Tackling North Carolina’s Dropout Rate:
Raising Awareness, Engaging & Empowering the Business Community

The North Carolina Chamber is a non-partisan business advocacy organization that works in the legislative, regulatory and political arenas to proactively drive positive change to ensure that North Carolina is a leading place in the world to do business.  The state Chamber wants to take a forward-looking, proactive role on issues that will positively impact the state’s business climate and quality of life.

The state Chamber knows that in order to be a leading place in the world to do business, North Carolina must develop and maintain strong education and workforce development systems that are effective, agile, accountable and continually produce a competitive world-class workforce, including:

• Effective public schools (K-12) that help prepare students for 21st-century jobs and produce a globally competitive workforce.

Perhaps just as compelling as our civic responsibility to foster education is the tremendous impact that it has on the business environment and quality of life in North Carolina.  The caliber of our education systems and aptitude of our students directly affect our state’s ability to attract and grow good jobs now and in the future.  

Employers already in North Carolina, as well as those looking to locate here, depend on the availability of a knowledgeable, highly skilled workforce and an effective school system for their employees’ children.  This is why the state Chamber is committed to raising awareness about the high percentage of high school dropouts in North Carolina, and engaging and empowering the state’s business community to help increase North Carolina’s graduation rate. 

 Summary of Activities to Date:

• Special Session on Dropout Rate: 66th Annual Meeting, Greensboro, NC
  The North Carolina Chamber’s 66th Annual Meeting, held on March 26, 2008 in Greensboro, featured a preliminary Special Session on the significance and challenges of the state’s dropout rate.  The purpose of the session was to raise awareness about the issue at the state Chamber’s largest annual event, and offer useful information and tools for businesses and others in attendance to empower them to get involved to help increase North Carolina’s graduation rate.  Nearly 400 leaders in business, education, government and non-profits attended the event: www.ncmagazine.com/annual-meeting.

The Special Session Dropout Rate Panel was comprised of business and education-focused non-profit leaders, including:    

• Jim Goodnight, CEO, SAS – Chair
• Cynthia Marshall, State President, AT&T North Carolina
• Edward Carney, Vice President, Cisco
• Bill Shore, Director of US Community Partnerships, GlaxoSmithKline
• Juan Austin, Senior Vice President, Community Affairs, Wachovia
• Dr. Scott Ralls, President, NC Community College System
• Tricia Willoughby, Executive Director, NC Business Committee for Education (NCBCE)
• Tony Habit, President, NC New Schools Project (NCNSP)
• Susan Milliken, Executive Director, Futures for Kids (F4K)

At the conclusion of the panel discussion, those in attendance and all North Carolina businesses were challenged to identify ways to become involved to lower the state’s dropout rate.  The North Carolina Chamber issued its “Dropout Challenge” and directed businesses to its Web site where it would capture information and ideas about what businesses are doing to help more North Carolina students graduate: www.ncchamber.net/dropoutchallenge.

• Delivering the Message about the Dropout Challenge
  As part of its ongoing efforts to raise awareness about North Carolina’s dropout rate and engage and empower the state’s business community to help lower it, the North Carolina Chamber facilitates an ongoing dialogue with its members about the issue in a number of e-newsletters distributed to more than 10,000 contacts across the state.  A timeline of e-communication, to date, follows:
  • The BUSINESS Advocate, 2/15/08:
    Chamber Organizes Businesses to Take Aim at Dropout Rate
  • NC Magazine: North Carolina Chamber Annual Meeting Recap, 3/27/08
  • The BUSINESS Advocate, 4/4/08:
    Special Session on Education Unites Business Leaders on Dropout Prevention
  • The BUSINESS Advocate, 8/22/08:
    Chamber Aims to Empower & Engage to Attack Dropout Rate
  • MANUFACTURING Advocate, 8/28/08:
    Chamber Aims to Empower & Engage to Attack Dropout Rate
  • FEDERATION Insider, 9/12/08:
    Chamber Federation Can Help Overcome Dropout Challenge

