Your community will need a way to identify and support students at the moment they begin to fall off the path to high school graduation. Most eventual dropouts send distress signals years before they drop out, providing ample time to provide them the supports they need to graduate.

Your community will also need to recognize, however, that even with increased dropout prevention efforts some students will still fall deeply off track or even drop out. As a result, multiple pathways to high school graduation need to be built and strong dropout recovery strategies employed. Establish early warning systems A widely held, common misconception is that dropping out of high school is an unpredictable reaction to a life event or a series of mysterious, poor decisions by a student. Instead, research suggests that students send distress signals years before dropping out. Most students who drop out follow identifiable patterns of failing grades and poor attendance. Because of this, educators have developed “on-track and off-track indicators” that identify a student who is at risk of dropping out long before the student makes that choice. The indicators are as simple as grades and attendance. High schools and middle schools need to develop these early warning systems to identify students who are in need of extra academic or other supports. With that information, districts, schools, and parents can intervene to get students back on track and increase their chances of graduating. For some students, dropping out can be traced to experiences at the start of elementary school. Existing research indicates three areas that communities should check: early chronic absenteeism — how many students a • re missing a month or more of school in K–3 • acquiring basic reading skills — how many students enter 3rd grade without strong reading skills • positive school experiences — how many students are having serious behavioral problems in K–3.

It is during the middle grades and the first two years of high school, however, when we can identify the majority of students who — without sustained intervention — will likely not graduate. During these years it is particularly important to pay attention to the A, B, C’s of dropout prevention—attendance, behavior, and course performance. • Attendance — 6th to 10th graders who miss 10 or more, 20 or more, and 40 or more days of school are sending increasingly loud distress signals. • Behavior — middle grade and high school students who get suspended need support to stay on track to graduation, but so do students who consistently demonstrate mild misbehaviors or lack of effort, e.g. not completing assignments, not paying attention, acting out of place in the classroom. • Course Performance — middle and high school students who receive an F, particularly in mathematics or English, or two or more F’s in any course are falling off the graduation path. D’s and very low GPA’s are also cause for concern. Overall, course performance is much more predictive than test scores of a student’s graduation odds. plus • Earned On-Time Grade Promotion/Significantly Over-Age for Grade — adolescents who do not meet the requirements to be promoted to the next grade (and as a result become significantly over-age for their grade) will likely not graduate unless they receive sustained supports. Many will need innovative educational options tailored to their unique circumstances. Communities need to reduce the number of over-age students by effectively responding to the first signs of student distress.

Create a multi-tiered response system To be effective, early warning indicators need to be linked to prevention, intervention, and recovery responses. For each student behavior that signals a student is falling off track — attendance, behavior, and course performance — there needs to be: • school-wide prevention strategies • targeted, moderate-intensity supports aimed at small groups of students who need additional help • intensive, case-managed responses when neither whole school prevention nor targeted responses are enough.

A tiered response triggered by an early warning system increases the likelihood that effective responses will reach students consistently. It can also enable the integration of school programs, wraparound services, and out-of-school supports in a clear and systematic way so that the right intervention gets to the right student at the right time with the required intensity. The National Center for School Engagement provides this successful case study of the case management approach: Josh was a 15-year-old Caucasian male and 10th grader, referred to the Juvenile Intervention Services Truancy (or JIST) Program through the Johnson County District Attorney’s office. While in a group home his grades and attendance improved, but soon after he returned home, truancy became an issue. The JIST caseworker discovered three main issues that led to Josh’s truancy: alcohol and drug abuse by Josh and other family members, domestic violence, and negative sibling role models who are delinquent themselves. During the 12-week program, Josh, guided by his caseworker, began to focus on his individual strengths and how to keep from returning to custody. He set goals for himself in the areas of Education, Socialization, Identity, Affection, Health and Economic Situation. While in the program, Josh’s school attendance dramatically improved, as did his grades. On his last progress report, he earned all A’s and has not missed a single day of school this year.

Provide multiple pathways to success and alternative recovery options for older youth Even with a highly effective dropout prevention and intervention system, some students will fall off track and need recovery options and alternative pathways to success. When developing a dropout recovery strategy for your community, you’ll find that one solution does not fit all students. Multiple programs and interventions must operate simultaneously to address the most students. The goal is to provide a second chance for students who have left high school without a diploma and for secondary students who are significantly over-age and far from meeting the requirements of a high school diploma.

Ensuring effective policies and resource allocations Policies at the local, state, and federal level can help or hinder communities in their efforts to graduate all their students prepared for adult success. The same is true for how resources are allocated. Communities need to work together at the local level to shape effective policies and resource allocations, while advocating for them at the state and federal level. Support policies that promote accurate graduation and dropout data. Schools and communities cannot address the dropout problem adequately without accurate data. The National Governors Association established a 50-state compact that provides a common definition for high school graduation rates, and the U.S. Department of Education is requiring a common calculation of graduation rates based on this agreement. These rates, and the data systems for collecting and publishing graduation and dropout rates, should be made available at the district and school levels, and data should be categorized by gender, racial, and ethnic subgroups. States and school districts should set benchmarks for raising graduation rates and should monitor progress toward such goals. Support policies to raise compulsory school age requirements under state laws. Governors and state legislators are increasingly interested in raising the compulsory school attendance age under state law from 16 or 17 to 18 years old, and providing support for struggling students. Many states recognize that current laws were passed 100 years ago, when life in the United States and our economy were very different. Research shows that one in four potential dropouts stays in school simply because of the compulsory school age law. The compulsory school age has been raised to 18 years of age in 20 states across the country — from California and Hawaii to Indiana and Louisiana to New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Twenty-two states attempted to raise the compulsory school age during the 2007 legislative season, and such legislation passed in three of those states. Legislation is now pending or has been reintroduced in many other states.

Support policies and resource allocations that improve teacher quality, student achievement, and higher graduation rates Communities need to adopt a “return on investment” approach and invest in programs and strategies with proven track records for raising graduation and college readiness rates. They need to encourage all sectors of the community that focus on youth development to pool and coordinate their resources to enable the most efficient and effective use of available resources. They need to advocate at the state and federal level for the necessary resources to enable all their students to earn a high school diploma.

Urge national lawmakers to make increased high school graduation and college/workforce readiness a national priority In 2008, there were a number of bills before Congress that, if enacted, would provide substantial federal help to local communities in their efforts to end the dropout crisis. These bills included: