"The key to preventing student drop-out is the promotion of positive parental involvement," said Dr. Kerby T. Alvy at the Parent and Family Engagement Meeting hosted by the America's Promise Alliance held in Washington, D.C. on April 7, 2008.

The summits (which will take place in every state and in cities with the highest drop-out rates) are a response to what has been called the "silent epidemic" of student drop-out.  America's Promise Alliance indicates that as many as 30 percent of all public school students nationwide drop-out, and that the rate is closer to 50 percent for students of African and Latino descent. 

Dr. Alvy, a child psychologist who represented the National Effective Parenting Initiative and the Center for the Improvement of Child Caring emphasized that wide scale parenting education to assist parents in how best to encourage their children's academic growth and achievement must be part of every community plan. 

Shown here with Ralph Smith, Vice President, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Marguerite W. Kondracke, President and CEO, America's Promise Alliance, Dr. Alvy further indicated that such education should begin during the preschool years and continue throughout elementary and secondary school.

Statistics show dropouts are twice as likely to be unemployed.  They are three times more likely to live in poverty -- and eight times more likely to wind up in prison.  And children of dropouts are twice as likely to become dropouts themselves.  Dropouts from the class of 2006-07 will cost the nation an estimated $329 billion in lost wages and lost productivity over their lifetimes, says the Alliance.

Dr. Alvy further pointed out that educational technology now exists through which all parents can learn the skills and concepts to help them raise academically successful children. 

"Our nation has developed world class parenting education programs for parents of children of all ages and from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds,' he stated.  "These programs need to become available to every parent in every neighborhood." 

He provided numerous examples of these research-based parenting programs, including the trio of national model programs of the Center for the Improvement of Child Caring, the Confident Parenting, Effective Black Parenting and Los Ninos Bien Educados programs.

"There even exists a blueprint or model for how communities can right now bring these valuable programs to all parents, the Organizing Los Angeles for Effective Parenting Project.  This project could be adopted by other counties and cities.  It should be highlighted at the various summits," he concluded.

The America's Promise Alliance is the nation's largest partnership network focused on improving the well-being of young people.  It is a nonpartisan alliance of corporations, nonprofit organizations, and foundations including such groups as the American Pediatric Society, the Child Welfare League of America, the United Way of America, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Ford Motor Company Fund.  They view these dropout realities as a symptom of not providing millions of America's children with the adult and community support they need to fulfill their potential as individuals and citizens.

The nonprofit Alliance is led by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his wife, Alma J. Powell.  Mr. Powell served as founding Chairman and Ms. Powell serves as Chairwoman.  She indicates that the intolerable drop-out rate is "not just a problem of our schools and teachers.  It's a problem for all of us."  That is why the upcoming summits will bring together all sectors of the community to learn about the causes and consequences of dropouts, and to arrive at practical plans to address this "silent epidemic."