AT&T grants awarded

[from Philanthropy News Digest]

To help meet a Grad Nation campaign goal of raising the national high school graduation rate to 90 percent by 2020, AT&T has announced a $2 million investment in three initiatives that are using data-driven systems to better prepare kids to transition into high school.

AT&T will contribute $500,000 each to the Data Quality Campaign, which works to increase the availability and use of high-quality education data to improve student achievement, and Civic Enterprises, which is working to develop early warning and intervention systems through research on student absenteeism, behavioral problems, and course failures. Civic Enterprises will use the remainder of its funds to implement Grad Nation's Civic Marshall Plan, which seeks to address the dropout problem in high schools.

In addition, AT&T will contribute $1 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) to expand the BE GREAT: Graduate program, which works to identify established risk factors among vulnerable high school students and provide mentors to help students graduate. In an effort to catch problems early and instill good academic practices before high school, BGCA will use a portion of the funds to launch BE READY, a program designed to teach study and organizational skills to eighth- and ninth-graders.

"We are grateful for this generous support from AT&T enabling us to expand the reach of our graduation initiative," said BGCA president and CEO Roxanne Spillett. "We know from research and firsthand experience, that many of the middle school age youth we serve suffer serious challenges making a successful transition into high school. We believe that every child in America deserves a great future and graduating from high school is an absolute must."

“AT&T Commits $2 Million to Support High School Retention Goals of the Grad Nation Campaign.” AT&T Press Release 3/23/11.