The U.S. high school graduation rate is 82 percent—an all-time high. Just a few short years ago, nearly one in three high school students dropped out before graduating. America’s Promise Alliance, founded by General Colin and Alma Powell, engaged our team for a convening event and 50-state report release to help address the growing crisis.
We brought together more than 250 advocates, educators, business leaders, health stakeholders and other groups that America’s Promise needed to engage to meet its goal of hosting 200 local Dropout Prevention Summits across the country.
Our efforts generated 245 million media impressions, including a letter from Alma Powell in Annie’s Mailbox—one of the most widely read syndicated columns. Our media outreach sparked coalitions and helped secure campaign events nationwide. We monitored media coverage of dropout rates in the 18 months following the campaign’s launch and found significantly increased attention for the issue.
