Even though the Alabama Department of Education Web site continues to show a projected four-year dropout rate of only 9.76 percent, reliable sources report our dropout rate is almost 39 percent. In other words, (after controlling for transfers in and out of the system and for deaths) only 61 of every 100 students who enter the ninth grade in Alabama will graduate from high school on time. Alliance for Excellent Education translated this to real numbers -- nearly 25,000 students did not graduate from Alabama high schools in 2008. The economic ramifications for these students personally and for the state are sobering. In terms of lifetime earnings, these 25,000 dropouts will forego nearly $6.5 billion and will add $245 million to Alabama's health care costs burden. To get a better idea of the severity of the problem in Alabama, you can find the latest graduation rate data for Alabama high schools in a report published by Alliance for Excellent Education. The Promoting Power database, which shows the dropout rates for Alabama high schools, is available at: http://www.all4ed.org/about_the_crisis/promotingpower.

On the national level, more than 1.2 million students a year leave high school without a diploma - or about one-third of students overall, according to data provided by America's Promise. The dropouts from the class of 2008 represent more than $319 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity for their life spans, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education, which advocates for at-risk middle- and high-school students.

For more than a decade my reports on Chester’s socio-economic and political conditions extensively examined the major causes for poverty, social-disorganization and the impact of institutional racism on unemployment, school dropout and crime/recidivism rates. I’m now realizing that, for all of these years, I have reflected the Classical-Sociological school of thought Larry J. Siegal speaks about in his book “Criminology,” 2009, which is my pre-text to this essay, “Can the Theory of Justice Reinvestment Aid Chester?” ... According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, “Unless high schools are able to graduate their students at higher rates, more than 12 million students will drop out during the course of the next decade, the results will be a lost to the nation of $3 trillion.” See www.all4ed.org.

The reality behind the No Child Left Behind Act is that it is a massive federal accountability law jury-rigged to work with 50-plus education programs. To comply with the law, students and schools must demonstrate proficiency in meeting unique state standards. ... Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, is among those wary of national academic standards. At a House Education and Labor Committee hearing last month, the congressman said he was worried that common standards could lead to a national school curriculum, placing states and school districts in “a straitjacket.” ... The congressman is not alone in his concerns, but support on the other side is growing by bipartisan bounds. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank, supports common standards, as do former Democratic Govs. James B. Hunt Jr. of North Carolina and Bob Wise of West Virginia, both of whom are now heading up education groups.

Every day 29 students drop out of high school in Alabama. That’s according to the Alliance for Excellent Education. Alabama ranks 43rd in the nation for high school drop outs, and the negative statistics don’t stop there.

Nearly one-fourth of the high school students in the St. Louis Public Schools dropped out during the 2007-2008 school year. ... Those students who drop out of high school are twice as likely to live in poverty as those who graduate. Dropouts are less likely to be steadily employed, more likely to be incarcerated, more likely to receive public benefits, and less likely to have health insurance. ... An estimate from the Alliance for Excellent Education indicates that the United States will pay more than $329 billion for the lost wages, taxes and productivity for the 2006-2007 dropouts alone over the course of their lifetimes.

The Washington-based Alliance for Excellent Education, a grantee of Carnegie, is among the groups that have pushed for an increased national focus on adolescent literacy. “We wanted to make sure through funding that the higher grades weren’t given the short shrift they have had in the past,” said Jamie P. Fasteau, the vice president for federal advocacy for the alliance, referring to discussions her organization has had with congressional aides.

 ... testing among the 30 most developed nations shows U.S. students 25th in math, 21st in science, 24th in problem solving and 15th in literacy. That’s what Bob Wise, a former governor and congressman who heads the Alliance for Excellent Education, told a Stanford University audience in April. Politicians, he said, need to focus on strengthening middle and high schools. Nationwide, 70 percent of eighth-graders cannot read at grade level. No wonder that 30 percent of them don’t graduate from high school.

Special to Roll Call by Bob Wise ... Every time a Member of Congress proposes to take up an issue, a reporter asks: “Shouldn’t Congress be focusing on the economy?” To which the lawmaker responds: “Congress can walk and chew gum at the same time.” Congress can not only perform the legislative equivalent of walking and chewing gum at the same time, it can simultaneously do the hokey-pokey, yodel and vacuum floors. That is to say, Congress is all about multitasking. It doesn’t have to defend itself when it ventures into various policy matters.

When charter and comprehensive schools within the same district work together, they are usually a potent agent of education reform, but in many cases the institutions form a combative relationship, said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a nationwide organization. “Charter schools usually can employ best practices quicker, and highlight successful tactics that comprehensive schools could adopt,” said Wise, the former governor of West Virginia. “But there is animosity sometimes because districts feel that charters have greater flexibility but without the same standards.”