Helping Students Graduate: One Community at a Time

At AT&T, we’re all about raising the bar. In education, that means being part of a national movement to set big goals for improving student success. It’s an effort that starts locally, at the school around the corner or the community center down the street. 

That’s why we’re announcing our support for 47 local organizations across the United States that are helping students succeed in their communities. From coast to coast, these schools and non-profits have proven that they are the best of the best when it comes to keeping kids who are at-risk of dropping out of high school on a path to receiving that cap and gown. 

Back in March, we announced an expansion to our Aspire program, bringing our total planned investment in improving high school retention and college and career readiness up to $350 million. AT&T Aspire drives innovation in education to help every student graduate from high school equipped with the skills they need to the power the nation’s workforce.

A key way we can achieve this goal is by working with community-based organizations that deliver real results. Local organizations are on the front lines of education each and every day, and they know what approaches work best for students in their communities. While thousands of organizations expressed interest in our local impact request for proposal, the 47 recipient organizations truly stood out from the pack when it came using data to demonstrate the effectiveness of their programs.

Working with an independent evaluation firm, we’re raising the bar for evidence-based funding, and are doing our part to help make education a more data-driven enterprise.  If we can check an electric car’s charge remotely and know where our holiday package is en route from the post office to grandma’s house, then we can surely do a better job at tracking students’ progress. Through this process, we’ll be doing just that by developing tailored on-track indicators and comparing participant success to similarly situated peer groups.

We’re confident that the dedication of these 47 organizations—and others like them—will help us meet the Grad Nation campaign goal of a 90% graduation rate by 2020. But we know that they can’t do it alone. That’s why we’re investing almost $10 million in them today, so they can scale up, reach more kids, and help us reach our national goal. 

Please join us as we unveil and applaud the recipients of these local impact contributions. Though we’ll be unveiling them through early October, we do want to give you just a glimpse at what’s to come… So check out the list of locations below to see where these recipients are located, and be watching as we announce the winner(s) in a town near you!  

Can't wait to see who the winners are? You can take action now to raise funds and help solve the dropout crisis by visiting our Connect for Good community on Causes.com, where you can share your stories about what you’re doing help students in your community achieve success.

Auburn, Alabama

Baltimore, Maryland

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Bloomington, Indiana

Boston, Massachusetts

Chattanooga, Tennessee

Chicago, Illinois

Cleveland, Ohio

Cooper City, Florida

Dearborn, Michigan

Dover, Delaware

Farmington, New Mexico

Gainesville, Florida

Green Bay, Wisconsin

Greensboro, North Carolina

Hartford, Connecticut

Houston, Texas

Houston, Texas

Issaquah, Washington

Jackson, Mississippi

Jacksonville, Florida

Kansas City, Kansas

Kansas City, Missouri

Las Vegas, Nevada

Little Rock, Arkansas

Los Angeles, California

Marietta, Georgia

Miami, Florida

New Haven, Connecticut

New Orleans, Louisiana

New York, New York

Perth Amboy, New Jersey

Pasadena, California

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Prestonsburg, Kentucky

Punta Santiago, Puerto Rico

Queens, New York

Richmond, Virginia

San Francisco, California

Santa Rosa, California

Schenectady, New York

Seattle, Washington

Sumter, South Carolina

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Vallejo, California

West-Helena, Arkansas