The Last Dropout: A Model for Creating Educational Equity

A revised and updated edition of an exploration into the foundational principles, impact, and real-life success stories from Communities In Schools.

Since 1977, Communities In Schools (CIS) has reached more than one million students and their families annually approximately 3,000 American schools, surrounding them with a community of support and empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.

In The Last Dropout, CIS founder Bill Milliken offers nine key principles that Communities In Schools has tested over four decades. Interwoven are his real-world life stories, a journey that began in the turbulent 1960s as a youth worker and evolved into a handful of groundbreaking Street Academies that became the CIS movement with a national network of hundreds of local affiliates. Milliken also shares transformative stories about how CIS leaders have adopted these principles in their own communities, with stunning results.

Milliken’s guiding philosophy has been It is relationships, not programs, that change children, and it is a principle that has served as a beacon in the movement for educational equity and success.