Diplomas Now program is a success in South Carolina

Usually by this time of the year, about 15 percent of ninth-graders from Johnson High School in Columbia, S.C., have dropped out of school.

So far this year, none have.

Local education officials are crediting “Diploma Now,” an innovative school turnaround model that unites three experienced non-profit organizations — City Year, Communities in Schools and the Talent Development education model — to work with the nation’s most challenged middle and high schools to deliver the right interventions to the right students at the right time.

The partnership combines evidence-based, comprehensive school improvement with an early warning system, national service and integrated student services that are dedicated to helping students at-risk of dropping out get back on track and stay on track to high school graduation and be ready for college and career.

"We know enough about who dropouts are, why they drop out and how to prevent it to help communities confront and stop their dropout crisis," writes Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University in What Your Community Can Do To End Its Dropout Crisis. "Over a decade’s worth of research, development and direct action confronting the dropout crisis indicates that, while it will not be easy, quick or cost-free, this is a crisis that can alleviated by a combination of effort and policy."

And moreover, Balfanz writes, it's worth doing. "Pick your issue – improving the economic vitality of your community, cutting its crime rate, reducing its social welfare costs, expanding its middle class, reducing concentrated poverty, or achieving social justice — stopping the dropout crisis in your community is a means to achieve it."