While the nation’s public systems continue to fall short of delivering equitable educational supports to children and youth, youth workers have spent the last several decades insulating and, in some cases, patching the leaks in the “education pipeline”– a term describing the route students follow from early childhood through post-secondary education. Staggering statistics in numerous reports reveal that this problem presents a much greater risk than federal dropout statistics generally convey, to the extent that it has reached what some researchers call crisis proportions. Read about this growing challenge in communities across the country and some promising strategies being developed to overcome it.

• In research update, we delve into the dropout question, reflecting on the extent of the problem and its origins.

• In on the ground, we examine the early college high school model and profile innovative work emerging in Portland, Oreg.

• In voices from the fields, we interview organizers of the Big Picture Company, an organization based in Providence, R.I., about the Alternative High School Initiative, a model that equips youth development organizations with the capacity to create and sustain high-quality alternative schools.