Why send your child to a tutor, aren't schools supposed to teach them everything they need to know to prepare them for college and a successful future life?

America’s Promise Alliance

Tristan Andrews is a freelance author who writes about education for http://www.tutoring.college.edu.pe

Why send your child to a tutor, aren’t schools supposed to teach them everything they need to know to prepare them for college and a successful future life?

As we have mentioned in previous chapters, due to a myriad of factors: reduced government funds; larger classroom sizes; lack of standardization, etc, it is unfortunate that the majority of schools today lack the capacity to properly prepare students for life beyond high school.

B. America’s Promise Alliance Report

In a report issued on April 1, 2008, America’s Promise Alliance relayed that within the nation’s largest cities, only about half of the students enrolled in public school systems end up receiving their diplomas. Fortunately, students within suburban and rural public high schools fared as being more likely to graduate than their urban counterparts.

Further, the study showed that, annually, on a national level, an average of 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma whereas nearly 1.2 million students elect to drop-out.

According to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, founder of the Alliance, “When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it’s more than a problem, it’s a catastrophe.”

Echoing Colin Powell’s sentiments, his wife, Alma Powell, the Alliance’s Chairperson, stated, “Students need to graduate with skills that will help them in higher education and beyond….We must invest in the whole child, and that means finding solutions that involve the family, the school and the community.”

Determined to reduce high school drop out rates, the Powell’s organization plans to mount an extensive national campaign, whereby to prepare students for college and the work force, summits will be hosted in every US state over the course of the next two years.

C. America’s Promise Alliance Background

Founded in 1997, America’s Promise Alliance was an outgrowth of the President’s Summit for America’s Future whereby President’s Clinton, Bush, Reagan (represented by former First Lady Nancy Reagan) and Ford put forth challenges to make America’s youth and children our top priority.

Since its founding, America’s Promise Alliance now stands as the nation’s largest multi-sector collaborative committed to monitoring and improving the well-being of children and youth.

Present day, comprised of more than 105 partner organizations emanating from the business communities, nonprofit organizations, neighborhood communities and policymakers, the Alliance is presided over by Retired General Colin L. Powell, who acts as the organization’s Founding Chairman, and his wife, Alma Powell, who serves as the Acting Chair.

D. Every Child, Every Promise

Conducted as part of America’s Promise mission, Every Child, Every Promise: Turning Failure Into Action was the first national research study to comprehensively measure the impact the five essential resources (aka the ‘Five Promises’) had upon individual’s success as both youth and adults.

Within the groundbreaking study, ‘The Five Promises’ were defined as, “the developmental resourceswrap-around supports young people need in order to attain success in their lives.”

Identified, the ‘Five Promises’ entail:

1. Caring Adults

2. Safe Places

3. A Healthy Start

4. Effective Education

5. Opportunities to Help Others

Stated by America’s Promise, “Children need the intellectual development, motivation and skills that equip them for successful work and lifelong learning. These result from quality learning environments, challenging expectations and consistent guidance and mentoring.”

In addition, America’s Promise proclaims the number-one determinant of one’s success in life is whether one has graduated from high school. Based upon AP’s philosophy, “In today’s competitive global economy, effective education is more important than ever before.”

Unfortunately, even in light of the critical nature of education, studies show that more than 25% of US high school students do not earn their degree. Note: Whereas African Americans and Latino students are concerned, this figure is approximately double.

According to Every Child, Every Promise:

- Only 39% of our teens are receiving the ‘Five Promises’

- More than 40% of parents of younger children and two-thirds of adolescents say their children’s schools do not emphasize academic achievement

- 60% of 10- to 21-year-olds say their schools should give them more preparation for the real world

Further, Every Child, Every Promise: Turning Failure into Action stated that even children who receive four out of the five promises have a greater tendency to succeed academically, socially and civically. Further, should their good fortune provide them with societal supports, they are far less likely to engage in acts of violence, score low grades in high school and avoid community service work.

In light of these findings, the overriding mission of America’s Promise Alliance is to improve the lives of 15 million disadvantaged youth over the next five years.

As a parent of a school age child, you may be thinking that although such an organization is definitely a good thing and important to have in place, it may not be relevant to your child for heshe does not fit the ‘disadvantaged’ criteria. Therefore, you may find it difficult to connect the program to your child’s situation.

E. Ready for the Real World

However, broad based in nature, the findings and actions of America’s Promise (AP) do transcend all racial, cultural and economic boundaries. For not only does America’s Promise strive for the betterment of 15 million at-risk youth, but, through their ‘Ready for the Real World’ program, AP also seeks to engage every middle-school student in what they refer to as ‘career exploration and service learning,’

More specifically, via ‘Ready for the Real World’, educators help facilitate students’ understanding of the ‘real world’ By customizing ‘authentic’ experiences whereby 11 to 14 year-old-students are able to gain motivation for their studies; develop an interest in their communities and fellow citizens; and begin harboring future concerns for such critical societal issues as: the environment, poverty and healthmedical matters.

In an effort to present students with realistic workingcommunity scenarios and impact-driven images, the underlying idea behind ‘Ready for the Real World’ is, to partner them with professionals in the business world and general society. These experiences serve to acquaint students with a realm of future career possibilities, inspirational models to emulate and non-fictionalized views of day-to-day workplace activities.

Conducted after-school, on weekends andover during summer breaks, the ‘Ready for the Real World’ program helps fill students with a sense of purpose and optimism. As such, it is able to help increase students’ motivation and drive while they are still in school. Essentially, the program fuels students to do well on an academic, social and civic level.

The impetus in the formation of America’s Promise ‘Ready for the Real World’ program stems from research indicating middle-school students are at the greatest risk for becoming discouraged, disinterested andor completely disgusted with school to the point of considering dropping out.

To counter this statistic, America’s Promise felt it important to create opportunities whereby students within this age group could engage in active learning through real-world experiences (e.g., school or community-based learning and career exploration programs).

By targeting the “tween” population and helping, at them at a relatively young age, identify their unique interests and abilities; AP is also supporting students’ transitions from junior high school to high school and from high school to either college or the ‘real world.’

F. Conclusions

Fortunately, whereas the US’ educational system is concerned, there are positively motivated organizations, e.g., America’s Promise Alliance. Without such forces in place, there would be a major research deficiency whereby there would be no clear way of learning the educational views of America’s youth and children and a void in terms of discerning their future probabilities of attaining academic success.

And, without the knowledge that 25% of students in the US do not graduate from high school and that many students grow disinterested with the educational process sometime around middle school, it would impossible to realize the existence of a persistent problem.

Once accepted that many students are not motivated to do well in school, organizations like America’s Promise can step in and try to shake up the dynamics of the educational system. As a result, students are given greater incentives to study and increased motivation to do well on an academic level.

Apart, from the efforts of America’s Promise, the results of their study also indicated that the problem of student apathy is extremely widespread. Regardless of whether they are from low-socioeconomic upbringings or high-socioeconomic standings, students from all across the nation seem to be able to benefit from a range of supplemental educational support tools.

Highlighted within this repertoire are tutors for they are the ones who can reach out to students and help pull them out of their lethargic states. On account of a more narrow audience, tutors have the ability to interact with students and truly engage them in the learning process.

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