18. as the gates foundation continually reminds us, these efforts have to be linked with quality supports for struggling students and multiple pathways to success. president obama gave us a significant boost this year in the state of the union. and nearly 18 states that still permit students to drop out at 16 have legislation to update their laws as well. finally, we -- while 9 of the 10 civic marshall plan benchmarks focus on dropout prevention, it became evident last year, thank you dorothy stonelin, wherever you are, we need to recover and reconnect the students who drop out each other who is the newest plank in our campaign. in fact, the white house council for community solutions recently found that 1 in 6, or 6.7 million of the 38.9 million youth ages 16 to 24 are disconnected from school and work.

they cost taxpayers $1.6 trillion and society $4.7 trillion over their lifetimes. and they represent an extraordinarily untapped resource in terms of talent and wisdom and productivity for the country. the country has since coined the term opportunity youth to describe them and issued employer tool kits to help reconnect youth to school and work. at a white house event with the president in january set the goal of 250,000 jobs for opportunity youth as a pathway back to employment. significant efforts are under way like youth build in europe to reconnect these youth. over the last couple of days we'll be talking about these benchmarks in more detail and seeing how we can make progress. but i hope that each of you will think about what you and your organizations can do to help move the needle on this civic marshall plan of action. it's now my pleasure to turn it

over to one of the most extraordinary researchers, leaders and people i've ever met. please warmly welcome bob balfanz, co-director of the everyone graduates centers at johns hopkins university. >> all right. good morning. what we're here to do now is to take a look at the most recent data and use that to figure out how to get to 90%. we're doing pretty good. the evidence says we've got to step on the gas. how do we step on the gas? so we begin with some good news. as bridge said, the number of low graduation rate high schools or dropout factories has dropped considerably since 2002. it's gone from about 2,000 to about 1,500. that's a 25% improvement. that's real progress. because these are the schools if you go to the odds of graduating are only 50/50. a quarter of them were the only high school in a town. imagine what that means in the land of opportunity. the only high school in your town is one where graduation is not the norm in an era where there's no work for a high

school dropout, it's really magnificent progress to say there's 25% fewer of those than a decade before. but if we go at this current rate, there's still 1,000 of these left in 2020. right? we can't still have 1,000 schools where the odds of graduating are 50/50 and basically it's a coin toss if you have a shot at a future. so we have to accelerate. a couple things in our favor. one, this most recent data from 2010 does not include the impact of a school improvement grant process and the federal government's large effort to really target the low graduation rate high schools with significant large and transformative reforms. you're going to hear about that a little bit later this morning. second of all the data also tells us that faster than the reduction in the number of schools has been the reduction of number of students attending

the schools that still exist. so that's down by about almost 800,000 students. fewer students are attending these schools now than a decade ago. so that's improved by about a third. so it tells us that not only are we having fewer of the schools, the schools that remain have fewer students in them which means there's more options available. finally in the past two years, the rate of progress has accelerated, which again tells us, particularly it's moved to the cities. that's important. look at the 25 states that have made moderate gains or moved backwards. there's a group of smaller states like idaho, iowa, montana, south dakota. they're small states. they're already around 80%. they've just been stuck there. they have to improve less than a point a year.

almost all of those kids come from 12 states. the 12 states with comprehensive strong effort to do something. this progress has been countered balanced by 10 states that go the wrong way. it had the most gains of any state in the nation. almost 18 points over ten years. but two-thirds of tennessee's process has been wiped out by california going the wrong way.

so we try to organize this. when we look at 25 states that made moderate small, small gains, no gains or gone backwards, we see they fall into four categories. there's a group of smaller states like idaho, iowa, montana, south dakota. they're small states. they're already around 80%. they've just been stuck there. they have to improve less than a point a year. it's a relatively small number of kids per high school class. in fact, in these states we could put all the kids in a high school class, ninth grade class that are in danger of not graduating in a room like this. they would all fit. right? you could just imagine someone else never putting their arm

around those kids and making them succeed and that seems very manageable. other states, much bigger states, there's 5,000, 10,000, 5,000, 20,000 kids in this situation. we can't put them in an auditorium. those are the states that have many. the most troublesome group really where the battle will be won or lost are in the 12 or so states that are both far away. they have to make more than a point a year. which states have done. but only a few. and they have 5,000 or more kids per class that move from dropouts to graduates. 40% of all the graduates we have to get to make the national goal in 2020 are in the states. these are states that haven't moved yet. that tells us we have to put a focus here to see what does it take to galvanize efforts in these states while we keep working with the states that have made progress. many of the states have made progress, just from a low base

