State Summit Report
Summit Description
Education's Next Horizon was the lead sponsor of the Louisiana's Promise Statewide Summit on Dropout Prevention held on October 28, 2008 at the Baton Rouge River Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The summit was attended by over 800 community leaders. The community teams were assembled by school district superintendents across the state. The purpose of the summit was to build greater public awareness of the dropout crisis and to mobilize local leaders to begin to address the problem. Attendees included educators, administrators and education policymakers, including members of the State Legislature, State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Office of the Governor Bobby Jindal and a number of municipal, county, judicial, and law enforcement leaders. Participants also included representatives of faith-based and community-based organizations across the state.
Summit Sponsors
The Louisiana's Promise state and regional summits are an extension of the work of America's Promise Alliance, whose founders, Retired General Colin Powell and his wife Alma, have launched a national movement to address the dropout crisis. America's Promise Alliance provided significant financial and technical support to the Louisiana effort. We are extremely grateful for the financial and planning support of the following additional sponsors: Louisiana Department of Education, Louisiana Association of United Ways, State Farm Insurance, Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Picard Center for Child Development at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Sparkhound. State
Youth Involvement
In addition to having youth involvement in planning the event, students were active participants in the program. They spoke on the Louisiana's Promise video. They introduced the keynote speaker and the panel speakers. In addition, as part of our research we held five youth focus group meetings. Participants included 66 students who had dropped out. The report provides insight into the reasons and motivation for dropout behavior.
Community Team Breakout Sessions
The afternoon session was devoted to team breakout sessions. School districts were grouped by one of eight regions and met for several hours discussing dropout data and brainstorming strategies. Each participant was given a toolkit that included a state and district-specific dropout profile of key risk factors. To help facilitate initial discussion and strategy development, attendees were also given "guiding questions" on the data profiles and on the three (3) foundation principles:
- Early Detection and Community/Parent Support,
- Truancy and Attendance, and
- Connecting School to the Future.
State Performance Outcomes
- Number of participants in attendance: approximately 800
- Number of districts represented: 61
- Number community summit plans turned in: 45
- Number of follow up summits planned: 8
