The U.S. Department of Education's (ED) National Center for Education Statistics defines dropouts as "16- through 21-year-olds who are not enrolled in school and have not earned a high school credential (either a diploma or an equivalency credential such as a General Education Development (GED) certificate)." According to the feds, the U.S. dropout rate for 2008 (the last year for which statistics are currently available) was 8 percent, with the number of African American and Hispanic dropouts far outpacing their white classmates. All across Colorado, the Guided Online Academic Learning (GOAL) Academy is helping at-risk Latino students re-engage in their learning by fostering personal relationships between students and teachers, and providing a rigorous curriculum that includes life skills. GOAL teachers don't see their students as having failed, they see the traditional brick-and-mortar education system and their students' family and social circumstances as having failed. Their students are not failures: they are successes that simply have not happened yet.