The report released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education says there were 123,437 graduates in Ohio for the 2009-10 school year. The graduation rate was 81.4 percent, higher than the nation’s rate of 78.2 percent.

That’s a steady increase from the 2006-2007 school year, in which the state saw a graduation rate of 78.7 percent.

The dropout rate among students at Ohio public high schools remained unchanged from the previous school year.

Ohio’s rate was 4.2 percent in 2009-10, compared with the nation’s rate of 3.4 percent. The report said a total of 22,406 public high school students dropped out with an enrollment of 538,951 in grades 9 to 12.

The data is part of research being presented today at the Grad Nation summit in Washington organized by the children’s advocacy group America’s Promise Alliance.

In Ohio, the number of students in dropout factories – schools that fail to graduate more than 60 percent of students on time – rose by about 12,500, but the state’s graduation rate was up about two percent from 2002 to 2009.

Michael Williams totes a book bag as he walks with a friend toward West Broad Street. It’s a comfortable and breezy Friday afternoon, and Williams has the whole weekend ahead of him. But that’s not all he’s got ahead of him the West High School freshman has four years until graduation.

“Making hundred percents, and doing As. That’s all me. So, yeah.”

Williams is African American. If he had been in high school ten years ago, there would be a more than one in two chance he would not graduate. Back then, only 48 percent of black male Columbus City School students graduated. According to district figures, nearly 70 percent of black male students received diplomas last year.

A report released by The Schott Foundation for Public Education, this summer, reported a 37 percent gap between black and white male graduates in Ohio for the 2007-2008 school year. The Ohio Department of Education reports a lower gap – 26 percent – for that year. The state education department blames methodology for the different figures.

Regardless, the gap is sizable. It’s that way nationally, across the state and among some local districts. And it’s nothing new.

Ninth grader Michael Williams wants to join the army or navy. And when asked what the teen would say to someone who told him he has a lesser chance of graduating high school because of the color of his skin Williams emphatically unzips his back pack and pulls up a piece of paper with the word “excellent” written in the corner.

“I could just show them this because, I had this, I had did a, I had, you know, I did a hundred percent. So I gotta, you know, I just say forget them. And that’s it. You know, they’re haters,” Williams said.

Williams has a motivator, a mentor – his grandfather. He has a goal – the military. He’s on the right track.

Columbus City Schools Deputy Superintendent Keith Bell says it’s important to show students a target, like the one Williams has. For teenagers, four years is a long-time. Bell says it’s important educators engage students early and show them a possible finish line, otherwise it’s easy to lose them to the streets.

“When they can go and get that immediate gratification in a neighborhood that you may live in or you’ll get the engagement or you’ll get the love in a different way from people that may not necessarily have your best interest at heart, but you get it, and you’re not getting it in school then you have tendency to want to do or cling to those people who are giving you that gratification,” Bell said.

Statewide the gap is about 30 percent. Thirty percent fewer African American boys graduate than their white male classmates. But large urban areas seem to be faring better.

In Columbus City Schools the graduation gap is minimal – just one percent. But it fluctuates from year to year. It was as high as 12 percent ten years ago. Cincinnati City Schools reports a 16 percent gap, but it has been as high as 25 percent in recent years.

Cleveland City Schools actually reports last year more black male students graduated than white males – seven percent more.

Sam Gresham directs the Ohio Commission on African American Males. He’s not surprised at the continued gap. Gresham, who said black males are the most marginalized group of people in the country, said the issue has never been a priority.

“You can’t go to school hungry. You can’t go to school (without) materials. You can’t go to school from a dysfunctional family. You can’t come from a home where there’s no educational leadership and there are other priorities, and you expect that child to be successful in the educational environment? We’ve always blamed the teachers. We’ve always blamed the students. We have not looked at the combination of variables that create this very complex situation,” Gresham said.

Gresham said black boys need to be broken out of poverty and they need mentors.

“Until our leadership finds an urgency to do it, until we stop manipulating people of color for economic reasons, until we see that it’s important to change this situation it’s not going to change. And internally, until the African American community asserts itself, this situation is not going to change,” he said.

Columbus City Schools’ Keith Bell underscores the importance of community involvement. He said parents are children’s first teachers.

“Those first four or five years are so formative and so important that when the kids come to school if they’re behind then it makes it very difficult to hit a moving target when they come in behind,” Bell said.

Margaret Beale Spencer is a professor in the Comparative Human Development Department at the University of Chicago. She offers another reason, possibly a little more controversial, as to why black boys lag behind their white peers.

“I just think very often for black boys in our society in particular, we don’t view them as young humans perusing knowledge and a positive future. We stereotype instead, and view them as frightening, short black men as opposed to boys in pursuit of achievement,” Beale Spencer said.

Beale Spencer calls learning a risk-taking process. She said you have to be open to admitting what you don’t know. And Beale Spencer noted data indicates children who report negative teacher perception achieve at a lesser rate.

Back near West Broad Street, West High School senior Sagittarius Lamar walks with a group of friends. He has his sights on college. Probably Columbus State. Lamar wants to study accounting. What has been his approach to staying in school the last three years?

