The EDifierJuly 6, 2010 Small schools are the latest education strategy to be reportedly “losing steam,” and I wish educators would stop throwing the reform baby out with the bathwater.
Two articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer provide a fairly thoughtful look at the results of that city’s four new small high schools. Two in particular are highlighted — one that has done very well, and another that has struggled.
Reading through the articles, the reasons why seem pretty understandable. The struggling small high school had high turnover and a shifting mission. The successful one had clear goals and stable leadership.
Yet the article reports that “the results have been mixed [for the small-school strategy], national and local research shows. Students at small high schools were more likely to graduate, have positive relationships with their teachers, and feel safer. Still, they did no better on standardized tests than did their peers at big schools.”
Wait. A higher graduation rate and better attitude towards school aren’t enough?
I agree that school reform strategies should only happen if they measurably affect student outcomes. But small schools are primarily a strategy to improve environment. And there’s lots of research (summarized in a report by the Center) that shows, when they’re planned correctly, they do just that.
But what this article and so many others in education imply is that one reform strategy should solve every educational problem present in schools.
I think it’s smart to remember that we are dealing with people here. Large groups of people. Not to mention lots of different requirements. Think about your own work life. How hard is it for change to happen there? How many different factors affect whether something gets produced well, on time, and on budget?
Let’s stop dismissing any one education reform because it doesn’t do everything. I think it’d be far more interesting to start considering what combinations of education reforms might work best. –Rebecca St. Andrie
June 23, 2010 Newsweek made a common mistake in a recent article on high school dropout rates. The article used the inverse of the on-time graduation rate to come up with a dropout rate. Using the recent graduation rate estimates from Education Week’s Diplomas Count 2010, the article stated that dropout rates have risen for the second year in row. However, that is not what the data actually says.
As we explain in the Center’s Guide to Calculation High School Graduation Rates, a dropout rate is not the inverse of the graduation rate. The graduation rate used by EdWeek is a four-year graduation rate that only estimates the percent of 9th graders who graduate four years later. So the rate doesn’t count those students who graduate high school in more or less than four years, even if they earned the same diploma as their traditional four-year classmates.
As our Better Late Than Never report shows, those students who need more than four years to graduate high school fare much better in life after high school than their classmates who never earned a high school diploma or even those who went on to earn a GED. So referring to late graduates as dropouts is neither accurate or helpful.
I don’t mean to suggest that all is well and good with our nation’s high schools. The two-year drop in on-time graduation rates certainly raises a red flag. But let’s get the numbers right so we can do a better job pinpointing the problem. If we continually count late graduates as dropouts, we may be excluding many districts that have effective dropout recovery programs in place and are getting students who have fallen behind to graduate with a regular high school diploma in more than four years. These are programs that should be encouraged. The first step in doing so is counting such students as graduates, which they most certainly are. – Jim Hull
June 3, 2010 With high school seniors around the country counting down the days until they receive their diplomas, the U.S. Department of Education has released a report on how many students earned a diploma in 2007-08. According to the report, just under 75 percent of students graduated on time in 2008, which is up from 74 percent in 2007.
However, the rate varies greatly from state to state, ranging from 51 percent in Nevada to nearly 90 percent in Wisconsin. Furthermore, large gaps exist between groups of students, with 91 percent of Asian and 81 percent students graduating on time, while just 64 percent of Hispanic and 62 percent of Black students graduated on time.
Remember whenever reading about graduation rates that the inverse of the graduation rate is not the dropout rate. For example, the estimated national graduation rate is 75 percent, but this does not necessarily mean that 25 percent of students dropped out (as we discuss in our Calculating high school graduation rates report). This is because students who only earn a standard high school diploma within 4 years of entering high school are counting in most graduation rates.
So students who earn a certificate of completion, a special education degree, or a GED are not included. Nor are students who take more than 4 years to graduate high school, which, according to our Better late than never report, represents nearly 5 percent of high school graduates. So including late graduates could boost the national graduation rate to 80 percent.
Increasing the national graduation rate 5 percentage points doesn’t sound huge, but it represents over 200,000 students in 2008 alone. And when looking at individual schools, including late graduates could significantly increase their graduation rates, especially for those schools who excel at getting likely dropouts to persevere and graduate.
So next time you hear about the graduation rate in your state or your district, take a moment to look if it includes those students who needed more than 4 years to graduate. It can really change the way you evaluate your local schools. Because isn’t it more important that a student earns a diploma, no matter how long it takes, than for a student to drop out of high school altogether? We answered that question. The answer is a resounding YES! – Jim Hull
May 4, 2010 The site “Inside Higher Ed” recently reported on community colleges’ pledge to boost student completion rates by 50 percent over the next decade. It’s one more sign of how college completion is becoming a hot topic in the education world.
I currently know several community college students, and I know that their paths to completion have often been difficult. I’ve seen them struggle with fitting classes in around work, getting back up to speed in math, understanding the idea of prerequisites and degree requirements, learning to persist, picking a major, dealing with family obligations and simply finding the money. I’m proud of all of them for persevering to get their degree. Many community college students are tackling a challenge no one else around them has ever taken on, and that takes courage.
So I’m interested to see how community colleges tackle the complicated completion-rate situation. The little research I know about points to remediation as a key hurdle for community college students. How could high schools and colleges work together to do this? Though community college students are incredibly varied, would dropout strategies make a difference or be informed by what research finds out about community college students? For example, one of the Center’s success stories highlights “middle colleges” in North Carolina, which place disengaged high school students in a college environment. Read it for a great story and some interesting ideas.
Where do you think the research should start? – Rebecca St. Andrie
April 27, 2010 In case you didn’t get to Chicago for NSBA’s 2010 Annual Conference, or if you just missed the Center’s sessions, don’t fret, you can find the presentations here.
To check out Patte Barth’s session Planning for Pre-Kindergarten: A Toolkit for School Boards just click here. For Jim Hull’s session Meeting the Needs of Special Education and English Language Learners you can find it here. Click here for his session Preparing Students for Graduation and Beyond.
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