DROPOUT PREVENTION & RECOVERY
States should set public goals for making substantial improvements in their graduation rates and use a cohort methodology to report publicly on their progress.
States should help districts with low graduation rates move beyond incremental and piecemeal improvement approaches to more transformative strategies, including the redesign of high schools losing the most students and new options for off-track youth.
States should ensure that districts and schools deliver on the promise of an entitlement to a free public education through graduation or to age 21. Simply raising the compulsory attendance age is not enough.
States should explicitly include underrepresented and at-risk students in their strategies for accelerating students to high school graduation and postsecondary success.
States should have a designated vehicle for the development of recuperative models, through a competitive grant system of other means that encourages innovation and expands on successful models.
States should devote a stable funding stream toward development of dropout prevention and recovery options with systemic impact and support the expansion of successful models across the state.