PBS News Hour
December 14, 2011
Written By Veronica Devore
A teenager punches the snooze button again and is contemplating skipping class to stay in bed when her cell phone rings. Tyra Banks is on the line telling her to get up, go to school and do what she has to do to graduate.
Pre-recorded robocalls from the likes of Banks, rappers Nicki Minaj and Wiz Khalifa plus many other celebrities are behind an initiative from the Get Schooled Foundation — in partnership with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation*, Viacom and other major sponsors — to increase attendance in American high schools. Students and parents can sign up for the twice-weekly wake up calls that, in combination with school-wide attendance challenges and activities rolled out in 90 schools across the nation, encourage teens to get up and get to school.
Listen to celebrity wake up calls.
Category Archives: National
Behind the Numbers: Why Dropouts Have it Worse Than Ever Before
A new dropout crisis study reveals staggering statistics on economic gaps between those in Chicago and around state of Illinois with and without high school diplomas.
Earlier this week, our friends over at WTTW Chicago Tonight interviewed economist Andrew Sum about the study, released by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. As Sum highlights, these numbers add up to a long-term effect not only for American society, but also for dropouts for most of their lives.
Watch below for Chicago Tonight’s interview with Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies:
Watch December 8, 2011 – High School Dropout Rates on PBS. See more from Chicago Tonight.
How to Identify a High School Dropout Factory
U.S. News and World Reports
November 30, 2011
Written by Jason Koebler
Many of America’s high school dropouts attend schools that graduate fewer than 60 percent of their students. Although the number of these “dropout factories” has decreased from 2,007 in 2002 to 1,634 in 2009, according to a March 2011 report by America’s Promise Alliance, thousands of students still fail to graduate from these high schools.
Follow the rest of this story at: Dropout factories
Can Tyra Banks Get Kids To School? Seattle Says Yes
First aired on November 9, 2011 from KPLU
For All Things Considered broadcast.
Last month, Tyra Banks and the national Get Schooled Foundation visited 400 students in the Bronx in New York City. Banks is one of several celebrities who record messages encouraging kids to go to school. Seattle is one of the latest cities to try it out — Mayor Mike McGinn’s office is spending nearly $50,000 to coordinate and implement the effort. To hear more about this story go to: Seattle Says Yes.
Attendance Works Initiative
Attendance Works is a national and state initiative that promotes awareness of the important role that school attendance plays in achieving academic success. It aims to ensure that every school in every state not only tracks chronic absence data for its individual students but also intervenes to help those children and schools. For more information please visit http://www.attendanceworks.org/
Watch this video about Chronic Absenteeism
http://youtu.be/o342iAzYiHc
Video: Too Young To Fail: Just Listen To Me, Tavis Smiley
“I really didn’t like school until I came to Promise Academy,” says Jamill Jackson, a student at the Roberts Vaux Promise Academy in Philadelphia. “I really didn’t wake up until high school.”
Watch this video of Jackson and his schoolmate Brandon Rose explaining why having teachers and school administrators who listen to them has made the difference in their education and in their lives.
Watch Brandon Rose and Jamill Jackson on PBS. See more from Tavis Smiley.
Video: Too Important To Fail, Tavis Smiley
Across America, less than 50% of young Black males will graduate from high school.
Watch Tavis Smiley Reports: “Too Important to Fail” on PBS. See more from Tavis Smiley.