Harvard+Project+Results

Please see pages 10 and 11 of this summary paper from Harvard concerning why American students are falling behind their global peers and what can be done to ameliorate this situation.

" Students drop out of high school and college for many   reasons, of course: under-preparation for the required academic work; financial pressures; competing claims of family and jobs—the list of causes is long and varied. But   certainly a major reason is that ** too many can’t see a **** clear, transparent connection between their program **** of study and tangible opportunities in the labor ** ** market ** .   We fail these young people not because we are  indifferent, but because we have focused too exclusively  on a few narrow pathways to success. It is time to widen our lens and to build a more finely articulated pathways  system—one that is richly diversified to align with the needs and interests of today’s young people and better designed to meet the needs of a 21st century economy."

 But don't DPS and other districts already offer school to work programs? Yes, but they are often perceived as add-ons to the standardized curriculum and academic subjects fail to adequately prepare too many students for either a post-graduation job or college enrollment. A sustainable school embeds opportunities for real exploration of the world of work within "required" classes students take.