The document summarizes three programs that aim to reduce high school dropout rates: Communities in Schools, Career Academies, and GradNation. It finds that Career Academies is the best option as it offers comprehensive resources and pathways at the lowest cost of around $159,000 per 200 students. While all three programs have helped reduce dropout rates, the author recommends implementing Career Academies on a national level through the Department of Education due to its combination of impact and affordability.

1. AMERICA’S BACKBONE:
EDUCATION AND OUR
COUNTRIES YOUTH
WRITTEN & COMPOSED BY: SAHR SAFFA
ENGLISH 3303 TECHNICAL WRITING, ROUNDTREE
12/13/16

2. ADVANCE ORGANIZER
• Introduction
• Methods
• Results & Graphic
• Conclusion
• Recommendation
• References

3. INTRODUCTION
• Every twenty-six seconds, a potential graduate drops out of school into a world of uncertainty (Schargel, 2015).
• Out of a group of five freshmen in high school, at least one of them will not graduate (Schargel, 2015).
• Reasons people drop out: family problems, emotional and financial support, disengagement, academics struggles or some are even
pushed out by the schools due to disciplinary reasons. (Communities, 2016)
• Sixty-three percent of jobs in the next decade will require postsecondary education (Kamenetz, 2016).
• The United States is lacking in terms of education behind other countries in the world which is a huge problem with the advancement in
this country (Hargreaves, 2013).
• The purpose of this presentation is to recommend a solution to limit the number of students who dropout in high school courses
resulting in a lack of diplomas and advancement into jobs or post-secondary education. In relation to the resolution of the problem, I
recommend that we implement smaller current dropout programs into country wide mandated strategies or programs.
• I identified three programs/initiatives by the name of GradNation, Communities in Schools (CIS) and Career Academies that have
reputable hands in helping students get to the podium. They were evaluated on three criteria. Cost, resources offered, and impact so far
on helping to reduce the number of dropout students.

4. INTRODUCTION (CONT.)
• GradNation is a campaign to get the high school completion rate to 90% by 2020. It was campaigned by America’s Promise Alliance in 2010. (2016, 2016) The
foundation of the program is the Five Promises, the fundamental resources they need to thrive and succeed: Caring Adults, Safe Places, A Healthy Start, Effective
Education, and Opportunities to Help Others. (Levers, 2014)
• CIS programs are designed to improve the quality of life for economically disadvantaged youth by providing services that revolve primarily around education and
are geared toward dropout prevention, high school graduation, classroom behavior and participation, higher classroom grades and testing scores. CIS collaborates
with federal, state and local social service agencies, as well as private and community based organizations, local colleges, the private business sector, the
community, churches, and public schools for the benefit of at-risk students and their families. (Communities, 2016).
• Career Academies, aims of restructuring large high schools into smaller learning communities and creating better pathways from high school to further education
and the workplace. Operating as schools within schools, academy students take classes together, remain with the same group of teachers over time, follow a
curriculum that includes rigorous academic courses as well as career oriented courses, and participate in work-based learning activities. (MRDC, 2016)
• In the following sections, I will provide more detailed information about how I went about research and was able to come to a conclusion and bring this
recommendation to you.

5. METHODS
To get everything we need to come to a recommendation, I had to complete a series of five
tasks beforehand.
1. Identify the programs that can help reduce the dropout rate.
2. Research the cost for each program, expenses etc.
3. Research the programs or resources each program has to offer.
4. Research the impact each program has to date so far in reducing the problem.
5. Review and put together all information into a recommendation report.

6. METHODS
1. Identify the programs that can help reduce the dropout rate.
To complete this first task, I started off by using librarian conferences such as Alkek Library at Texas
State University and Houston Public Library in Houston, Texas. I knew what the problem was already
so I asked her for databases or any help in programs reducing dropout rates. The main keywords I
used were “high school”, “dropout”, “prevention” and “education”. From there I reached different
databases such as ERIC, Guide Star, and Texas Education Agencies databases. Those databases then
gave me programs and initiatives. It just so happened that the choices I used (GradNation,
Communities in Schools, Career Academies) were all the top three in each search. Those made my
decisions much easier. I then searched Google on the names of the programs to find my answers to
my criteria judgements of cost, programs/resources offered and impact so far on the problem. I found
numerous articles and results that I searched for using the search engine.

