Making Graduation a Priority

More than two thousand teenagers walk away from school every day in this country. Solving this dropout crisis will require all of us working together. Ideas, plans, and strategies are needed from the national policy level to the individual student level.

To address the problem on the national level, NEA created an action plan based on promising practices and a range of experience and data.

• Read NEA's 12-Point Action Plan to find solutions that are based on experience and best practices.

To address the dropout problem on the individual student level requires ideas and solutions from everyone in the community. Two ideas that can encourage students are setting expectations and making adjustments that support students.

Setting expectations is important in every school activity—and getting a high school diploma is no exception. Students need to hear from adults over the years that they expect them to finish school. They need to have conversations with adults and their friends about "when you graduate from high school" and "your high school diploma will help you…" and "what are you going to do when you graduate?"

• Read Teacher Kept 12-Year Promise about a teacher who set expectations early—with her kindergarten students.

Making adjustments to meet the needs of students is not a new concept, but one that we must continue to consider as we work with students who may need tutoring, a change of homeroom, or an alternative setting.

• Read "I Don't Need to Graduate" about in-school tutoring that paid off.
  
  
• Read Adapting the School Setting about a teacher who opened her homeroom to a student.
  
  
• Read We Provided Alternative Schooling about a teacher working with a student who may not return.

Telling students what we expect of them and then making adjustments that support them can provide just the boost in confidence students need to stay in school and graduate.  

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