The Cost of High School Dropouts and How UrbanFUTURE Restoration Helps

A 2008 report by Jason Amos of the Alliance for Excellent Education details some of the costs associated with the high school drop out rate.  Based on that report ("Dropouts, Diplomas and Dollars: U.S. High Schools and the Nation’s Economy"), here are some of the alarming social costs for the state of Missouri based on dropout rates.

·         Lost Lifetime Income of HS Dropouts 2007-08: ~$4.8 billion

·         Benefit of increasing male HS graduation rate by 5% based on crime reduction: ~$150 million

·         Lifetime savings for Medicaid & Uninsured medical coverage if dropouts graduated: ~$245 million

·         Increase in Household Wealth if dropouts graduated: ~$1.5 billion

·         Annual Savings from reduced need for community college remediation: ~$21 million

·         Additional Personal Income of educational attainment of Af. Am, Hispanics & Nat. Am increases to that of white students by 2020: ~$1.3 billion

Using some of that data, UrbanFUTURE conducted a hypothetical cost-benefit analysis of investing in UrbanFUTURE Restoration based on a community cluster of 300 students.

Based on the current graduation rate of 50% in St. Louis Public Schools, in an UrbanFUTURE Community Cluster of 300 students, 150 students would not graduate from high school.  The total cost to provide Restoration for 300 students over 5 years (4th - 8th grade) is $4.5 million.  If UrbanFUTURE Restoration was successful in helping students from 4th - 8th grade prepare to succeed in high school (i.e. graduate), here are the social cost savings:

·         Additional lifetime income: $39 million

·         Medicaid & Uninsured Medical Coverage Savings: $2 million

·         Total societal cost in loss earnings & increased healthcare savings: $41 million

That means there would be a net benefit of UrbanFUTURE Restoration of $36.5 million and for every $1 invested in UrbanFUTURE Restoration, society would receive $9 in return - a 900% return on investment!  This calculation doesn't even consider the costs savings of reducing crime and incarceration rates, increasing household wealth and cost savings for community college remediation courses.

With these kinds of numbers, investing in UrbanFUTURE now will mean more for everyone in the future.  Restoration isn't just about helping urban youth, it's about helping us all and restoring the collaboration between the home, the school and the community. 

UrbanFUTURE's Solution to Eliminating the Academic Achievement Gap

The following post is text from a recent grant request that UrbanFUTURE submitted for the Bank of America Neighborhood Builder's program. This represents UrbanFUTURE's strategy and vision for solving the academic achievement gap in urban schools.

Poverty is an age-old problem in our nation’s urban communities. In order to solve this problem, the educational achievement gap must be bridged—one community cluster at a time. UF defines the community cluster according to the public school system’s geographical zoning. Each “community cluster” revolves around a hub middle school and the elementary schools that feed it. Utilizing the community cluster approach, UF reaches every school-aged child in a given zip code who shares a common educational path.

Once the cluster is defined, UF approaches supplemental education by recognizing the isolation that exists between three primary groups – the home, the school and the community. Our key initiative is the UrbanFUTURE Restoration Model, which seeks to repair the traditional bonds between home, school, and community that poverty has broken. UF staff brokers these connections and is housed within the school building, allowing the school to serve as a center for these groups to connect through our innovative mentoring and tutoring programs. Through this community-cluster based restoration model, we are addressing generational poverty at individual, institutional and community-wide levels.

The primary objective of the Restoration Model is to ensure that 4th through 8th grade students possess the academic acumen to master high school as well as the mindset to see and believe in their possibilities. To achieve this vision, UF focuses on five key outcomes: literacy, academic growth, character formation, parental involvement, and career preparation. The combination of these focal points creates a formula for success in eliminating the achievement gap.

This is what UrbanFUTURE believes will solve the academic achievement gap and in turn help communities out of poverty.