7. METHODS
2. Research the cost for each program, expenses etc.
To get the prices for each program I chose, I researched the programs individual websites and
typed the words “budget”, “cost”, and “income in their search bars on Google. After finding
these numbers I then put them in a chart accordingly which was also one of my figures in my
report.
3. Research the programs or resources each program has to offer.
I went to each of their sites and recorded their resources, programs, initiatives, and incentives
that these programs offered to make them stand out. For the most part they all offered the
same resources or around same areas which made the decision much harder. Their visions all
were correlated with one another.

8. METHODS
4. Research the impact each program has to date so far in reducing the problem.
I researched their numbers and statistics that each of them had to offer as far as how they
impacted the problem. I looked here to see how the sites could handle success and keep moving
forward. This was where I used Google as a search engine to gather articles and conversation
from others on each program.
5. Review and put together all information into a recommendation report.
This task, I basically just compiled all the info I had into a word document and begin to type it all
out to where I could electronically analyze all my data into the basis of a recommendation
report and presentation. Also, wrote things out on paper as well to get visual organization on
paper of my findings.

9. RESULTS
Communities in Schools (CIS)
• CIS programs offers plenty of resources and different type of programs to keep students intrigued and focused on
the goal.
• 6 Main Components –
• Supportive Guidance - life skills, mentoring, character development.
• Health and Human Services - food packs, emergency aid, referrals to support agencies.
• Parent and Family Engagement - parenting workshops, support groups, home visits.
• College and Career Readiness - job shadowing, college tours, workplace mentoring.
• Enrichment - service-learning, field trips, arts & science immersion.
• Academic Support - tutoring services, homework assistance, afterschool programs.
Citations: (Communities,2016) & (Schargel, 2016)

10. RESULTS
• Pricing for each CIS program ( 3 cities, Houston, SA, DC)
• Houston – CIS
 Program Services: $9,500,706
 Administration; Planning and coordination: $883,787
 Fundraising: $662,840
 Total: $11,047,333 to run functionally.
• SA – CIS
 Program Services: $6,111,285
 Administration; Planning and coordination: $883,580
 Fundraising: $187,625
 Total: $7,226,163 to run functionally.
• DC – CIS
 Program Services: $853,836
 Administration; Planning and coordination: $53,155
 Fundraising: $187,625
 Total: $1,015,440 to run functionally.
In the 2014-2015 school year, we achieved
the following results for all CIS Programs:
- 94% of students improved in academics,
behavior and/or attendance
- 94% of students were promoted to the next
grade
- 97% of eligible students graduated
- 99% of students stayed in school of at risk
students.
Citations: (Communities,2016) & (Schargel, 2016)

11. RESULTS
Career Academies (CA)
• CA programs are organized around themes such as health sciences, law, business and finance, and engineering. CA students are more
likely to report participation in college and career awareness exploration activities. The program consists of several components.
• CA programs can specialize in many areas from Agriculture, Food & Natural Arts, A/V Technology Resources & Communication Business,
Management, and Architecture & Construction Administration Education & Training Finance Health Science Hospitality & Tourism
Human Services Information Technology Law, Public Safety, Corrections Manufacturing & Security Government & Public Marketing, Sales
& Administration Service Science, Technology, Transportation, Distribution Engineering & Mathematics & Logistics and much more.
• The pricing on CA per 200 student estimate
 Startup costs - $297/student
 Total for 200 students - $59,400
 Administration planning/coordination
 $500 per student costing total of 100,000.
 Total 1 year of 200 students - $159,400.
Citations: (Levers, 2016) & (MDRC, 2015)

12. RESULTS
• Career Academies reduced dropout rates and improved school engagement for both high-risk and
medium-risk subgroups (about 75 percent of the students served). The Career Academy approach has
taken root in an estimated 8,000 high schools across the country. representing nearly a 15-fold increase
in approximately 10 years; many more Academies are in the planning stages. Much of this growth can be
traced to the increasing number of national, state, and district Academy support networks. Career
Academies improve the earning prospects of students. Career academies also increase the future
earnings of students. For example, a study found that career academy graduates made over $2,000 more
per year, on average, than non-academy graduates in schools that housed career academies within
traditional schools.
Citations: (Levers, 2016) & (MDRC, 2015)

