Coming to a City Near You During the Month of April: How Improving the HS Grad Rate Can Boost Your City’s Economy
Throughout the month of April, the Alliance for Excellent Education will release customized data for more than 220 metro areas in the United States that demonstrates how reducing the high school dropout rate can lead to dramatic economic gains in those communities. The economic projections for these 220+ communities are in addition to findings for the nation and each state that the Alliance released last week. To learn more about the study and its implications for the nation as a whole, click on the short video below.
The new customized data provides an estimate of how many students dropped out from the Class of 2010 in your area and shows how cutting this number in half could
• create jobs;
• boost home and automobile sales;
• increase individuals’ earnings;
• raise spending and investment levels;
• support overall economic growth;
• increase state tax revenue; and
• grow human capital.
A complete list of the metro areas included in the study, as well as their scheduled date of release is available at http://www.all4ed.org/econ.
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There has been much discussion in Washington, as well as in school districts around the nation, about how time can be used to provide expanded learning opportunities for students (especially those who are low-performing and at risk of dropping out). With a high school dropout rate that should keep all of us up at night and U.S. students underperforming their international counterparts, there is good reason for educators, communities, and policymakers to be thinking about how time is being used (or misused) in schools. 