By Cindy Mejia, USCM Intern
July 16, 2007

Increasing parental involvement and literacy were some of the solutions discussed for tackling the high school dropout crisis at the 75th Annual Conference of Mayors in Los Angeles on Friday, June 22. The High School Dropout Crisis Workshop was led by St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, Chair of the Jobs, Education and the Workforce Standing Committee, and included remarks by former Colorado Governor Roy Romer, Chairman of Strong American Schools; former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise, President of the Alliance for Excellent Education and Christopher B. Swanson, Director of Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center .

“Every year one-third of all high school students do not graduate,” Christopher Swanson told the mayors when introducing the EPE Research Center’s recent report in Education Week, Diplomas Count: Ready for What? Preparing for College, Careers, and Life After High School.

The report examines what it means to ensure that high school students graduate prepared for both higher education and the workforce. The report also provides data on graduation rates for the nation, the states and the nation’s 50 largest school districts. Swanson presented the nationwide data and the differences in calculation. “The disparities exist not only between states but also between cities and local areas,” Swanson told the mayors in outlining the importance of using the Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI) method to calculate graduation rates. The CPI represents graduating from high school as a process rather than a single event.

“Dropouts affect us all, not just the student. It also costs the economy money,” Governor Bob Wise pointed out. His remarks to the mayors focused on the need to improve literacy rates among our youth especially at the middle and high school levels. “71 percent of 8th graders read below grade level and 30 percent read significantly below,” he said. Wise also suggested a personal graduation plan that begins in the 7th grade and pushes each student to graduate high school at an early age rather than waiting until high school where it may be too late. Finally, we need to think of literacy, “as nutrition not innoculation, you have to keep feeding it.”

Governor Roy Romer is among those taking action to improve our nation’s education system through the Strong American Schools’ “Ed in ‘08” campaign, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. The goal of the campaign is to ensure that the nation engages in a rigorous debate and makes education a top priority in the 2008 presidential election.

Governor Romer pointed out that of the 440 questions posed to presidential candidates, only one was on education. Governor Romer also provided all participants with a copy of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s (OECD) 2006 report indicating that America’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) score not only falls behind many European states but also that the U.S. fails to spend as much on education as other developed nations. Governor Romer concluded with a request to all Mayors and those present, “This is my plea. Let’s talk about education in this country more.”