Who We Are

Mayor Bill White took office in 2004 with a vow to address a particularly troubling statistic in our community: about four out of ten Houston-area ninth-graders never graduate from high school.

That year, Andrea White, Houston A+ Challenge and then-Houston ISD Superintendent Kaye Stripling convened an education summit with nearly 400 community and civic leaders.  The present Superintendent of HISD, Dr. Abe Saavedra, immediately embraced
Expectation Graduation and has continued the work that began in that
summit.

Real-time results are still being felt since the Education Summit as Expectation Graduation projects expand throughout the community and schools.

The annual Reach Out to Dropouts walk has attracted more than 6,000 volunteers who personally visit youth who do not return to school. The Walk has expanded and now includes 12 Houston-area school districts. Other cities are beginning to replicate this successful effort.

Mayor White sends “Commit to Graduate” letters to Houston ninth-graders. Over 19,000 of them signed and returned their individual pledges to stay in school.

Mentors and dropout prevention specialists add to the personal theme. Students also are treated to sports and entertainment events in response to their commitment.

Start young, start early.  Dropout prevention never comes too soon.  In 2008, Expectation Graduation continued its pilot of the Summer Opportunity Session with HISD and expanded to 640 students to include every region of the school district.  The four-week program kept the learning experience alive during summer vacation at Bruce, Berry, Bonham, Rodriguez, Lockhart, Sanchez, Reynolds, and Hines-Caldwell elementary schools.

The organization continues to develop partnerships. More school districts, as well as other organizations are becoming involved. 

Thanks to all of Expectation Graduation's partners, and the year-long work of Dropout Prevention Specialists, thousands of area students have returned to school.