“Just staying focused. Keeping my eyes on my goal. And not worrying about what everybody else got to say or what everybody else doing, just doing me,” Lamar said.

WOSU’s Kim Fox spoke with Case and asked him about his accident.

Case will deliver the graduation address on Friday, June 12, 2009.

This fall 1,000 Columbus Public School eighth graders will have their very own mentor. It’s part of the new program Project Mentor. In 2005, Superintendent Gene Harris announced plans to meet Ohio’s graduation rate standard – 90 percent – by 2012. This year’s eighth graders will be the class of 2012. And Harris thinks Program Mentor is another step in reaching that goal.

“It will happen during lunch time. So it’s an informal kind of situation where the mentor and the mentee will get together over lunch. Perhaps they’ll play chess, they’ll eat, they’ll talk homework, they’ll do a number of just informal things that will have all kinds of positive impact on teaching and learning and that child’s academic progress,” Harris said. The students who will have mentors are considered at-risk for not graduating. Harris said teachers and counselors will refer the children for the mentoring program.

“Well, they are students who need some additional support to stay in school, to make sure they are coming to school every day, to make sure they’re getting their lessons and that they know they have someone outside of the school family who really cares about them,” Harris said.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio will help recruit and train the mentors. Ed Cohn is president and CEO of the organization. He said Project Mentor will help kids put their focus back on school.

“The dictionary calls for tutoring to be helping with an academic subject, whereas mentoring is a wise counselor and guide. These kids have a lot of issues on their mind. And if they have somebody they can come to trust and they feel comfortable talking to about what’s happening in their neighborhoods or with their friends and they can download those issues, they can go do their homework,” Cohn said.

Nationwide is also taking part in Project Mentor. About 330 of the mentors this fall will be Nationwide employees. Jerry Jurgensen, Nationwide CEO, said company staffers have mentored Windsor Academy students for more than 20 years and are pleased to be able to do more.

“We’re talking about the future of our community. We’re talking about the future of our state. We’re talking about the future of our country. And without an education there is not future. There is no prospect. And the deal has got to be get to college,” Jurgensen said.

While there are expected to be 1,000 mentors this coming school year the plan is to eventually get about 10,000 mentors in every Columbus Public School.

Ed Cohn with Big Brothers Big Sisters said even though 10,000 mentors might seem like a lot to manage on top of the organization’s traditional program – he said it’s not.

“One of the great things about this program is it is very scalable. Our general model is that each program coordinator can handle three schools. For example, this fall there are 24 middle schools. And so that is seven program coordinators and one working supervisor. So when you think in terms of teams of eight to bring on 24 schools at a time it’s very scalable,” Cohn said.

Harris said mentor expansion could happen in as little as three years.

“Within three to five years we expect to expand to about 10,000 mentors. And we will go down to third grade and up to tenth grade,” Harris noted.

She said by third grade teachers can detect behaviors that could give students trouble academically. But Harris said tenth grade is not too late to get a student to stay in school.

“If we get students through the ninth and tenth grades on time, first time around with no failures we are much more likely to get them graduated from high school,” Harris said.

Harris said they will monitor Project Mentor. She said they’ll look at attendance and behavioral problems. And finally, see if students graduate.

The current graduation rate for Columbus Public Schools is 72.9 percent. That’s up more than 17 percentage points since 2001. To meet the state standard Columbus Public Schools must graduate an additional 90 students per year until 2012.

Two-time Heisman Trophy winner, Archie Griffin, was the key note speaker.

This is the time to make real choices in your life. It is your opportunity to step up to the challenge of working hard every day, avoiding those whose dreams are not as far reaching as yours. I want you to stay in school. The dream of earning a high school diploma and then going on to college are realities.

Griffin wore his graduation cap and gown and told students he wanted to see them in theirs in 2012.

I want you to look to your left. Now look to your right. I want all three of you to graduate from high school. You can help each other reach that goal and I challenge you to do so.

The sixth-graders are part of what’s being called Project two-thousand-12. The school district is setting a long-term goal of raising the graduation rate from 60-percent to 90-percent, the state standard, in just six years.

Superintendent Gene Harris says raising the high school graduation rate to 90 percent by 2012 is not a lofty goal. Instead, Harris says it’s a necessary one. She says getting students, teachers and parents focused on this goal is the best way to achieve it.

We know that we have the ability to get it done. We’ve got great curriculum in the classroom, we’ve hired some really fabulous teachers, we’ve got great leadership in our buildings. We are working very hard to get and to keep parents involved.

But Harris says parental involvement is just one part of the plan. She says the school system is realigning some of its programs that are already in place while implementing others that have proved successful in other systems.

We are developing more innovated programs. We are replicating some successful programs we have seen at middle schools and we’re going to install them in our middle schools. We are working very hard to extend their school year so students have more opportunities for learning. We’re going to stay in touch with parents.

Harris ended the rally with a vision of what their life could be like in six years.

You are the class of 2012, you are the class of 2012, you are the class of 2012.