13. RESULTS
• GradNation offer plenty or resources and different type of programs to keep students intrigued and
focused on the goal. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine), early childhood mentoring, risk
management, health and wellness promotion and college and career success programs. College and
Career Success, expanded learning (longer school day or year), family engagement, Health and wellness,
mental health issues, implementing programs, mentoring, etc.
• Pricing for the program as follows:
 Program services - $9,064,611
 Administration coordination/planning - $1,941,936
 Fundraising - $338,296
 Total: $11,344,843
Citations: (America’s, 2016), (Gradnation, 2016), (Remarks, 2016), (2016, 2016)

14. RESULTS
• Recent progress in boosting graduation rates suggests the GradNation goal of a 90 percent on-time national high school
graduation rate can be reached. For the first time in history, the national high school graduation rate surpassed 80 percent.
• GradNation is not program based like the others. GradNation holds yearly summits for educators and leaders to go implement
new strategies into their students from the summit. The purpose of the yearly summits where everyone in the program
convene are “to fuel local collaborative action to increase high school graduation rates.” From business leaders to faith-based
organizations, politicians to everyday citizens, the summits bring stakeholders to the table to identify the most critical
problems in their local area and to devise an action plan that will help achieve the overall goals of the campaign. Through the
GradNation Community Summits alone, America’s Promise tackled the second important step in moving from movement to
measurable impact – define and create a community.
• The real-world impact of that improvement for students, their families, and their communities is enormous. Because of
graduation rate increases between just 2008 and 2012, an additional 100,000 Latino students and an additional 40,000 African-
American students graduated from high school. That is 140,000 students of color alone with a better chance of getting a good
job, owning their own home, and supporting a family.
Citations: (America’s, 2016), (Gradnation, 2016), (Remarks, 2016), (2016, 2016)

15. RESULTS
Program Cost
GradNation $9,064,611 for total program.
Communities in Schools $9,064,611 for total program.
Career Academies $159,000/ per 200 students.
* Figure 1A. Above are the total costs of each program for one whole
year. Factored into theses numbers are administration, programs service
and fundraising.

16. CONCLUSION
• After evaluating and comparing the dropout prevention programs of Communities in
Schools (CIS), Career Academies (CA) and GradNation, I found that the CIS programs and
Career Academies provided a great combination of price and resources offered. They
also proved the impact and amount of lives changed until this point. GradNation turned
out to be more of a campaign and strategic conference held yearly, it is effective but
GradNation is not program and resource based as much as the other two. All the
programs have done enough to help the problem reverse there was no clearer
distinction than the other.

17. RECOMMENDATION
• I feel like Career Academies is the best program it offers all the essentials to help students
reach the podium and receive their diplomas increasing the nations graduation rate. Also, its
ability to offer so many different resources and create different paths for at risk individuals is
perfect. There are so many different Career Academies in one school building setting. To get
the results we are achieving more widespread , this must reach the Department of Education
who could fully implement this program on a larger national scale. The price is one of the
main reasons behind this decision, simply because of the other programs in contention. The
programs and resources offered were quite similar if not different by not too much, same as
impact and results so far. The deciding factor of cost, made the decision easier as there was a
huge gap with CA being the cheapest of the three.
•

18. REFERENCES
 GradNation Reports & Resources. America's Promise Alliance. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.on
 Hargreaves, Steve. "American Skills Lacking despite High Education." CNNMoney. Cable News Network,
29 Oct. 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
 Kamenetz, Anya, and Cory Turner. "The High School Graduation Rate Reaches A Record High -Again."
NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
 Levers for Change: Comprehensive Solutions | Community Guidebook." Community Guidebook. N.p.,
2014. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
 MDRC_News. "Career Academies: Long-Term Impacts on Work, Education, and Transitions to
Adulthood." Mdrc. N.p., 25 June 2016. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.
 Remarks to GradNation Summit 2014." Remarks to Grad Nation Summit 2014 | U.S. Department of
Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
 Schargel, Franklin P. "15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention." : Schargel Consulting Group. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
 "2016 Building a Grad Nation Report." GradNation. N.p., 09 May 2016. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.