Increasing Graduation Rates
Upward mobility and opportunity have long been the hallmarks of American society, as generation after generation surpassed their parents’ achievements. But declining high school graduation rates threaten this progress, especially for young Americans of color. First Focus believes America can improve graduation rates and restore access to the American dream by strengthening polices and programs to meet the needs of students in and outside of the classroom. Specific policy priorities for 2007 include:
- Convene Public/Private Partnerships to Help Kids Succeed. First Focus will advance bipartisan polices that build community-wide alliances for kids – involving not only government, but business, families, the faith community, service providers, and youth themselves. Strong alliances will be able to address not only graduation and other traditional education priorities, but also health care, public safety, and other critical needs facing our kids.
- Expand Coordination of Support Services. Research confirms that students succeed when provided a combination of supportive services like mentoring, after-school programs and access to health care. During the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) reauthorization debate, Congress should create incentives for schools to integrate these services and coordinate them with broader community-wide services as a way to help kids stay in school.
- Strengthen Graduation Accountability. Test scores are important, but a school is not succeeding when students drop out before they take the test. Congress should strengthen NCLB accountability requirements to promote graduation. First Focus will advocate for standard graduation benchmarks and research to identify and promote effective dropout prevention strategies.
- Increase Teacher and Teaching Quality. First Focus will research and advance proposals to strengthen teacher quality through NCLB including financial incentives for good teachers to teach in low-performing schools, merit pay and tenure reforms, and broadening the measure of teacher quality to include student outcomes.
- Increase Federal NCLB Funding. NCLB sets challenging goals for the nation; however, Congress has not fully equipped states and school districts with the resources needed to achieve these goals. First Focus will work with allies in the education community, as well as non-traditional partners, to support NCLB funding.
