America's Promise
[1] The organization was founded on the idea that children and youth need "Five Promises" to thrive—caring adults, safe spaces, a healthy start, effective education, and the opportunity to serve—but that not nearly enough young people have access to these basic resources.
Presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush convened the summit, and Gen. Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret) served as the event's general chairman.
Senator Harris Wofford, who had recently become CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service and Bob Goodwin, president of Bush's Points of Light Foundation.
"[13] In his 1997 State of the Union address, President Bill Clinton laid out the overarching theme and goal of the summit: "to mobilize America's citizen power in a united effort to solve our common problems, especially those that threaten our young people.
[18] In 1998, Gen. Powell responded to criticism that the summit and ensuing America's Promise campaign were little more than symbolic gestures and reported that, as a result of the summit, among other things, Big Brothers and Big Sisters amassed a 22 percent increase in adults enlisting as mentors; Boys and Girls Clubs of America added 100,000 new members; the U.S Chamber of Commerce committed to helping 3 million young people find summer jobs; and the LensCrafters company gave 100,000 free eye exams to children from low-income families.
Youth members must be between the ages of 18 and 24 and agree to serve two-year terms, operating as "a critical and necessary component to [the America’s Promise] leadership teams," according to Mrs.
[26] President Gerald Ford, General Colin Powell, Mrs. Nancy Reagan, and Vice President Al Gore The Five Promises are: caring adults to guide and encourage them; safe places, both physical and psychological, in which students can safely develop; a healthy start in the form of proper nutrition and exercise; effective education that prepares them for work and life; and opportunities to help others and foster a sense of community, self-respect and service.
[31] In 2006, two America's Promise Alliance partner organizations, Civic Enterprises and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, released the study, The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts.
[34] The summits worked to increase awareness about the dropout crisis, encourage collaboration between different sectors and organizations, and facilitate action in states and communities to improve their graduation rates.
An analysis from Duke University found that these summits helped raise public awareness about the high school dropout crisis and inspired the creation of new programs and collaborative efforts.
[36] In early 2009, America's Promise Alliance commissioned Grad Nation: A Guidebook to Help Communities Tackle the Dropout Crisis, written by Robert Balfanz and Joanna Hornig Fox of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University and John M. Bridgeland and Mary McNaught from Civic Enterprises,[37] to provide communities with research and best practices to raise graduation rates at the local level.
[39] State Farm was a lead sponsor of the campaign, which also pledged to focus on reducing the country's number of "dropout factories," or schools where "less than 60 percent of students who started as freshmen remain enrolled four years later.
"[40][41] For the past few years, researchers, governors, and President Obama have drawn attention to the steady increase in the national on-time high school graduation rate.
[42] "Just 10 years ago, the nation's on-time high school graduation rate was hovering around 70 percent, where it had been stuck for decades," CEO John S. Gomperts wrote in Education Week in 2016.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the launch of the report, calling it "required reading for those who believe that the high school dropout problem is too intractable to successfully take on.
"Rather than merely boredom or lack of motivation, young people who drop out are likely growing up in ‘toxic environments' with unstable families, violent neighborhoods, and unsafe schools," an Education Week article said of the report.
The Role of Adult Capacity in Keeping Young People on a Path to Graduation examined how adult-to-youth ratios in neighborhoods impact educational outcomes, the first study to do so.
