Blogs
School counselors are heroes; here’s why…
Event Date: Graduation Alliance wants to say “thanks”! From border to border and coast to coast, Graduation Alliance has worked in partnership with hundreds of school districts to help students develop social-emotional learning skills, re-engage after dropping out, make college and career plans, and obtain workforce certifications. And if there’s one thing we’ve noticed in nearly every […]
Read MoreThe American Academy: Our Beginnings
Event Date: Graduation Alliance started and thrives with the passion for having students reach their full potential. It all started with a simple premise: Give individuals who could not or would not return to high school the opportunity to take classes online, supported by expert teachers, professional tutors and academic coaches. The American Academy, one of the […]
Read MoreGet Your Students Prepared For Life After Graduation
Event Date: Earn industry credentials that can help lead to careers. We love it when our students complete the audacious journey from high school dropout to college graduate, as so many have. However, for other students in our dropout recovery programs they just aren’t in a position to attend a four-year university. For these young men and […]
Read MoreHow to Identify At-Risk Students Before They Drop Out
Event Date: These tests and tools for predicting at-risk students may put us out of the dropout recovery business. Thank goodness. For nearly a decade, Graduation Alliance has worked with school districts across the nation to re-engage dropped out students and support those who are still enrolled but acutely at risk of leaving school. Last year, we […]
Read MoreYou Can Never “Time-Out” of Education
Event Date: When the state funded timeline ran out, Graduation Alliance didn’t want students left behind. Shauna had been out of school for more than a decade when she learned about a program to help adult learners graduate from high school. The free program offers Ohioans who are 22 years of age or older the opportunity to […]
Read MoreCounselors Are Being Overwhelmed Nationwide
Event Date: For counselors stretched thin with impossible-to-manage caseloads, every second counts. The American School Counselor Association recommends caseloads of less than 250 students for every counselor. In just three states is that happening. But we know counselors in New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming — and given everything counselors are supposed to do to support their students, […]
Read MoreGive Us 15 Minutes
Event Date: When it comes to stopping dropouts everyone is doing something—and everyone can be doing more. “What specific programs do you have in place to prevent and recover dropouts?” Ten years ago, if you asked this question to school leaders, it wasn’t unusual to be met with silence. Many forward-thinking leaders were deeply invested and engaged […]
Read MoreLook for the leading indicators.
Event Date: Antonio was doing fine. That’s what it looked like from the perspective of his teachers’ gradebooks, at least. He was doing most of his work, most of the time. He was earning Bs and Cs in all of his classes, and hadn’t failed a single course since entering high school three years earlier. But something […]
Read MoreOne District, Nine Graduates
Event Date: The Graduation Alliance program at one school district in Washington had nine students earned diplomas in 2017 from the program that gives at-risk students a second shot at success. With dozens of students working hard toward their own graduation goals — and one already holding a diploma — 2018 is already shaping up to be […]
Read MoreWhy headsets are the secret to getting students back to school
Event Date: When we gathered our student reengagement counselors into a room together a few months ago and asked them to suggest ways that school districts could recruit more disengaged students back to school, they had some interesting suggestions. “Headsets,” said one counselor. “Because whoever does this is going to be on the phone a lot.” How […]
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