Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on improving career education, issued a report today recommending steps states can take to improve high-school graduation rates.

The report says that, of the 65 percent of low-income students who earn a high-school diploma, just 21 percent are adequately prepared for college-level work. In a statement announcing the report’s release, Marlene B. Seltzer, president of Jobs for the Future, said states “can raise graduation rates without compromising high college- and work-readiness standards” and doing so is important to the nation’s economic future.

The report calls on states to:

Ensure that the acquisition of a high-school diploma signifies college- and work-readiness by developing ways to monitor course content, student achievement, and course-taking patterns. Establish ways for young people who dropped out of high school, are beyond high-school age, or lack enough high-school credits to graduate from high school and go on to college. Turn around that 15 percent of public high schools that are so chronically low-performing they produce more than half of the nation’s high-school dropouts. Adjust current measures for holding high schools accountable to put more emphasis on graduation rates and college readiness. Encourage school districts to gather and act on data showing which high-school students are struggling, so they can be provided early and continuous support.

The report highlights several state efforts that Jobs for the Future regards as models for following its advice. They include an Oregon law requiring school districts to provide alternative education programs to students who are not succeeding in regular high-school settings, a North Carolina program that enables students to earn two years of college credit while still in high school, Florida’s policy of forcing low-performing high schools that do not improve on their own to follow a state-imposed improvement plan, and Louisiana’s high-school accountability system, which gives high schools incentives to provide a rigorous curriculum through the senior year and keep students enrolled until they graduate. —Peter Schmidt