in the 60s. they moved to the 70s or 80s. other states have a ways to go. keep working hard here but bring these states into the game. how do we do that? well, we're releasing this year as we did last the civic marshall plan state index for each state which goes state by state and tells them how far are they from the goal? how many more kids are we talking about? how many low graduation rate high schools do we have in how many would have to be improved a year to get to zero by 2020. also what's their fourth grade reading level? what's their eight grade math level? how many kids are taking ap classes in their high schools and passing them? we also add the economic data. right? what is this costing the state? economic productivity and lost tax revenue and increased social

cost. the large economic cost of not moving. because, remember, students drop out of high school, but they stay in the community. so the community bears the cost of the dropout crisis. by using the data to show how high that cost is, we can help galvanize the community, the business sector, nonprofit, faith based governmental sectors to work with the school system to really address it. once we've done that, what do we ask them to do? in the report we lay out a ten step state strategy. i'm not going to go through these one by one. i do want to take the time to talk about the first three. and then give you a homework assignment on number nine. a couple things to keep in mind as you go back to communities and states. this year for the first year we're finally measuring high school graduation rates the same

way in all states and all districts using the accurate measure which is how many entering ninth graders get a diploma four years later or states can also measure after five or six years if they ask for a waiver. minus schools transferring. adding students coming into the school. we can actually now know within districts, within states which schools are making big progress to learn from and which schools are still struggling and need more help and attention. this data is just coming out now. about 35 states you can get this somewhere on their website. still often a little buried. we're going to be trying in the next couple months to put it all together on our website so it's an easy click. by the end of the year all states except for two or three that got waivers should be out. this is powerful, galvanizing local data. create a map in your community, your state, how many kids and how many schools have to improve for us to meet this goal. let's target your efforts and measure them to really have strategic, focused impact. the second thing that's happening is this. almost all states, 11 have them already. 24 in the pipeline right now. most will follow. are applying for waivers from the no child left behind act. in these waivers states are gaining collectability to move

around the federal money which provides an opportunity to use it in a more targeted, strategic way. but in return for this they're pledging to reform their lowest 5% of schools plus any school with a graduation gap. right? so those are our schools. we have to make sure the states use this freedom wisely. they do it to show -- use evidence based procedures. in the report it's a group of things together. you need to evidence based whole school turnaround transformation of the lowest performing schools. high schools and feeder middles. you need to enhance student supports in those schools. right? because those kids need a good lesson every day and something else. we have to bring in that something else in order to enhance student support which is going to really involve bringing in often external nonprofit

partners, many of which you're going to hear today, many of which have stepped up as brian said using common metrics. it really moved up their game. using evidence based procedures we need to bring those adults into schools and use an early warning system so we target those adults and the school on the kids most at need as soon as they're starting to show any sign of trouble. that's what you should be looking for as states are moving to use their dollars and address this problem. are they enhancing student support? are they using early warning systems? are they creating funding streams to pay for it while holding them accountable? the other thing to watch out for is that as they build these state performance indexes, which in many ways are going to be very exciting, that they get the mechanics right and graduation rate accountability is still held at the highest outcome for high schools. you need two things to happen. we need to graduate all our kids. they've got to graduate prepared for college and career.

neither one of those by itself is good, right? we could increase our college readiness. we'd still have a quarter of our kids not graduating. that's not good. there's no work for those kids. we could lower standards and graduate all our kids and they couldn't do any work anyway. that's not good either. these are complex systems. we have to keep our eye on it to make sure graduation rate accountability is still at a high level. arguably this is the first year as a nation we have a good graduation rate accountability. we have an accurate measure. all states had to put in substantial progress goals. and we can't lose that as soon as we gain it. this is like bacteria in a hospital. we don't see it. the truth is we don't see it because we don't measure it. we don't measure it because no one's asking for it. the school's measure is a average daily attendance of the school. turns out this is one case where 90% is not an "a." we're hard wired almost

