleased to say, we exceeded that target. of and to support the effort, our employees took on ambitious job shadow effort. the objective was to touch 100,000 kids with job shadowing programs. and earlier this month, we exceeded that objective, as well. so today we're announcing we're launching a new and expanded campaign. it's called at&t aspire 2. we have taken the original $100 million effort and we are more than doubling it. we're making a $250 million financial commitment over a five-year period of time. and i'm really pleased to tell you, the first $1 million of that is going to america's promise and their work with grad nation. we like to invest in proven success, and this is an area that's having proven success. our employees have also asked to do more as we move forward as

well. so as part of our new commitment later this year, we're going to launch an aspire mentoring academy. the objective here is to take our job shadowing effort to the next level, as well. one of the most important things we want to accomplish as we move into aspire 2 is to tap into our nation's most advanced technology and marry it with the educational needs to help students connect through social media, as well as web-based content. there's a great example of this. many of you are familiar with this organization called game desk. and they're doing some very impressive work in game-based and digital learning technologies. we're looking forward to working with them.

this is a race we have to win. all of these actions. some of them add up. they all count. i want to thank you again for the opportunity. it's a great honor be a part of this summit. i'll say it again, this matters. hope you have a great summit. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> i now have the very distinct pleasure of introducing someone who certainly knows how to tackle challenges in a united way.

brian gallagher is the ceo of the united way. one of the long standing and trusted leaders. we are privileged to have him as co-chair of the america alliance board of trustees. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome brian gallagher. good morning. thanks, michael. thanks even more for your leadership. alma, your unbelievable leadership of this organization. it's a privilege to be a part of it. and thanks to all the alliance partners. this work doesn't happen without your work. thanks to all the summit conveners, the sponsors, all the participants. this is a really important two days, i think. my sense is that we're beginning to get some momentum, that we're

beginning to make some progress. but the question now is, are we doing enough to continue that momentum? you know, our experience, my own experience is that as michael and alma both said, as randall just said, the only way that we're going to accelerate and scale our work is to do it together. you know, you've heard a lot about this idea, this framework of collective impact. i think as alliance partners, i would challenge us to focus on five things. first, that we have a common agenda. we all have institutional agendas, but when it comes to academic achievement and helping young people succeed we need one agenda. we need common metrics. if we're not measuring the same things, we don't have the same language, we won't be focused and hold each other accountable. we need to coordinate our individual expertise. we all have diverse assets. we all have individual assets, but we've got to make sure that we understand that we're interdependent as well. we've got to communicate

constantly. you know, the world is filled with millions and millions of messages. one of the things i think america's promise has done really, really well is to raise the conversation around high school graduation and the five promises themselves. then finally, we need to make sure that we put infrastructure behind collaboration. too often we're in, you know, meetings with individual institutions. we set a common agenda. then we go back and run our own institutions. we need backbone organizations that are willing to put infrastructure into these collaborations. in my view, what we've got in front of us is a high-low strategy. we will continue at the board of trustees and the trustee group generally work on national partnerships, strategy, resources. try to provide political air cover. but our success will be defined by what happens on the ground. in local communities and in states across the country. you're going to hear over the next couple of days large

institutional commitments. let me just say from united way's perspective, we've started and have been making some of those commitments. we've set a national goal to cut the high school dropout rate in half by 2018. obviously in partnership. we made a commitment last year to recruit 1 million reader, tutors and mentors to focus on education. in less than a year's time we've had 400,000 commitments of people willing to get back involved in education. i would say with all humility, we're trying to teach ourselves how to be a backbone organization. we understand that we're present in all communities across the country. it's not just about raising money and funding great programs. but will we put the commitment into making sure that there's infrastructure to support these collaborations. we've made a commitment to the white house council on community solutions to have community

