January 13th, 2010 PRESENTERS: • Teddy Gross, Executive Director, Common Cents • Betsy Campbell, Vice President of Programs, Rockefeller Brothers Fund • Matt Heyd, Associate Director, Trinity Wall Street • Kathy Payne, Senior Director of Education and Leadership, State Farm Every year, 1.2 million students drop out of high school. Nationwide the typical freshman class shrinks 40% by the time students reach senior year – close to 50% in New York City. The U.S. currently ranks 18th for highschool graduation among the nations belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Current efforts to fight the dropout epidemic focus on treatment and prevention for adolescents -- targeting youth who have already quit school, or at-risk middle schoolers. This briefing will explore a new possibility: to open a “second front” against the dropout epidemic by helping children throughout their school careers to build and maintain an indissoluble bond with their schools and communities through service-learning. It will feature reports from the field by a panel of innovators from the faith, corporate, philanthropic, and educational communities. Grantmakers will be introduced to the ground-breaking initiatives of Trinity Wall Street, State Farm Insurance, and the corporate and school-based models of Common Cents, the education reform organization known for the Penny Harvest.