- 10% of K-8 students are held back for one or more years–including 25% of low-income students.
- About 7 million students–15% of all American school children–miss a month or more of school each year, according to the Get Schooled Foundation.
- Nearly 50% of truant students who are absent about once a week or more are at risk of dropping out of high school.
- 30% of those in an ASCD survey believe that increasing the time each student spends in school every day and year would have the greatest impact on the quality of education.
- Former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee’s decision to close 23 D.C. schools in 2008 came in at a high price: the original $9.7 million, plus $8 million to demolish the buildings and transport displaced students, plus $22 million in lost property values at the closed sites.