conversations in over 40 cities across the country focused on how do we make sure that the 6.7 million young people 16 to 24 years old who aren't in school or do not have a job have a strategy to make sure that they're served. these are forgotten kids because they're not in our systems any longer. finally this morning it's really my honor to be able to say that we've made a commitment to america's promise alliance and to all the partnerships to identify the middle school feeder schools that feed into the lowest performing high schools across the country. one of the things that i didn't realize is that we don't have national data on who those -- on what those middle schools are and who they are. we're obviously in 1,200 communities across the country. it's a conversation or it's a phone call for a local united way to find out who those middle schools are, put it down on paper and make sure that we're working with those middle schools across the country. and then, finally, we've turned our own national conference into truly a community conference. i'm done with the days that we get together as united way volunteers and professionals and talk to ourselves. you can learn so much -- [ applause ] -- but you learn by being together from different

institutions, different backgrounds, different assets. so at our community leaders conference in nashville this year, may 2nd through the 4th, we've invited all of our community partners including the trustees, the trustee group at america's promise as well as america's promise the institution to make sure we're learning from each other. finally, let me just say, as jim collins would say, i think the fly wheel is starting to turn. but what's in front of us now is can we get self-sustaining momentum so education and academic achievement and high school graduation and career readiness become as important as any other issue in this presidential election or the ones coming in front of us. [ applause ] thank you for being here. thanks for your leadership. thanks for your commitment. have a great two days. >> please welcome john bridgeland.

>> good morning. how lucky the nation is to have brian gallagher leading the united way. yes. not only their wonderful commitments in the past, but their new commitment to identify the feeder elementary and middle schools to the lowest performing high schools. also how lucky it is for the country to have leadership from general, mrs. and michael powell. what a powerful father/mother/son combination. but let me also say what a gift it's been to the nation to have marguerite kondracke at the helm of america's promise alliance. i'd love her to stand and be acknowledged by everybody. [ applause ]

and she's not going anywhere. also what a gift it will be to have john gomperts. i'd love him to stand as well so everybody knows who he is. [ applause ] and to randall stephenson of at&t for their extraordinary work on so many fronts to help boost high school graduation rates, support annual updates to the nation and make education a stronger data driven enterprise through the aspire 1 and now 2 programs. this morning we had the pleasure to release the 2012 update to the nation on our progress and challenge in ending the high school dropout epidemic. after years of gloomy news on the dropout challenge we released two reports over the last 18 months that showed over the last decade increases in high school graduation rates across dozens of states. reductions in the number of dropout factory high schools and

the students attending them. and deeper evidence that states and school districts are boosting high school graduation rates and preparing students for college and the workforce by rising to a standard of excellence. serving as a challenge that if they can do it, others can, too. so today bob balfanz and i with our colleagues at america's promise alliance and the alliance for excellent education working with many of you are happy to report even more accelerated progress in the last couple of years than we've seen on an annual basis over the last decade. and to share examples of states and school districts continuing to make significant gains and the feature, as brian mentioned, leading organizations aligning their work with a civic marshall plan of action. a plan ignited by a pearson foundation, which is also a supporter of this summit and this year's report. we also show the daunting work ahead to reach national goals and pledge to provide an annual update every year through the class of 2020.

i also want to take a moment to thank mary bruce of civic enterprises and joanna fox and mary mishard for the outstanding work on this year's report which represented more than a year's worth of work. [ applause ] as mrs. powell said, this year's theme is education and the economy. so our report begins there. with unemployment still high, a skills gap, a fiscal crisis and a sticky ladder of social mobility, the economy is the nation's top problem. education is one solution. secretary duncan, as mrs. powell mentioned, who will be with us shortly, said we need to educate our way to a better economy. but also the chairman of the federal reserve ben bernanke said in the long term the best way by far to improve economic opportunity and to reduce inequality is to increase the educational attainment and skills of america's workers. so our report begins with this

data because we know from the 100 summits in all 50 states that america's promise led that it was the economic case for action that helped spur policymakers and business leaders and other stakeholders to accelerate their efforts. so what's at stake? the education to jobs equation is completely flipped. a generation ago, 72% of america's jobs required high school or less. by the end of the decade, 75% of all jobs will require high school and some college. ironically, in a time of high unemployment in the country, 53% of business leaders at large companies and 67% at small companies who are creating most of the new jobs in the country say it's difficult to find qualified u.s. workers. our tax dollars are also at stake. we know that if we were to cut the class of dropouts in half for the class of 2011, it would save $45 billion to taxpayers alone.

