As access to skilled workers becomes increasingly vital to the U.S. economy, AT&T is stepping up its commitment in education to help more students graduate from high school ready for careers and college, and to ensure the country is better prepared to meet global competition. Read more »

Among the most significant corporate educational initiatives in the U.S., AT&T Aspire has already impacted more than one million students across all 50 states since the program launched in 2008.

In March, we announced an expansion to the Aspire program, bringing our total planned investment up to $350 million. With this additional financial commitment, AT&T Aspire will build on the program's first four years of success by:

• Using technology to connect with students in new and more effective ways, including interactive gamification and Web-based content and social media.
• Taking a "socially innovative" approach to tackle high school success and college/career readiness for students at-risk of dropping out of high school. What is social innovation?
• Tapping the innovation engine of the AT&T Foundry to look for fresh or atypical approaches to educational obstacles. Learn more about the AT&T Foundry.
• Capitalizing on the power of personal connections in the form of mentoring, internships and other voluntary efforts that involve many of AT&T's approximately 260,000 employees and by engaging our customers in the issue.

We're excited to continue working with leading education organizations across the country to help prepare students for success in the workplace, college and life.

• Lacking a high school degree is a serious issue in the United States, where one in four students – more than 1 million each year – drops out. ¹
• On average, a high school dropout earns 25 percent less during the course of his or her lifetime compared with a high school graduate and 57 percent less than a college graduate with a bachelor's degree.²
• The dropout rate, along with inadequate training and education, is keeping many high-paying Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) jobs from being filled. And the situation is expected to worsen as STEM jobs grow a projected 17 percent by 2018.³
• Workers in these positions typically earn 26 percent more than those in non-STEM positions.³

Although the problem is serious, there are signs of progress according to a March 19, 2012 report by Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center, America's Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education:

• The high school graduation rate increased by 3.5 percentage points nationally from 2001 to 2009.
• In 2001, the rate was 72.0 percent; by 2009, it had risen to 75.5 percent. From 2002 to 2009, six states experienced large gains in their graduation rates; 14 states made moderate gains; and four states made modest gains. (Note: 2002 was the first year that state data became available.)
• And the number of "dropout factory" high schools (a high school where 12th-grade enrollment is 60 percent or less than the 9th-grade enrollment three years previously) dropped from 2,007 to 1,550 from 2002 to 2010 – a 23 percent decrease.

¹ According to a March 19, 2012, report by Civic Enterprises, the Everyone Graduates Center, America's Promise Alliance and the Alliance for Excellent Education
² "The College Payoff," Georgetown University Center on Education and Workforce [August 2011]
³ "STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future," U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration [July 2011]

• RFP Process
• Social Innovation