genetically to hear 90% equals good. right? a school can have a 90%, 91%, 92%, 93% average daily attendance and a 40% literacy rate. the truth is, you could have 90% average daily attendance and have one-fifth of your kids missing a month or more of school. different kids on different days equalling that 90%. if you dig beneath that 40% literacy rate you're probably finding half those kids aren't coming to school regularly. until they come to school regularly, it doesn't matter how great the lesson is because they're not there to get it. we really have to campaign at a local level, at a time level to say we need to measure how many kids are missing a month or more of school, about 10%, in a week or less. two incredibly understandable metrics. once we have those thinks, the community can galvanize against. we have to get our kids to school on a regular basis. with that in mind i want to thank you. i think we turn it back over now to john bridgeland to talk about

some powerful institutional plays. [ applause ] >> fantastic, bob. not only wonderful data but a homework assignment. also great to know the 13 states where the battle will be won or lost over the next decade to reach this national goal. as brian gallagher highlighted at the outset of this plenary session, the theory of change of the civic marshall plan is to highlight groups that are beating the odds and making ground breaking progress on one or more of the benchmarks. many case studies in the report that are featured this year, for example double digit gains in rural maryland. thank you, betty morgan.

to significant progress in georgia, in atlanta, in houston and in alabama show us the pathways forward on how these states and school districts are beating the odds. i want to thank the leadership council members of the civic marshall plan to build a grad nation. all the organizations listed here for their extraordinary work over the last year working in partnership. this is their civic marshall plan. it was developed in partnership with them. to get a better sense of how organizations are putting a stake in the ground aligning with the civic marshall plan and achieving real results, we're now going to hear a few of the boldest and most promising what we call big institutional plays this year which are also featured in the report. our first big institutional alignment with the civic marshall plan is the corporation for public broadcasting's american graduate initiative presented by pat harrison, their dynamic president and ceo. i can tell you, i think it's one of the most exciting developments we've had in the

last year. grad nation has seen the power of media to raise awareness and spur action to address the high school dropout challenge across the country from little towns like richmond, indiana, to new york city. the corporation for public broadcasting has made significant investments in digital media, reaching diverse communities and creating a dialogue to engage local communities. pat will be followed by nina sazer o'donnell, vice president for education at the united way worldwide. and max miller, co-ceo of big brothers, big sisters of america. in addition to brian gallagher's announcement from united way this morning on the feeder schools, united way and big brothers, big sisters are taking their long standing partnership a step further to accelerate their progress on the civic marshall plan. and, finally, rounding out the beginning with extraordinary leadership from one of the most significant companies in america, at&t, we'll hear from beth shiroishi. please, first warmly welcome the ceo of the corporation for public broadcasting, pat

harrison. i want to thank bob for all he's doing to help america become a grad nation. it's great to be with so many people concerned with america's young people and putting that concern into action through america's promise alliance. as alma powell says in the grad nation report, we can't afford excuses. and america's promise alliance is one of the most effective and largest partnerships increasing champions for the nation's

children and champions never make excuses. they do work toward the mission every single day. and our kids really need these champions. we should think of them as our kids. our best and brightest. because that's how they start out. believing that they do have a bright future. believing that they can be among the best. who do eventually graduate. but somewhere along the way, they lose their way. and when that happens, they and we all lose. because, as their success goes forward or it falters, or it fails, so goes our nation. let me tell you what the nation's public media station, radio television online and in the community, are doing to address the dropout challenge

through an initiative we launched last year called american graduates, let's make it happen. for his eloquent words inspiring public media to action at that launch. working in partnership with america's promise and guided by the civic marshall plan, we began with a very strong foundation. a core part of public media's mission, which is education. because for decades we have provided a safe place where children can learn, commercial free and for free. we have improved reading readiness. especially for children in high need communities through our ready-to-learn program. we have digital media resources through pbs learning media that's correlated to the common course standards.

and now public media is utilizing our resources, our trusted content, our connection to community, our boards of civic and business leaders, and our audience in ways that really can help kids stay on the path to a high school diploma. and basically in ways that are specific to each community. so let's look on a national level. because while all this is happening on a local level, we're also focused on telling the story nationally. so tavis smiley's "too important to fail" investigates the root causes of increased dropout rates among black teenage males, while jim glassman's "ideas in action" examines the vital role that middle schools can play, even before those kids start thinking about dropping out.

