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A PLAN FOR SUCCESS

Preparing every student for graduation, college, work, and life

Every school year, about 1.2 million students drop out of our nation’s high schools, leaving almost one of every three freshmen without a high school degree four years later. While roughly 70 percent of all high school students graduate on time, African American, Hispanic, and American Indian and Alaska Native students have only a 58 percent or less chance of graduating from high school with a regular diploma. In addition – and contrary to the model minority myth – many Asian Americans also face barriers in education.

The Campaign for High School Equity’s inaugural publication, A Plan for Success: Communities of Color Define Policy Priorities for High School Reform, makes a compelling case for the need to invest in high schools and provides a blueprint for meaningful reform. Its recommendations include a call to:

Make all students proficient and prepared for college and work;
Hold high schools accountable for student success;
Redesign the American high school;
Provide students with the excellent leaders and teachers they need to succeed;
Invest communities in student success; and
Provide equitable learning conditions for all students.

Read the Plan

Campaign Launched at Capitol Hill Event

On June 19, 2007, the leaders of nine major national organizations representing communities of color gathered on Capitol Hill to launch the Campaign for High School Equity, their first-ever national partnership to reform the nation’s high schools. This historic event showcased the commitment of these organizations and their members to improving America’s high schools, and ensuring that they have the capacity and motivation to prepare every student for graduation, college, work, and life. At the event, the organizations’ leaders signed an open letter to members of the U.S. Congress, urging the to act on behalf of the millions of students whose futures are at risk because they are ill-served as well as underserved by our nation’s high schools.

Read the Letter to Congress

Campaign for High School Equity Membership

Far too often, the nation’s unequal public education system fails to provide high-quality education to students of color and youth from low-income neighborhoods. Nowhere is this crisis more acute than in our nation’s high schools. The problem is defined by several variables, including a growing number of schools that have inadequate human and material resources, large differences in student achievement, and unacceptable numbers of dropouts. Nine national organizations representing communities of color – Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (LCCR), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund (NALEO), National Council of La Raza (NCLR), National Indian Education Association (NIEA), National Urban League (NUL), and Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) – have joined together to make improving our nation’s high schools an urgent national priority. The convener and coordinator for the Campaign for High School Equity is the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy and advocacy organization that works towards secondary school improvement.

Learn More About the Partners