Nationwide, a student gives up on school every 26 seconds. That adds up to one million American dropouts every year.
	Nearly one in every three U.S. public high school students fails to graduate from high school with their class. Nearly one in every two African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans fails to graduate from public high school with their class.
	Dropouts earn about $9,200 less per year than high school graduates. Over a typical 30-year career, a dropout can earn potentially $276,000 less than graduates. Dropouts from the class of 2006-07 will cost the nation an estimated $329 billion in lost wages, lost taxes and lost productivity over their lifetimes.
	Studies show dropouts are more than twice as likely as high school graduates to slip into poverty in a single year. Dropouts are 10 times more likely than high school graduates to go to jail. Dropouts represent only three percent of actively engaged citizens (voters, community participants, etc.) in the U.S. today.

Why Are Our Children Dropping Out?

44% of dropout teens say they just didn’t like school. 39% dropped out because of bad grades. 27% say they had to drop out to get a job. 24% say they didn’t feel like they “belonged.” 17% had to drop out because they became parents.

More Resources:

Evaluation Report Executive Summary
The first annual America's Promise evaluation report focuses on progress to date on three major efforts, the Dropout Prevention Summit Initiative, the Featured Communities Initiative, and the continuous efforts to engage and expand the Alliance of National Partners. For each initiative, the report presents a theory of change that identifies key steps in the overall process of producing sustainable change in the lives of children.
View Full Evaluation Report

Report: Low graduation rates in many city school districts, introduced at America’s Promise Alliance’s national kickoff of its dropout prevention campaign in Washington, D.C. on April 1, 2008.

White House summary: 'Education, the Promise of America' (09/24/04)

More Facts and Information on the Dropout Crisis