May 14, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
A national meeting last week in Washington brought together government, foundations, and corporations to help the 1 million American students who drop out of high school each year.
Organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Civic Enterprises, Time magazine, the National Governors Association, and MTV, the participants produced a 10-point plan to reduce the number of dropouts.
The plan received praise from Suzanne Morse, president of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, on her Smart Communities
blog. “We have analyzed the problem enough. The 10-point plan introduced at the summit is a great place to start,” she writes.
But she also says that the meeting had a “missing piece.”
“What was clear is that solutions require a major, coordinated offensive from the federal government, state government, philanthropy, business, the schools, local organizations, parents, students as peers to other students, mentors — you get the picture,” she writes. “The missing piece from the summit was the identification of who will connect the dots and start this movement.”
What do you think? Was the meeting a success? Will the plan help curb the dropout rate? Click on the comments link just below this posting to share your thoughts.
