American Graduate
Maryland Public Television is participating in American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen, a public media initiative supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to help local communities across America address the dropout crisis. American Graduate brings public radio & television stations together with key community stakeholders to improve student engagement and raise academic achievement. These stations will serve as the center of community interest and activity around high school graduation rates. Together with schools and organizations already addressing the dropout crisis, the stations will provide their resources and services to raise awareness, coordinate action with community partners, and work directly with students, parents, teachers, mentors, volunteers and leaders to lower the drop-out rate in their respective communities.
Special Broadcast
American Graduate Day
Saturday, September 22, 5:00pm-7:00pm on MPT
This special two- hour broadcast dedicated to engaging the country around the dropout crisis will feature national and local stories, celebrity guests and community spokespeople. Throughout the program, viewers will be invited to take an active role in helping students, families and schools by becoming American Graduate Champions.
Engage in the social media conversation on Twitter via the hashtag #amgrad.
Guests appearing on MPT will speak about issues and efforts to combat the dropout crisis and help at-risk youth in Maryland.
Lillian Lowery, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools
Andrés Alonso, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools
Baltimore City Public Schools Office of Enrollment, Choice and Transfers
Robert Balfanz, Everyone Graduates Center, John Hopkins University
FRONTLINE: Dropout Nation
Tuesday, September 25, 9pm – 11pm
What does it take to save a student? Every year, hundreds of thousands of teenagers in the United States quit high school without diplomas—an epidemic so out of control that nobody knows the exact number. What is clear is that massive dropout rates cripple individual career prospects and cloud the country's future. At Houston's Sharpstown High, once a notorious "dropout factory," a high-stakes experiment is under way to rescue students from the edge. FRONTLINE spent a semester immersed in Sharpstown to produce an unforgettable portrait of four students in crisis and the teachers, counselors and principal waging a daily, personal struggle to get them to graduation. A troubling and inspiring journey through the maze of an inner-city high school, Dropout Nation investigates the causes, challenges and potential solutions of a national emergency.
Watch Dropout Nation Preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.
No Textbook Answer
On November 22, 2011 at 8:00 PM, MPT aired No Textbook Answer, a program produced by the Kettering Foundation, highlighting eight communities' efforts to eliminate the "achievement gap" between minority/low income students and their white/middle income counterparts. Between segments, interviews with local education experts, parents, and others told the story of dropout prevention in Maryland.
Additional resources
- "No Textbook Answer" Documentary – Kettering Foundation
- Corporation for Public Broadcasting: American Graduate Program
- Dropout Prevention and Alternative Programs in Maryland
Watch No Textbook Answer on PBS. See more from MPT Specials.