this year's report is full of really wonderful data, economic data, not only for the nation but for every state. thanks to governor bob wise and the alliance for excellent education who will share more at tomorrow's plenary to help you do your work locally to make the case for addressing this national crisis. as the engine of the grad nation campaign, the civic marshall plan has to specific goals. a 90% high school graduation rate by the class of 2020. presidents since john kennedy have set goals for the nation to boost our educational outcomes. but today this civic marshall plan is a specific plan of action that puts in place benchmarks along the way to ensure that we make progress and chart our progress over time. it takes that national goal seriously, adopts a cohort approach. the class of 2020 is in fourth grade today.

the plan targets the high school dropout factories where we're losing about half of the nation's students every year. and their feeder elementary and middle schools that brian gallagher will help us chart. it focuses on data driven, research innovations and reforms to keep students on track to graduate. like all 50 governors in 2005 when they came together on that graduation rate compact, we worked with organizations to encourage such big institutional plays in alignment with these benchmarks of the civic marshall plan. high school, as we know, is insufficient. so we also highlight the goal of having the highest college attainment rates in the world. we have to double our rates from 3 in 10 who complete college to 6 in 10 by 2020. i wonder what a civic marshall plan of action for college attainment would look like in the country. so how are we doing? the nation's -- over the last decade the average freshman graduation rate has risen from

72% to 75.5%. and with a half a percentage point increase since the last year. the summit would certainly be less fun if these numbers were going in the wrong direction. wisconsin became the first state to reach the 90% goal. vermont is just shy -- okay. wisconsin. [ applause ] wow. that's a lot of people from wisconsin. or a lot of enthusiasm for wisconsin. and vermont is just a .4 percentage point shy of reaching the goal. but what's significant is that these two states made about 7 percentage point gains over the last decade. so they've been working really hard to reach these goals. however, if the rate of progress from the first decade of the 21st century continues during the second, the nation's

graduate rate will be closer to 80% rather than 90%. we would need to accelerate our progress three-fold from a .4 percentage point gain every year over the past decade to 1.3 percentage points per year to reach the national goal. we've made extraordinary progress. and the work of all of you in this room has made such a difference. but it's not enough. on our current pace there would still be more than 1,000 high school dropout factories in which the odds of graduating are about 50/50. the extraordinary bob balfanz will go into the data at the state level in a minute. but we'd first like to report on the other top line progress and challenge we're making on the ten research based civic marshall plan benchmarks that help us track the class of 2020, in many of our case studies on states and districts in the report actually make significant gains on these very elements of the civic marshall plan. fortunately i'm just going to review a few of them for you today. progress in reading proficiency increased over the last decade from 29% in 2000 to 34% in 2011. the challenge, however, is more

than 65% of fourth graders in the country continue to score below proficiency in reading. thanks to the efforts like the campaign for grade level reading that are working so diligently to accelerate this progress, the nation's fortunate to have such a strong focus. and once the feeder schools are identified, it would be interesting to see how the campaign is aligning with those students in the feeders. next you can -- as you know you can predict in late elementary and middle school the likelihood of a student who will drop out later based on their attendance, behavior and core performance in reading and math. we partnered with the everyone graduates center over the last year to actually analyze early warning systems in 16 districts

and 7 states. one-third of states produce early warning reports, while another 16 report they have no plans for doing so. some states explicitly consider early warning systems as part of their state accountability systems. and the field is awash in innovation at the state and district levels. an extraordinary example of how a community-based organization actually stepped up in -- outside of st. louis because they wanted to make their efforts more targeted and efficient is the work of big brothers, big sisters in eastern missouri working with cape gerardo public schools. i want to do a shout out to big brothers, big sisters and particularly to becky james in that community. [ applause ] in 2005 we heard in the context of listening sessions with dropouts they literally told us that they signed out of school on their 16th birthday. because in part the state gave them permission to do so. good research from the current chair of the president's council on economic advisers shows that increasing the age reduces dropout and boosts earning. so in the last decade alone 12 states have updated their laws from 16 to -- from 16 to 17 or