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 warning indicators; 3) Active participation of district leaders in discussing student-level data; 4) External support to allow districts to critically examine their own policies and practices; 5) A systematic framework for recommended dropout prevention steps; 6) Simultaneous progress on shaping state-level policy related to dropout prevention and recovery; and 7) Commitment by all stakeholders to active participation in a learning community.