90% Come and Gone.

I learned from my boss that since 1983's A Nation at Risk, three successive Presidents pronounced a 90% high school graduation rate goal by certain dates --- only to see those dates come and go, or the nation's rate of progress be too slow to achieve the goal. This 90% goal was introduced by President George H.W. Bush in his 1990 State of the Union speech with the words “By the year 2000, every child must start school ready to learn. The United States must increase the high school graduation rate to no less than 90 percent.” This goal was later reaffirmed by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Big news: this year's Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic shows that for the first time ever, our nation is on track to meet this goal!

But much work remains.

The report shows that two states, Wisconsin and Vermont, already have a graduation rate of 90 percent (here, I also learned from my boss, is a great opportunity to make a joke about dairy farming). Twenty states are on pace to reach 90 percent by 2020. Seven states need to accelerate progress, and 23 are off pace to reach the goal.

The report also shows that significant "graduation gaps" impede progress. For example, there are eleven states in which the graduation rate for white students is 89 percent or higher, but no state where this is true for African American, Hispanic, or economically disadvantaged students.

EdWeek did a nice write up here and NBC had a clip that showed all across the country. The full report, available at www.civicenterprises.net/education, provides additional detail on the latest graduation rates and dropout factory trends at the state and national level. It also shares promising practices from nonprofits, businesses, media, educational, and governmental institutions across the country.

Full disclosure: I'm a coauthor of the 2012 and 2013 Building a Grad Nation reports.

Live from DC.... I'm on Al Jazeera

I had the opportunity to go on Al Jazeera English yesterday to comment on a new report on educational equity from the Equity and Excellence Commission (a federal advisory committee chartered by Congress).  Great opportunity to talk about the progress our country is actually seeing around some important educational indicators --- including graduation rates.  We'll have more to share this Monday, when the 2013 Building a Grad Nation report is released at the annual Grad Nation Summit.

The best part of being on the show may have been that I got a text message from a friend in Sierra Leone telling me she saw it live!