Helping High School Youth Learn by Doing

There's an assumption that in order to do well in school, you have to be in school. But new data suggests that 5 to 7.5 million students, especially from low-income areas, are missing more than one month of school a year.

On a cool April morning the first graders from Teresa Scott's class silently make their way into a multimedia classroom where they gather once a week to learn the ins and outs of journalism.

As graduation season approaches, we invite you to share your graduation story with the American Graduate project. We will curate them on our "I Am an American Graduate" Pinterest board, in partnership with other public media partners across the country.

With nine studio albums under her belt and a world tour under way, bass player Meshell Ndegeocello was in her hometown of Washington, D.

Next week, Melinda Gates will sit down with Hari Sreenivasan to talk about the Gates Foundation's work in the field of education, and we'd like to hear your suggestions.

In Shelbyville, Ind., Melissa Lakes and the Student Achievement Center provide at-risk students with technology-enhanced hands-on learning. But it wasn't always like that. Part of the American Graduate project, Learning Matters' John Tulenko profiles one school district that wholly responded to its "dropout nation" epithet.

In 2006, TIME Magazine featured Shelbyville, Indiana under the headline "Dropout Nation." With a graduation rate of 75 percent, Shelbyville was the poster child for the dropout crisis in America. Since then, the community has dramatically shifted its strategy and attitude when it comes to helping students get their diploma.

Trying to entice wayward students back to class in Las Vegas, Chaparral High School Principal David Wilson led teams into communities to knock on doors in search of dropouts. Ray Suarez reports on an offbeat approach starting to show some signs of success in a city that ranks near the bottom in the nation for graduation rates.

Fist bumps and high-fives -- it's how principal David Wilson interacts with students as he walks down the halls of Chaparral High School in Las Vegas. The unconventional style is a trademark of Wilson, who was brought to the high school in 2010 as part of a turnaround effort by the Clark County School District.