The Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Flint, Michigan, have announced that they will invest a total of $2 million to combat the high-school dropout crisis in five U.S. cities.

Nationally, more than 30 percent of students do not complete high school in a timely way, and in some inner-city neighborhoods the odds of graduation are only fifty-fifty.

In response to this trend, the three foundations — all members of the Youth Transition Funders Group — have launched the Initiative to Support Struggling Students and Out-of-School Youth and announced grants of $275,000 to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, San Jose, and Portland, Oregon, to fund broad-based partnerships that include educational advocacy groups, public school districts, public care agencies, service providers, parents, and youth.

"These cities were selected because they are among the nation's leaders in their demonstrated commitment to and capacity for engaging a wide range of partners to serve at-risk youth," said Constancia Warren, senior program officer and director of Urban High School Initiatives at the Carnegie Corporation. "While $275,000 for a one-year planning process is not enough for any city to solve this problem, it can help local partners jump-start the conversation about changing how their cities approach the needs of struggling students."

The initiative will address race and class inequities related to the dropout crisis in grantee communities and will support technical assistance and cross-site learning activities. Based on their assessment of existing resources, policies, and funding environment at the local and state levels, as well as options and community support available for struggling students, the local partnerships will create an action plan for 2006, including options for financing it through private investments and reallocated public funds.

"Addressing the needs of dropouts and near-dropouts requires a multi-pronged, systemic approach built on collaboration among school systems, alternative education providers, community-based organizations, community colleges, and others," said Marlene B. Seltzer, president and CEO of Boston-based Jobs for the Future, which will staff the initiative and provide strategic consulting to the partnerships.