In Philadelphia, Dissecting How To Increase High School Graduation Rates
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A nonprofit group that aims to lower the high school dropout rate across the US held a summit today in Old City Philadelphia.
The summit is the 50th of 100 being held around the country through next year. National and local organizations such as America's Promise Alliance are working together to raise the national high school graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020.
Among the participants at today's session were Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf; Mayor Nutter; William Hite, superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia; and Chekemma Fulmore-Townsend (below), president and CEO of Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN).
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"As the research indicated, we made some great strides both in our overall graduation rate and supporting some of our most vulnerable young people," Fulmore-Townsend told KYW Newsradio today. "Moving forward, that work needs to continue, and so we need continued commitment. We need appropriate funding for education. We need strong prevention activities. We need strong, multiple pathways to graduation. We need options for people who already left school."
Philadelphia lags about 15 percentage points behind the national average in the rate of high school graduation.