Solving California’s Dropout Crisis is our site of the day

The California Dropout Research Project (CDRP) has released a 24 page report this week that has a set of systematic recommendations for improving California’s high school graduation rate.

“Solving California’s Dropout Crisis,” is a report that should not sit on the shelf. The problem of dropouts in California’s high schools is of epidemic proportions, plagues the state now, and will perpetuate problems for decades unless something is done.

We need solutions and timely document provides exactly that: A synthesis of what we can actually do to reduce the dropout rate from researchers, policymakers, and education leaders who have been brought together with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Walter S. Johnson Foundation.

The report finds that while California has adopted content standards and an accountability system, each level of the educational system lacks the capacity to provide support to the next.

So, there are a series of recommendations as to what the state, school districts, and schools should be doing. These experts have wonkish but important ideas for collecting and reporting more useful data—but they have concrete steps such as middle school reform similar to that which high schools have undertaken and call for re-examining high school graduation requirements.

Even for those not expert in educational issues, this is worth a look in this “Year of Education.” This affects all of us and our future.