Ruth Curran Neild and Robert Belfanz
Project U-Turn
November 2006
Turning it Around: A Collective Effort to Understand and Resolve Philadelphia's Dropout Crisis
Project U-Turn
November 2006
Philadelphia has a dropout crisis. Project U-Turn's dual reports on this topic offer some important insights that could help policymakers tackle the problem more effectively. Their main virtue is the use of cohort data, which track a particular group of students over time instead of simply looking at a one-year snapshot. By doing this, the authors show not only that 40 percent of students leave Philadelphia high schools without graduating, but also which youngsters are at greatest risk. They argue that "about half of the dropouts in the city's public schools can be identified in the 8th grade" depending on whether students attend school 80 percent of the time and whether they fail either English or math. Factor in predictors for at-risk ninth-graders--attending school less than 70 percent of the time, earning fewer than two credits, not being promoted to tenth grade--and you've identified 80 percent of the dropouts. Other places, such as New York, have undertaken similar data-gathering projects (see here). Now the challenge is turning insight into action; the report's City-Wide Action Agenda is a good start. Read the reports here.
