Some have called it the silent epidemic.  Others refer to it as a crisis that must be fixed.  But for the estimated 7,000 students who drop out of high school every day, it's a very real, and very devastating event in their lives, and statistics tell us the future is not so bright for these young people. For them, dropping out of school is a personal tragedy that will have a life-long impact, and the consequences are debilitating, both socially and economically. (View Introduction Video)

But when you step back from the individual consequences and consider the problem as a whole, the nation's dropout rate has an incredible impact on the US economy. According to a recent report issued by the Committee on Education & Labor, 2,000 high schools in the 50 largest cities in America account for 50 percent of our nation's dropouts. Poor and minority students are particularly at-risk, as they account for a disproportionate percentage of the students who are leaving school.

Consider the fact that if--according to a report  by the McKinsey Corporation--poor and minority student performance had reached the level of their white counterparts in 1998, the nations' GDP in 2009 would have been between $310 billion to $525 billion higher, or approximately 2 to 4 percent of GDP. Essentially this achievement gap is like having a permanent recession.

Unfortunately, as the country continues to pick itself up off the floor and fight through serious economic challenges, finding a way to "fix" the dropout problem in America's schools isn't high on the list of priorities, despite the fact that statistics indicate that it should be. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former Governor of West Virginia, put it this way: "That's why I believe that the ultimate economic stimulus package is a diploma."

But while U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) is chairing a committee in Washington, D.C., to explore the issue, some states have decided not to wait and have implemented solutions to reduce the dropout rate in their schools and close the achievement gap.

South Carolina has turned to the Star Academy Program, a dropout prevention solution developed by Pitsco Education. The Star Academy Program is a school-within-a-school model that serves anywhere from 40 to 80 students in a given year. Students enrolled in the Star Academy Program are typically over-aged and have failed one or more grades.  Faced with the prospect of seeing these students leave the enrollment ranks, South Carolina has implemented 16 Star Academies now serving over 500 students with the goal of retaining these at-risk students and get them back on track to graduate with their peers. (View the The Star Academy Program Overview Video)