Framing the High School Dropout Rate

On August 25, 2010, the Mathews Center convened a workshop that focused on framing the high school dropout rate issue in the state of Alabama. The participants represented numerous organizations and institutions, and the information that was gathered will help the Center develop an issue map that will be used by Alabama Issues Forums throughout the 2010 – 2011 project cycle. Representatives from Alabama Cooperative Extension Services, the State Department of Education, Auburn University, the Mattie C. Stewart Foundation, the Northeast Alabama Community Foundation, University of Montevallo, and American Village worked to think through four different approaches that were developed from the Citizens’ Congress event.

The Mathews Center hopes to finalize the framing process within the next week. Following the final stages of framing, the Center will print 1,000 copies of the dropout rate issue map (a digital copy will also be available through the website). If you are interested in convening a forum sometime between October 2010 and April 2011, please feel free to contact Chris McCauley at cmccauley@mathewscenter.org.

We are excited about the upcoming project cycle, and we hope to work with as many communities as possible!