A selection of organizations engaging in dropout research or advocacy.

Achieve
Created by the nation's governors and business leaders in 1996, Achieve helps states raise academic standards and achievement so that all students graduate ready for college, work and citizenship

Alliance for Excellent Education
Policy center whose mission is to promote high school transformation to make it possible for every child to graduate prepared for postsecondary education and success in life.

America's Promise Alliance
Building on the legacy of founder General Colin Powell, the alliance is committed to seeing that children experience the fundamental resources they need to succeed - the Five Promises (caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, an effective education and opportunities to help others) - at home, in school and out in the community.

American Youth Policy Forum
Nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization based in Washington, DC, provides learning opportunities for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers working on youth and education issues at the national, state, and local levels.

Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Develops, shares, and acts on knowledge that improves the conditions and outcomes of schooling in America, especially in urban communities and in schools serving disadvantaged children. Current focus is on developing and promoting the concept of "smart education systems"; that is, systems that coordinate educational supports and services wherever they occur - at school, at home, and in the community - in order to provide all children with equitable opportunities and high-quality learning experiences.

Attendance Works
Attendance Works is a national and state initiative that promotes better policy and practice around school attendance. We promote tracking chronic absence data for each student beginning in kindergarten, or ideally earlier, and partnering with families and community agencies to intervene when poor attendance is a problem for students or schools.

BoostUp.org
BoostUp is a high school dropout prevention campaign designed to support potential graduates at-risk of dropping out. The campaign hopes to encourage teens, parents and adult influencers to give struggling students in their own communities the boost (encouragement) they need to stay in school and graduate.

California's Alternative Education Options System (John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities)
Case study research on continuation high schools in California in collaboration with the National Center for Urban School Transformation at San Diego State University and WestEd. The study provided a descriptive analysis of alternative education in California, most particularly, the operation and outcomes of continuation high schools in diverse regions of the state.

Campaign for High School Equity
Coalition of national organizations representing communities of color working in partnership to host joint events, copublish relevant research and policy analysis, and take collective action on issues vital to ensuring high school success.

Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education (CBCSE) (at Teachers College, Columbia University)
Conducts economic research on the benefits and costs of alternative educational policies and interventions.

Center for Promise
The Center for Promise, in collaboration with Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences, is the first-ever research center for America's Promise Alliance. The mission of the Center is to develop a deep knowledge and understanding about what is needed to help create the conditions so that all young people in America have the opportunity to succeed in school and life.

Center for the Social Organization of Schools
An educational research and development center at Johns Hopkins University

Civic Enterprises, LLC
A public policy firm that helps corporations, nonprofits, foundations, universities and governments develop and spearhead innovative public policies to strengthen our communities and country

The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles
Research and advocacy center devoted to renewing the civil rights movement by bridging the worlds of ideas and action, and by becoming a preeminent source of intellectual capital and a forum for building consensus within that movement

ConnectEd
The James Irvine Foundation founded ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career as a hub for innovative practice, policy and research to expand the number of education pathways that prepare students for college and career.

• See also: ConnectEd's Coalition for Multiple Pathways
  Statewide alliance of education, industry, and community organizations dedicated to improving California's high schools and preparing students for postsecondary education and career, both options and not just one or the other. More than sixty organizations have joined to date.

Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE)
Study of High School Strategies for Instructional Improvement; funded by the U.S. Department of Education

Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS)
American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen is a long term public media commitment, supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), to help communities implement solutions to the high school dropout crisis. Public media plays a significant role building individual activity, community capacity, and national awareness. The dropout crisis demands attention now, and we are rising to the challenge of doing our part to address this problem.

Dropout and Truancy Prevention Network
a program that provides an innovative solution for aggressively tackling chronic truancy and the dropout crisis, using Wounded Warriors and others with physical challenges as mentors for at-risk students, announced today that it has named General (Ret.) Wesley K. Clark as its Chairman.

Dropout Nation
Commentary on America's dropout crisis and education reform written by editorialist RiShawn Biddle. This is an expansion of his commentary on education that began four years ago for the Indianapolis Star with Left Behind, a series of editorials he co-wrote detailing Indiana's - and the nation's - dropout crisis.

EdNews
Online education news and information source.

Education Commission of the States (ECS)
Nonprofit, nonpartisan, interstate compact organization created in 1965 to improve public education by facilitating the exchange of information, ideas and experiences among state policymakers and education leaders.

• ECS High School Policy Center (HSPC) includes answers to requests for information on high school issues, an extensive 50-state high school policy database, searchable database of high school research, highlights of local initiatives, and more.

The Everyone Graduates Center
The Everyone Graduate Center seeks to identify the barriers that stand in the way of all students graduating from high school prepared for adult success, to develop strategic solutions to overcome the barriers, and to build local capacity to implement and sustain them.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
Mission is to take a hard-nosed look at the research to find what really works to keep kids from becoming criminals and then share information about proven crime-prevention strategies with policymakers, the media and the public.

Hechinger Report: Education by the Numbers
The Hechinger Report is a nonprofit newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about inequality and innovation in education. Education By The Numbers is aimed at journalists and researchers. We seek to answer the question of when (and whether) data can improve education.

Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA)
Independent, private non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening public schools to work for all children. Also, see IDRA's Graduation for All e-letter.

Jobs for the Future
Founded in 1983, Jobs for the Future began as a regional nonprofit working with a few states to assess their workforce needs-helping employers find skilled workers, and helping workers move into higher-wage jobs. Today, we work to expand the college, career, and life prospects of low-income youth and adults across 25 states. Building on 30 years of experience, we are working to fix all "leaks" along the education-to-career pipeline. We aim to ensure that employers have the skilled workers needed to succeed in today's economy. We also design and recommend federal and state policies to support these innovations.

Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
Policy center with a mission to shape American political culture

National Dropout Prevention Center/Network (NDPC/N)
Research center and resource network to reshape school and community environments to meet needs of youth in at-risk situations

National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD)
Research center that synthesizes research provides technical assistance to develop and enhance dropout prevention programs for students with disabilities

National Education Association (NEA)
Nation's largest professional employee organization with 3.2 million members that addresses the dropout issue in the following publications and multimedia

Reaching At-Promise Students Assocation
In 2007, the Reaching At-Promise Students Association was created to establish a professional network devoted to reaching those students who traditional teaching methods leave behind and rooted in the desire to transform students from "at-risk" to "at-promise."

The Silent Epidemic
Civic Enterprises, MTV, Time magazine, and the National Governor's Association were sponsors of the "National Summit on America's Silent Epidemic". This related web site contains information for parents, educators, policymakers and students. Find your school district's true, on-time graduation rate, statistics and facts about high school dropout rates, why students drop out and more.

State Education Reforms (SER)
NCES website, which draws primarily on data collected by organizations other than NCES, compiles and disseminates data on state-level education reform efforts in four areas: (1) standards, assessment, and accountability, (2) school finance reforms, (3) resources for learning, and (4) state support for school choice options.

United Way: Goals for the Common Good   |   See also: United Way's Education Page
Goal: to cut high school dropout rate in half over the next 10 years

What Works Clearinghouse (WWC)
Agency administered by he U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences that collects, screens, and identifies studies of effectiveness of educational interventions (programs, products, practices, and policies)