GradNation Community Summits Template Letter to the Editor
When drafting a letter to the editor, your letter should be in response to an article or column that
appeared in the paper. Doing so helps keep your letter relevant and increases the probability it will be
published. A good rule of thumb is to keep letters under 400 words.
Please feel free to reach out to the local AT&T point person to collaborate on this letter. They are happy
to work with you on this and help incorporate important messaging and pitch to local news outlets.
[DATE]
Dear Editor,
[Reference the name of the article you are responding to here.]
This year, the high school graduation rate for [insert school district name] was [XX] [you may know these
numbers from your district already. Statewide grad rates can be found here:
http://gradnation.org/resource/building-gradnation-report-2012-acgr-map]. That means [XX] students
left our schools without a diploma. We all feel the impact when they drop out because it hurts our
community. Never has this been truer than today, when a high school diploma is the starting line for
success and not the end game as it was in previous generations. Nationally, if we just cut the dropout
rate in half, we’d generate $5.6 billion in additional spending by students who have better jobs because
they have better educations. They’d also contribute $716 million in additional tax revenues. [Add
statewide numbers here on increased home sales, tax revenue etc. That information can be found on
the Alliance for Excellent Education’s website at: impact.all4ed.org]
The good news is graduation rates are improving. For the first time the nation is on pace to reach a 90
percent high school graduation rate by the class of 2020. But in order to rise together as a nation, we
have to do our part as a community which is why I was so glad to be a part of the [insert community
name] GradNation Community Summit on [insert date]. Here, [key partner names] came together to
analyze how we are doing when it comes to supporting our young people. Is what we’re doing working?
What more and who else do we need to engage were the questions we asked and answered. We also
developed a plan of action for how we help [insert community name] reach the 90 percent graduation
goal. This Summit is one of 100 around the country to help all our children succeed. It will take a lot of
work, and we need others to join us, but our kids and our community are worth it.
[Name]
[City, State]