High school graduation must be a priority — not only for students, not only for parents, but for all of us. Successful high school careers today result in strong families tomorrow.

Far too many of our young people are dropping out of high school or not graduating on time. United Way aims to combat this trend with its educational initiative Destination: Graduation. Launched in 2005, Destination: Graduation reaches students in Dallas and Collin Counties and is designed to improve high school graduation rates and the pursuit of advanced education.

For the 2008-2009 school year, Dallas high school students in Destination: Graduation were promoted at a 16 percent higher rate than their non-program peers. In Plano, Destination: Graduation students closed the gap between low socioeconomic status (SES) students and the student body as a whole by 42 percent.

The Importance of Destination: Graduation

For the 2007 to 2008 school year, 38 percent of Dallas County students and 24 percent of Collin County students who began the ninth grade did not graduate with their class.

Increased dropout rates translate into limited futures, a diminished workforce and citizens who are less able to contribute to the community. If we could reduce the high school dropout rate by just 10 percent in Texas, arrest rates would fall 7 percent and murders and assaults would decline 20 percent, according to a 2009 report from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

Destination: Graduation employs a customized-by-school strategy to achieve program goals, focusing on:

• College preparation and SAT training
• Parental involvement
• Mentoring and counseling

Project Sponsors

In the spring of 2009, with two generous grants from the AT&T Foundation, United Way was able to expand this successful program to both Dallas ISD and Plano ISD middle schools for the first time. Research shows the entry into ninth grade is when many students make the decision whether to stay in school.

Additional sponsors include Texas Instruments; Ernst & Young; Capital One Bank; Wells Fargo; FedEx Office; IBM; and Target.