Is the momentum shifting in the dropout fight?

The fight continues.

But a new report from America's Promise Alliance includes lots of good news for those battling against the nation's dropout epidemic. 

The U.S. graduation rate has increased slightly, from 72 percent in 2002 to 75 percent in 2008. Meanwhile, the number of “dropout factory” high schools — which account for about half of all high school dropouts — fell from 2,007 in 2002 to 1,746 in 2008.

Twenty-nine states increased their statewide graduation rate from 2002 to 2008. In most other states, the rates held steady. Only three states — Arizona, Utah and Nevada — lost ground in the percentage of high school students graduating from 2002 to 2008.

“We still have a long way to go," said Alma J. Powell, the Alliance's chairwoman, "but the surprising successes achieved in areas like New York City and across rural Tennessee should inspire a lot of people to get involved. All around the country, there are promising signs of hope in our education system, but we need an effort that is broader than a few dozen enterprising schools. We need more people — from government, education, business and philanthropy — all working together.”

To that end, the Alliance has announced a "Civic Mashall Plan" that includes benchmarks it says will be necessary to meet the goals of increasing the national graduation rate by an average of 1.5 percentage points per year during the next decade. That's the rate that must be maintained to to meet President Obama's goal of 90 percent graduation rates by 2020. The plan calls on policymakers, educators, business leaders, community allies, parents and students to mobilize and focus their efforts on dropout prevention and recovery.

Which is to say that there's still a tremendous amount of work to be done.

"America still faces a dropout crisis," said Alliance president Marguerite Kondracke. "But this report shows why there is reason to be hopeful."

The major discovery in the report, she said, "is that when administrators, teachers, community officials, state governments, parents and business leaders work together, schools can be transformed."