12 MILLION DRIVE FOR 2025

12 MILLION DRIVE FOR 2025

National Minority High School Graduation Campaign – 12 Million Drive for 2025

 

The United States’ ranks 19th in high school graduation rates globally. Why, because forty three to 50% of minority students are not completing high school. With no hope in sight, according to the 2011 Globally Challenged: Are U.S. Students Ready to Compete, which revealed, that the proficiency math and reading levels for African-American, Hispanic and Native American students stand at only 11%, 15% and 16% for math respectively, and 13%, 5%, and 18% for reading.

 

The Alliance for Excellent for Education’s 2011“Impact on American Society” drop-out reports, 1.3 million high school students dropped-out from the Class of 2010, which 89 percent where minority students. If this trend continues, more than 12 million minority high school students’ are estimated to drop out in the next decade.

 

Both Educators and Economists researchers agree, if this happens, the U.S. economy will lose $1.5 trillion. Because, of the lost revenues from tax wages, increased Medicaid costs and incarceration rates; all caused by high levels of unemployment from a low-skill workforce, created by the drop-outs.

 

Therefore, the America First or Last Movement’s first major hurdle will be to increase minority student’s high school graduation rates.

 

This will be addressed by promoting a 36-month national public awareness campaign to increase minority student’s high school graduation rate by 30% by the year 2025. The campaign is entitled the 12 Million Drive for 2025, which will use the New Jersey Minority Educational Development’s evidence-base drop-out prevention model – 100% Graduation Rate Program.

 

This model was successfully carried out in one of the nation’s poorest and most violence cities (Camden, New Jersey). It raised the high school graduation rate by 56%, with the nation’s highest drop-out population minority males from 1996-2006.

 

How Did They Do It

 

They strategically build grassroots community partnerships with local school districts through a free cooperative educational forum. After the forum, they form a local organizing committee to draft a 10-year community action-plan to meet the school districts needs.

 

Each local organizing committee’s evaluation process is determined through 4 performance evaluation stages:

  • Identifying the School Districts needs
  • Ongoing summation evaluation of how Community Partnerships are integrated into the local school district
  • Ongoing summation evaluation of how the community action-plan strategy is improving minority student’s academic levels and high school graduation rates with afterschool and summer programs
  • Measuring the outcomes versus the cost, and the new policies that are in place to assure a long-term solution to the problem