On December 5^th and 6^th, Mountain Range High School was home to more than just its average daily student population of nearly 1,000 eager 9^th – 12^th graders. The school hosted Governor Ritter’s statewide dropout summit, officially called the “Colorado Dropout Prevention, Retention and Recovery Summit.” Attendees included representatives from education, government, business and the non-profit sector. Distinguished speakers included Govern Bill Ritter, Jr.; Dr. Mike Paskewicz, Superintendent, Adams 12 Schools; Dr. Janet Lopez, Deputy Director of the Governor’s P-20 Council; and Commissioner Dwight Jones, State Commissioner of Education. Considering the fact that only 70% of Colorado’s high school students graduate from high school, the need for such a summit is evident.

In Commissioner Jones’ opening remarks to the audience, he recounted advice that he had recently received from local students, regarding ways to keeps kids engaged and in school. Interestingly, one of the students he quoted had shared her thoughts on the need to “make education relevant – relevant to the rest of our lives.” Could this student have had Junior Achievement programs in mind? This is just another example of how students crave real-world and experiential learning, and the benefits that role models can provide.

The Summit featured several informative breakout sessions, delving into topics such as Agency and Nonprofit Responses to Dropout Prevention, School-Based Strategies to Dropout Recovery, Strategic Approaches to Dropout Intervention and City, County and Regional Initiatives.

Junior Achievement’s president and CEO, Robin Wise, moderated a panel discussion entitled Engaging the Business Community. Panelists included Alan Miller, State Farm Insurance Companies; Andre Pedigrew, Office of Economic Development, City & County of Denver; Tom Clark, Metro Denver Network & Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce; and Ron Tilton, FirstBank of Denver. This well-attended panel discussion examined the need for business engagement in education, the benefits of public-private partnerships, and ideas on how to utilize the business community to enhance the classroom experience for students.

The significance of the “Engaging the Business Community” panel discussion to the issue of dropout prevention is clear. The powerful combination of rigor and relevance in the classroom can be instrumental to keeping a student’s interest in school. Business community participation in the classroom brings valuable outside perspective to students, creating learning experiences that connect them to their communities and illuminate future opportunities. For businesses, the interest in this kind of public-private partnership has gone far beyond the desire to be good corporate citizens. Indeed, both businesses and educators realize the value of working in concert to ensure that our students of today become our well-trained, well-educated workers, entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow.