Accelerating the College and Career Readiness of the Nation's Students (State Cards)
May 26, 2011

In the spring of 2009, the Common Core State Standards Initiative was launched with forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and two territories coming together under the auspices of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to develop a common core of state K–12 English language arts and mathematics standards. Within the last year, forty-four states and the District of Columbia have adopted these standards and are now working on implementation. The Alliance for Excellent Education strongly supports this state-led movement that promises to lay a new foundation for systemwide education reform. The attached profiles of the fifty states and the District of Columbia capture the progress made in adopting both the common core state standards, subsequent work in ensuring those standards are accompanied by college- and career-ready assessments, and the potential benefits of preparing all students for success in college and a career.

Click here to access the state card for your state.

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Education and the Economy: Boosting State and National Economies by Improving High School Graduation Rates 
March 22, 2011

Cutting the high school dropout rate in half for just one class would likely lead to billions of dollars in increased earnings, provide a boost to home and automobile sales, and create more than 50,000 new jobs nationwide, according to a ground-breaking new study released on March 22 by the Alliance for Excellent Education. These findings, made possible through the generous support of State Farm®, demonstrate the economic benefits the nation—as well as each state—would likely see if its number of high school dropouts was cut in half. The study builds on the Alliance’s previous work examining education and the economy and provides clear evidence that in an information-age economy, education is the only currency. The findings include the growth in jobs, home ownership, levels of spending and investment, and car sales.

Findings for the nation, 50 states, and the District of Columbia.

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The Nation's High Schools (State Cards) 
Updated October 2010

State cards provide a statistical snapshot of high schools for each state in the nation and the District of Columbia. The cards include economic information, data on high school graduation and college completion rates, academic achievement, and states’ progress in building a longitudinal data system. Where applicable, statewide numbers are compared to the national average and include national rankings.

To access national, state, or District of Columbia cards, click here.

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Online Learning: Addressing Challenges and Seizing Opportunities (State Profiles)
May 21, 2010

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The Case to Adopt Common College- and Career-Ready Standards (State Cards)
May 19, 2010

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The Economic Benefits from Halving the Dropout Rate: A Boom to Businessess in the Nation's Largest Metropolitan Areas
January 12, 2010

To better understand the various economic benefits that a particular community could expect if it were to reduce its number of high school dropouts, the Alliance, with the generous support of State Farm®, analyzed the local economies of the nation’s fifty largest cities and their surrounding areas to calculate economic projections that estimate the gross increase in important local economic factors such as individual earnings, home and auto sales, job and economic growth, spending and investment, tax revenue, and human capital.

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Federal High School Graduation Rate Policies and the Impact on States
March 2009

For too long, inaccurate data, misleading official graduation and dropout calculations, and inadequate accountability systems at the state and federal levels have obscured low graduation rates. In October 2008, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released regulations that change requirements for states’ calculations, reporting, and accountability systems for graduation rates under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Nationally, and for each state, Federal High School Graduation Rate Policies and the Impact on States summarizes the changes the new regulations would make in these three policy areas and describes how each state's current graduation rate policies might be affected.

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Understanding High School Graduation Rates
Updated July 2009

Far too many of our high school students—particularly poor and minority students—are leaving school without a high school diploma. Understanding High School Graduation Rates provides the latest graduation rate statistics, demonstrates graduation gaps between demographic groups, illustrates the discrepancies in graduation rates reported by government and independent sources, and examines the economic costs of dropouts to individuals and society.

Learn more about high school graduation rates in your state

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Potential Economic Impacts of Improved Education
June 2008

The economic impact fact sheet helps policymakers and the public understand the extent of the economic costs to society of an educational system that serves so many students poorly and fails to graduate over 1.2 million students every year. It also provides an overview of the potential economic benefits that a state could enjoy were it to invest in a high school system that prepares all high school students for graduation and success after high school.

Access National, State, and District of Columbia information here....

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