The Colorado Graduates Initiative demonstrates seven factors that must be present to build an effective statewide collaborative effort to increase high school graduation rates. These include: 1) Leadership to unite diverse stakeholders on specific, common goals and catalyze them into action; 2) A focus on data, particularly on actionable, early…

Creating a meaningful high school diploma will expose students to the full range of adult options which will enable them to shape their high school education in a way that connects to their current interests and stimulates the growth of new ones. Fully connecting all students to these four worlds of knowledge will equip them to build one…

Examines one national goal--to make our national high school graduation rate reach 90 percent by 2000--by focusing on the dropout problem. Poverty and cultural differences play a major role in determining who drops out. Exploring multiple-intelligences research and emphasizing educational research and development are sound strategies. Includes 33…