America's Promise Alliance commissioned Grad Nation, a new tool comprising the best evidence-based practices for keeping young people in school paired with suggestions for effectively preparing them for life after high school. It is a guidebook that provides a road map to help communities tackle the dropout crisis. It is designed to help communities develop tailored plans for keeping students on track to graduate from high school, prepared for college, work and life. Grad Nation includes ready-to-print tools and links to additional online resources, in addition to research-based guidance. It provides information and tools for developing and implementing a customized program that's right for individual communities.

Non-Regulatory Guidance from the U.S. Department of Education.  December 22, 2008

Summary of minimum & maximum compulsory school age requirements for 50 U.S. states and DC, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and American Samoa.
Author: Melodye Bush, Education Commission of the States

The study analyzed data from the 3,657 students who dropped out of Denver schools in the 2006-07 year, finding common characteristics. In ninth grade, most dropouts had gotten at least one F that year, a third had four or more F's in a semester, and two-thirds had missed 20 or more days of school. In sixth grade, one third of the dropouts had been failing at least one course, 44 percent had missed more than 20 days of school, and one in five had at least one suspension. Most dropouts were male, 61 percent were Latino, and 84 percent quit in high school, with most kids leaving freshman year. While the overall gist of the report is not news to Denver educators, it underscores the urgency of the issue and the need to reengage disaffected teens and intervene as early as possible.
Authors: Martha Abele Mac Iver, Robert Balfanz, & Vaughan Byrnes, The Center for Social Organization of Schools, Johns Hopkins University

This brief begins with a national snapshot of the achieve­ment and educational outcomes of ELLs and efforts to improve the assessment and reporting of these outcomes. It then focuses on the efforts of Florida, California, Texas, and New York--the four states with the largest population of ELLs in schools--to use their state-level accountability systems and the NCLB mandate to implement and refine policies designed to support ELLs at the high school level. This brief also examines how state departments of education and Regional Comprehensive Centers in the selected states collaborate to promote positive changes to help strengthen the education of ELLs at the secondary level. The profiles of these states are intended (a) to provide a nuanced picture of how states with large populations of ELLs are using the NCLB mandate to improve educational outcomes for ELLs at the high school level and (b) to chart the considerable ground left to cover if we are to see significant, widespread and concrete gains in the support of ELL students.

Author: Nanette Koelsch, WestEd

This book aims to inform the policy debate by examining four primary research questions in several geographic locations: (1) What are the characteristics of students transferring to charter schools? (2) What effect do charter schools have on test-score gains for students who transfer between TPSs and charter schools? (3) What is the effect of attending a charter high school on the probability of graduating and of entering college? (4) What effect does the introduction of charter schools have on test scores of students in nearby TPSs?  We examine similarities and differences in the answers to these questions across locations, seeking insights about the policy levers that might be available to improve the outcomes associated with charter schools. Data sets are from Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Milwaukee, MN;  Philadelphia, PA; San Diego, CA; Florida; Ohio; and Texas.
Authors: Ron Zimmer, Brian Gill, Kevin Booker, Stephane Lavertu, Tim R. Sass, John Witte

McKinsey's report, The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools, examines the dimensions and economic impact of the education achievement gap. While much controversy exists on the causes of the gap and on what the nation should do to address it, the full range of the achievement gap's character and consequences has been poorly understood. This report examines the dimensions of four distinct gaps in education: (1) between the United States and other nations, (2) between black and Latino students and white students, (3) between students of different income levels, and (4) between similar students schooled in different systems or regions.

The report finds that the underutilization of human potential as reflected in the achievement gap is extremely costly. Existing gaps impose the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession--one substantially larger than the deep recession the country is currently experiencing. For individuals, avoidable shortfalls in academic achievement impose heavy and often tragic consequences via lower earnings, poor health, and higher rates of incarceration.