• NC Magazine: October 2008 (Education)  Issue Centers on Dropout Rate
  The October 2008 issue of the Chamber’s monthly magazine, NC Magazine, contained a Special Section devoted to North Carolina’s dropout rate and a myriad of leaders and organizations working hard to lower it: www.ncmagazine.com
• Challenging Future Leaders: Gubernatorial Forums
  NC Magazine: In the third of a series of “candidate forums” in the October 2008 issue of NC Magazine, the North Carolina Chamber’s monthly publication, the state Chamber posed the following question to the two major-party candidates for Governor and published their responses:
  “According to the state Department of Public Instruction, in 2008 only 69.9 percent of students who started 9th grade in 2004-05 had completed high school in four years or less.  North Carolina’s current dropout rate of 30 percent is a great concern for employers across the state.  How would you marshal the state’s resources, both public and private, to ensure that more North Carolina children graduate from high school?

“Education: Everybody’s Business Coalition” Forum on Education: As a longtime member of the “Education: Everybody’s Business Coalition,” the North Carolina Chamber was one of four sponsors of a televised gubernatorial debate on education that was held Sept. 19, 2008.  Other members of the Coalition include the North Carolina Chamber’s Federation (local Chamber members), the Public School Forum, the Association of School Administrators and the School Boards Association. 

How the North Carolina Chamber is Engaged:

• Participation in “Graduation Awareness Week” Kickoff Event, 9/8/08
  North Carolina Chamber President & CEO Lew Ebert participated in a press conference and awards event to kick off Graduation Awareness Week and launch a campaign focused on dropout prevention on Sept. 8, 2008 in Raleigh.  The press conference featured a signing of a Call to Action and a pledge to work throughout North Carolina to raise awareness of the importance of high school graduation.
• Chamber Leaders Involved in Numerous Ways
  A number of North Carolina Chamber leaders and volunteer members are also involved with organizations and/or efforts to lower North Carolina’s dropout rate.  For example, Cynthia Marshall, Chamber Second Vice Chair and State President of AT&T North Carolina, serves on the Joint Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention and High School Graduation.  Also, North Carolina Chamber President & CEO serves on the Board of the Public School Forum.
• Partnerships with Education Organizations & Coalitions
  To identify and implement effective ways to help North Carolina students stay in school and graduate, the North Carolina Chamber is collaborating with a number of organizations focused on improving schools and developing students and teachers.  A number of organizations with which our state Chamber is involved have developed or identified innovative programs or methods that are helping to build more effective schools and/or keep students in school longer.   
  • NC New Schools Project: New Demands, New High Schools
    The NC New Schools Project (NCNSP) has made its mission to develop a high school model that can graduate all of its students ready for college, careers and life.  The North Carolina Chamber has partnered with the NCNSP on a number of initiatives, including its “Graduation by Design” Conference.
  • Futures for Kids: Demonstrating the Relevance of Education
    The state Chamber is also a partner with Futures for Kids (F4K).  F4K provides unparalleled access to career information and education training programs for students with technology-based career exploration programs.  By forging a direct link between students’ classes and their career goals, F4K demonstrates the relevance of education to future success and provides a valuable tool for combating the dropout rate in North Carolina. 
  • NC Business Committee for Education: NC Graduation Project
    The North Carolina Chamber is a long-time active member of the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE), sharing the mission “to act as a catalyst for systematic change and continuous improvements in public education and act as an advocate, resource, and business voice in public education.”  NCBCE is currently implementing its North Carolina Graduation Project, which requires high school students to demonstrate what they know and are able to do as a result of their cumulative education.  A part of this project is an innovative mechanism of job shadowing, which aims to promote career awareness, internalizing the knowledge and skills that our 21st-century workforce demands.  
  • Communities in Schools North Carolina: Building Collaborative Community Strategies Statewide
    Our Chamber is a longtime partner with Communities in Schools North Carolina (CISNC), which is part of the nation’s largest community-based dropout-prevention program.  CISNC provides the link between teachers and the community by facilitating the delivery of already-existing community resources to schools across the state.  CISNC has been addressing the dropout problem for over 20 years in our state and the network has grown and expanded to 39 local affiliates.  The state Chamber recently challenged local Chambers of Commerce (partners in its Chamber Federation) to identify communities without a CISNC affiliate and work with local business and community leaders to establish one there.