Education
Education is the cornerstone of individual and community success. It’s essential to getting and keeping a job with a livable wage and health benefits. And it’s fundamental to a community’s economic prosperity: a well-educated workforce attracts world-class jobs.
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Today, 6,000 young people will drop out of school. That’s 1.2 million high school dropouts a year — and 1.2 million young adults closing the door of opportunity.
Education is the key to getting a good job, one with a good income and health care. And it’s the key to our nation's productivity and global competitiveness.
That’s why United Way has put a stake in the ground on education. Our goal is to cut the number of high school dropouts in half by 2018. We’ve issued a challenge to all 1,300 United Ways and their community partners — and we want you to get involved, too.
High school dropouts are more than 12 years in the making. Children start learning at birth; the foundation for future learning is laid in the first few years. Disadvantaged children come to school at least two years behind their peers in pre-reading skills, and most never catch up. By 3rd grade, a child’s grades and absenteeism rates can predict with 90% accuracy whether he or she will complete high school. The entire education continuum, from birth through 21, must be in our collective crosshairs if we want to move the needle on high school graduation. That means making sure children are:
· Ready for school, starting with the social, emotional and cognitive skills they need to succeed;
· Reading on track by 4th grade;
· Transitioning successfully to middle school;
· Graduating high school on time;
· Working or in school by 21.
| What’s the impact of high school dropouts in your community? United Way’s Common Good Forecaster™, found at www.liveunited.org/forecaster, can help you determine exactly how education affects your community’s future. For example, it can predict to what degree might higher levels of education in your county lower the poverty and unemployment rates – and boost incomes. But beyond jobs and incomes, it can show how changes in the educational level of a place affect its incarceration rate. Or the percentage of adults who are obese. Or even voter turnout in the next election. |
What does it really take to improve education? Research shows that supportive communities, effective schools and strong families must be in place, supported by early, sustained investment and driven by proven strategies. United Way has a framework to guide our education work, one that’s helping our 1,300 United Ways mobilize people around education.
But what matters most is individual involvement.
Research shows the strategies proven to work are those that connect communities to their schools: parent involvement; literacy volunteers in the classroom; mentors for disadvantaged students; business leaders engaged. These aren’t things government can do – but you can! Visit the “Give. Advocate. Volunteer." pages of www.liveunited.org to learn how you can make a difference in the schools of your community.
Quality Child Care
Children learn best in loving, nurturing relationships and through everyday experiences. That hard-wires the brain for future learning, especially in the early years. Whether children are at home, with relatives or friends, or in childcare – the quality of early education is key to later school success. United Ways are leading dozens of pilot programs to improve the quality of childcare and equipping parents to make the best choice for their family.
United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta is involving everyone from pastors to parents in its efforts to significantly improve the quality of early care and education – wherever the child is. Churches are hosting parenting classes; hairdressers are offering educational material for grandparents; childcare centers are getting accredited, and turnover among childcare teachers has dropped 30 percent.
School Readiness
Children entering kindergarten with skills they need to succeed are more likely to graduate from high school and become productive workers. But almost half of America’s kindergarteners are behind – those from low-wage households by two years. Most will not catch up.
More than 660 United Ways and their partners are carrying out the Born Learning public engagement campaign. It helps parents, caregivers and communities support early learning. Public service advertising, a resource-rich Web site (www.bornlearning.org) and educational material (all in English and Spanish) offer fun, concrete ideas to help young children learn.
Some 60 percent of the low-income children in Chattanooga, Tennessee, were entering school without critical skills. In response, United Way of Greater Chattanooga created a public awareness campaign, a parent help line and a one-stop resource center, and engaged 50 community partners to provide information and hands-on help in poor neighborhoods. Parents lacked literacy skills to read to their children, so the partners created 23 mini-libraries and a mobile Reading Van. Seven years later, 30 percent more at-risk children are developmentally on track – and coming to school ready to succeed.
Academic Completion
With more than 1.2 million children dropping out each year, America faces a dropout crisis. The cost? More than $312 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes according to Communities in Schools, one of America’s leading drop-out prevention partnerships.) These trends are reversible, but only when communities and public, private and nonprofit sectors work together.
United Ways are funding mentoring programs and after-school initiatives, putting volunteers in classrooms and supporting dropout prevention programs. The United Way of Chittenden County in Burlington, Vermont, cut drop-out rates in half by leading a truancy project with Burlington schools, law enforcement, juvenile justice, judicial, and human services
To ensure that children get early exposure to books – which helps build literacy skills and is a factor in graduation rate – United Ways are boosting books and literacy programs.
That’s why the United Way of Central Minnesota’s Success By 6 launched Imagination Library three years ago. Today, 7,500 children under 5 receive a book each month in the mail, and strong community support is expected to raise that number to 10,000. Local businesses are promoting the initiative and encouraging their employees to sign up.