Stemming the Dropout Rate: Using Data to Focus On Student Needs

From the guide:  "Dropping out of high school has devastating consequences, not only for students and schools but for communities and our country. While the national graduation rate has improved in recent years, one in four students still do not finish on time. Every year, hundreds of thousands of teenagers in the United States quit high school without diplomas—an epidemic so out of control that nobody knows the exact number. What is clear is that massive dropout rates cripple individual career prospects and cloud the country’s future.

PBS’s acclaimed documentary series FRONTLINE is taking on the dropout issue. We are joining forces with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on American Graduate: Let’s Make It Happen, a nationwide public media initiative to help local communities across the United States address the dropout crisis. FRONTLINE’s Dropout Nation community campaign combines a series of groundbreaking documentaries with community  engagement activities and resources aimed at identifying opportunities for adults to get involved in helping students graduate from high school.

Ending the high school dropout crisis is not only a priority for public media. It’s a growing national movement that involves many groups—parents, faith-based institutions, schools, businesses, political leaders and community organizations among them.

To encourage community conversations on this issue, FRONTLINE has created a specially edited DVD titled Middle School Moment with an accompanying discussion guide designed to help facilitate community screenings. The goal of such screenings is to spur audiences to action and to make them aware that a strong support system for students during the middle grades will have a positive impact on high school graduation rates."