on the radio side, npr's "story core" motivates people to get involved by featuring stories from teachers who are doing their best to keep kids on the path to a high school diploma. now, how effective is this coverage? and those are just a few examples. well, let me tell you a quick story. wamu, right here in d.c., committed to a nine-part series on the dropout challenge. and stories focus on early warning signs, kids that overcame barriers to success, model schools that engage the community and much, much more. well, roberto rodriguez, who is special assistant to president obama for education on the white house domestic policy council re-tweeted the story on the dropout challenge that was generated by kavitha cardoza, senior reporter from wamu.

next, senator jeff binghammen, from new mexico, was also listening to the story, and now he wants to engage his local public media station, knme, in a district hearing on how the drops you crisis is impacting the state of new mexico. next, representative george miller from california also heard kavitha's reports and he blogged about the great public media american graduate initiative. so from d.c. to mexico to california and throughout every single state, the dropout story has gone viral. and across the country, public media stations through american graduate, with support from the bill and melinda gates foundation are hosting teacher town hall meetings to listen and learn and effect change. kqed in the bay area produced a

town hall in oakland. it was moderated by npr's glen washington. live web cast. and it's going to become a radio broadcast special and video web extra. at the end of the town hall, one oakland teacher stood up and said, thank you, kqed, for coming to us to hear what we have to say. at this point, american graduate efforts have been launched at 68 communities with over 600 partnerships and more to come. from projects such as vegas pbs' "virtual high school," helping kids get their diplomas online, to pbs news hour and their student reporting labs, which give middle and high school students the opportunity to learn digital media production and connect the education they're getting to relevant next steps for their future.

to our new americangraduate.org website, a virtual research center to help people understand the dropout challenge and be inspired to become champions in their communities and states. and i have to say how honored and proud all of public media is to be working with america's promise alliance, with civic enterprises, and with all of you to build a grad nation. and i know that one day we are going to see bumper stickers on thousands of cars in every single state that says, "i helped a young person become an american graduate." now, let's make that happen. thank you. [ applause ] if you will turn to the screen, we'll have a short video on how public stations are working to make that goal a reality. ♪

>> i honestly think the reason why students drop out from high school is because they don't have someone that inspires them. >> i was hanging around with the wrong group of people. most of them smoked. most of them did a lot of bad things. >> over the course of a lifetime a high school dropout will make $1 million less than a college graduate. >> if your friends are dropping out and that's what's cool in your community, then i guess that's what's going to happen. >> this could create an underclass, a permanent underclass in our society. >> i don't want to be a statistic. >> a lot of students say i've never really been challenged. >> i lost my son to the streets. i tell anybody if they can help their kids, don't allow them to throw their life away just because they want to.

>> we have to do that. we're charged with that. >> the question is, will all americans be willing to do what it takes to change this reality? >> there's a dropout crisis in america. and public media can help. >> public media has unique assets that are really unrivaled by any other media organization. i'm thrilled that this collection of public minded broadcasters has stepped up to the challenge. >> working in full partnership with business and civic organizations on a local level, we're going to help these kids stay engaged through extracurricular activities that capture their interest. >> through public media we're going to be able to educate, use this sense of urgency to this problem. >> today we're focussed on what we can do. we begin right now to share what we can do to make positive change. >> at lot of our initiatives are focused on engagement in school. building connections. >> through afterschool mentor programs and internships.

through video camps and community town hall meetings bringing together parents and teachers and students. >> when i think about the american graduate initiative, i see a possibility for success. >> public media is making a commitment with our partners and the people in the communities we serve. we know that the challenge is serious. but we also know what works. if we start where these kids live, in our communities, and work in partnership with teachers and parents, the school, civic and business leaders we can make the dream of a high school diploma a reality for america's young people. let's make it happen. ♪ [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome co-ceo of big brothers, big sisters of america, max miller.

and vice president for education united way worldwide, nina sazer o'donnell. >> good morning. >> good morning. i'm nina. >> and i'm max. >> i know proverbs can be cliches. but there's an proverb that so fits the occasion. it says if you want to go fast, go alone. if you want to go far, go together. it's inspiring to be in this room with all of us and people who are watching via the web all over the country knowing that we are all working together to help communities work together to help every child go far in school, life and work. >> our organizations have been working together for years now. we've been communities and alleys for some time. now we're taking it even further. we're forging a new partnership to increase the number of