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Marguerite Kondracke, president and CEO of America's Promise Alliance, talks about the outcomes of the nation's high school dropout rate in an article published in The Wall Street Journal last week. As a nonpartisan collaborative focused on providing children with the resources they need to succeed, America's Promise is hosting more than 100 state and local Dropout Prevention Summits in 2008-09. Visit the America's Promise Alliance web site to learn more.

America Forward Coalition member Sports4Kids was featured last in The Washington Post. The story highlighted the organization's success in introducing safe play during recess.

Click here to read the article.

We are excited to announce that Parents Academy has just joined the America Forward coalition! Founded and run by social entrepreneur, José-Pablo Fernandez, Parents Academy teaches Hispanic parents marketable technology skills that further their education and enable them to become full participants in their children’s education. To learn more about Parents Academy click here.

Educators have been working for years to convince low-income Hispanic kids to stay in school; but lately Jose-Pablo Fernandez of CCA Alliance, Inc. has realized that sometimes, it helps to get their parents there first. In 2005, “educational attainment among Hispanics [was] lower than other ethnic groups. In Houston, for example, 20 percent of U.S.-born Hispanics and 52 percent of Hispanic immigrants [had] less than a high school education,” and with the Hispanic population approaching 14 percent of the US, it is essential to keep children in the classroom and learning.

As highlighted last week on NPR, NewSchools Venture Fund and its portfolio ventures are creating great results in some of America’s worst school districts. They’re taking a truly comprehensive approach to helping troubled districts out of their rut; to them, results are all-important. It’s not a matter of ideology, unless that ideology is to “transform public education so that all children – especially those underserved – have the opportunity to succeed.” So they support programs both within and without the established system, depending on proven effectiveness, and doggedly work to scale up the successes.

In for-profit business, new entrepreneurs have a massive network of groups and individuals willing to advise them, invest in them, and support them. Entrepreneurship in the social sector, however, unfortunately does not have the same level of support, making it more difficult to share and foster innovative ideas and best practices. Both America Forward and Coalition member Ashoka are working hard to change this dynamic. Ashoka provides a community center for worldwide social entrepreneurship, serving as a sponsor of social research and social enterprise for more than 25 years.