Sacramento ACT convenes countywide effort to increase graduation rates

Alli Swan
Community Organizer,
Sacramento Area Congregations Together

One in four students in California drops out of high school. This staggering statistic inspired Sacramento ACT youth and adult leaders to launch a long-term, countywide effort to improve high school graduation rates. With generous support from Sierra Health Foundation, ACT held a Summit for Increasing High School Graduation Rates on March 28, bringing together 100 parents, teachers, students, community members, school district leaders and city officials to publicly pledge their commitment to work together and increase high school graduation rates in Sacramento County.

“Not having our children graduate from school is not the schools’ problem, it’s all of our problem,” said ACT community leader Crystal Xiong, a parent of five students in the Sacramento City Unified School District.

A team of ACT youth and adult leaders facilitated the event, lifting up key strategies to tackle the problem. They focused on four key themes: better use of data to identify students as early as sixth grade who are at risk of dropping out; putting in place a system of early intervention for these students; building stronger relationships among the school, students and their families; and increasing student engagement at school. The leaders pointed to successful efforts they are currently piloting, and superintendents talked about efforts underway in their respective districts.

ACT youth leader Pow Vang described how important relationships are to student success: “A lot of kids ditch because they don’t feel comfortable or safe at school. They don’t have anyone in the school they can trust and talk about their problems, so they skip school and meet their friends, where they can feel comfortable to talk about their problems.”

An action plan was set in place to bring together smaller working groups of superintendents and community leaders in the coming months to better flesh out a county plan. In six months, ACT will hold a second large convening to follow up on progress made.

“This is more than an education issue. It is a social issue that could harm us for generations to come if we don’t address it,” explained Sacramento County Office of Education Superintendent David Gordon, a key partner in the effort. “Increasing graduation rates must be a priority that both our education and business communities must work on together.”