America’s Promise Alliance

A recent report from America’s Promise Alliance looks at four communities who strove to expand opportunities for their underserved students. With support from the Ford Foundation, these communities leveraged local resources to expand opportunities in a variety of ways.

America’s Promise Alliance is an organization, founded in 1997 with the support from former Secretary of State Colin Powell and previous presidents: Nancy Reagan (standing in for her husband Ronald Reagan), Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The organization strives to create places and situations for students to succeed.

Continue reading Expanded-Learning, Collaborations, and How the Library Can Help

A new report from America’s Promise Alliance finds that students who leave high school without graduating are often overwhelmed by a cluster of negative impacts of poverty. You can read the full 72 page report (pdf) online, but here are some highlights (if that’s even the right word) to note:

Approximately 20 percent of young people (that’s about 800,000 per year) don’t graduate from high school
Toxic home, school, or neighborhood environments–sources of violence, disrespect and adverse health–lead young people to stop going to school
Connectedness to others can lead young people both toward and away from school
Even young people who are able to “bounce back” from an interrupted education are often unable to re-engage in the longer-term

So what does all this mean for libraries?
Continue reading Don’t Call Them Dropouts