DROP OUT CRISIS • RACIAL INEQUALITY • SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE
Problem
1.2 million young people in the United States drop out of high school every year. Statistics clearly state that young people who do not graduate from high school face numerous obstacles throughout their lives, including increased rates of incarceration, shorter life spans, worse overall health, and less earning power than their peers with degrees.
Data
Every 26 seconds a student drops out of high school
3.5MIL
students were suspended from school in the 2011-2012 school year
18MIL
days of instruction lost due to suspension, or expulsion.
25%
of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time
7000
high school students drop out a day
Solution
It is critical that young people have an opportunity to celebrate educational success stories, and to move to the center of the conversation about the personal and institutional factors that contribute to young people leaving high school without graduating. We believe that new perspectives and new solutions need to be brought to the table, so we are inviting young people to raise their voices and be heard.
Stories
For many teenagers, a gap exists between the importance and power of a good education, and whether or not their schools are safe places where nurturing yet rigorous education can happen.
We invited youth to share their graduation success stories, to talk about individual and familial responsibility, the importance of graduating, the outside pressures, under-resourced schools and teachers, school safety, over-reliance on testing, and varying cultural barriers that get in the way of getting a diploma.
