Parenting Pointers: High School Graduation Rate

As a teacher, successful students are very important to me. That's why I'm happy to pass on this message from BoostUp.

According to the new Building A Grad Nation report released today by Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center, America’s Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education, for the first time the U.S. is on track to meet the national Grad Nation goal of a 90 percent high school graduation rate by the class of 2020. The number one thing kids need to do to succeed in school and go on to graduate is simply to show up. But up to 15 percent of students (nearly 7.5 million young people) are chronically absent every school year – putting their graduation at risk.

The Ad Council and U.S. Army are participating in a BoostUp campaign for high school dropout prevention to spread the message that every single day of school attendance counts. Supporting partner organizations, educators, students and dropout prevention advocates are all mobilizing to create a surge of messaging through social media to help in the effort to keep moving closer to a nation where every child graduates high school.

There are things you, as a parent, can do to help your kid make it through high school.

• Missing just two days every month of the school year can lead to a child falling behind and increase his risk of dropping out.
• Students who attend school regularly in their early school years are more likely to learn to read well by the critical third grade milestone; score higher on standardized tests; and graduate and go on to college than students who are chronically absent.
• Education is crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty, but chronic absenteeism is most prevalent among low-income students.

 Support initiatives to help raise school attendance. And get your kids to school!