An advocacy group affiliated with retired general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell will bring its dropout-prevention campaign to Pittsburgh on Nov. 12.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl will host a graduation summit -- one of 105 such events nationwide -- at the Downtown YWCA.

The summit will convene business leaders, government officials, the nonprofit community and parents to discuss the city's dropout problem and devise solutions, said Colleen Wilber, spokeswoman for America's Promise Alliance.

"These aren't just moan-and-groan sessions," she said yesterday.

Mr. Powell was the first chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based alliance, now led by his wife, Alma.

The dropout-prevention summits -- 50 state-level events and 55 in cities with dropout problems -- began in April 2008 and will conclude next year. Pennsylvania's state-level summit took place about a year ago; Pittsburgh's will be the 73rd of the campaign, Ms. Wilber said.

She said the alliance was galvanized by research showing that about 30 percent of students nationwide drop out of high school, with more troubling dropout rates seen in urban areas and among minority groups. She said society pays the price in crime and demand for social services.

So far, she said, summits have led to a variety of countermeasures, such as enhanced technical-education programs.

A 2006 Rand Corp. study estimated that about half of all black males drop out of the Pittsburgh Public Schools. It put the district's overall dropout rate at 35 percent.

School district spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said the summit will include remarks by students who dropped out. She said the district is eager to learn why they left and hear their ideas for keeping others in school.

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