© 2010 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. AT&T Aspire Research Briefing: “Raising Their Voices: Engaging Students, Teachers, and Parents to Help End the High School Dropout Epidemic” In association with:

AT&T Aspire Guiding Principles Produce sustained, measurable impact – improving the future prospects of youth Intrigue, motivate and include AT&T employees Work cooperatively with educators recognizing that their passion and commitment help students succeed each and every day AT&T Aspire is a key component of AT&T's Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability Initiatives Page 2

Approach Fund local community high school retention programs that incorporate the characteristics known to produce successful outcomes Underwrite national initiatives that either fill a void or have demonstrated results and need an infusion of funding to take them to the next level Support targeted research and community forums that will inform remediation efforts and public policy development Page 3

Page 4 AT&T Aspire – Overview $ 100 Million commitment to High School Success with four key first year initiatives: Local market grants to schools and nonprofits Job shadow initiative 100 dropout prevention summits Research In 2009, Aspire added three additional signature programs: Roadtrip Nation United Way Worldwide Family Engagement for Student Success Get Schooled

Measurement: A Key Component of Aspire Funded Projects Provide: Baseline data Grantees’ characteristics, program goals and activities, participants’ characteristics, etc. Periodic updates Implementation of promising practices Efforts to build sustainability Outcome changes High school completion rate Page 5

Page 6 AT&T Aspire – Research In 2008, AT&T commissioned a national research study led by John Bridgeland of Civic Enterprises and Peter Hart Research. The research, entitled “On the Front Lines of Schools,” focused on the educators’ perspective of the dropout crisis. The research follows two other seminal education studies: “The Silent Epidemic,” which focused on the perspective of students who had dropped out, and “One Dream, Two Realities,” which focused on the parents’ perspective. This third study rounds out the reports, which together represent key voices in the drop-out debate – students, parents and teachers. These studies made it clear that the three constituencies share different and often conflicting views of the causes and cures of dropping out. In an effort to sort out these conflicting views AT&T, in 2009, commissioned the 4 th in this series of studies, “Raising Their Voices: Engaging Students, Teachers, and Parents to Help End the High School Dropout Epidemic” bringing together students, teachers and parents to discuss the dropout issue.

Page 7 The Disturbing Disconnects From the first three reports, three key disconnects emerged: –Students and teachers disagreed on whether boredom -- or a failure to connect classroom learning to real life -- was a major cause of dropout –Although dropouts asserted that higher expectations would have helped to keep them engaged in school, many teachers did not share this view, with less than one-third of teachers believing we should hold high expectations for all students –While parents understood their critical role in student success, large majorities of teachers expressed frustration with a lack of parental engagement These disconnects—which are central to the dropout debate— were addressed head on in Raising Their Voices

Page 8 “Raising Their Voices” Dialogues among students, teachers, and parents throughout the country on mitigating the dropout crisis Fosters an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect and helps dispel stereotypes Provides deeper insights around disconnects identified in earlier research and pathways forward Contains discussion guide to enable others to replicate this dialogue in their communities

Page 9 Key Findings: Bridging the Disconnects Students, parents, and teachers agreed that: –Boredom was a predominant factor of dropout and one that could be more easily addressed by teachers, students and parents, but more complex factors are often at work –High expectations are key and should come from more than just teachers; skill levels of individual students must be recognized –Supports, academic and extracurricular, should be ramped up to help students meet high expectations –Schools should be more mindful of the barriers parents face and be more practical in the way they engage them

Page 10 Key Recommendations To increase the number of students who graduate: –Teachers should be more explicit about the connections between coursework and real-world applications and draw on community resources, such as business leaders, to help students make those connections –Adult advocates who can connect community-based supports to what students need should be provided –All students should be exposed to a rigorous curriculum aligned with post-secondary standards, with an understanding of the diverse interests and skill levels of students –Individual student plans and collaboration among teachers should be encouraged so all students can meet high standards –Parental engagement is fundamental to school reform and should not be left to teachers and parents; parents also need a single point of contact at school, homework hotlines, and clear information on graduation and college admission requirements –Dialogues bringing together the voices of students, teachers, and parents should be convened to supplement dropout prevention plans

AT&T Aspire Next Steps Dialogues will be incorporated into many of the dropout prevention and recovery plans developed by communities and schools across the country, as part of the America’s Promise Alliance GradNation Campaign. In an effort to continue these important dialogues with key constituencies across the country, AT&T is working with the National Education Association (NEA) to organize and host similar meetings in yet-to-be-determined school districts across the nation. Page 11

Additional Resources - For research reports and dialogue toolkit; click on “volunteerism” to find out more about AT&T’s Job Shadow initiative - On the opening page click on “summits” in the Grad Nation box to find out when a summit is coming to your city/state - Junior Achievement website to locate your local JA office to request an AT&T job shadow visit your ideas of schools in your community that are succeeding in graduating large proportions of students, despite tough circumstances, to this address. Click on “Reports” on the top tab to access Raising Their Voices and previous reports from the perspectives of students, parents, and teachers on the causes of and solutions to dropout. read the latest news about Civic Enterprises in 140 characters or less. Page 12