Degree/Diploma/Certificate

We have some good news and some bad news.

The good news: The recently released U.S. Department of Education NAEP high school transcript study noted that the number of advanced courses (Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate, etc.) students take in high school has tripled over the past two decades.

Looking for new high school-related resources?  Here are some pieces that other organizations have recently released:

A recent April 8, 2011, Capitol Hill panel briefing on the impact of arts education on career and college readiness, hosted by the College Board and following Washington, DC’s Arts Advocacy Day 2011, highlighted the importance of the arts in developing the critical 21^st century skills students need to become well-rounded, productive individuals who can succeed in college and the workplace.

Could high school dropout indicators tested in urban areas also predict high school dropouts in my rural state of Idaho? We all realize schools large and small, rural and urban, need student data tracking systems. The Early Warning System (EWS) Tool v2.0, available from the National High School Center, is a free, downloadable Excel-based tool that uses readily available student-level data to identify students who exhibit early warning signs that they are at risk for dropping out of high school.

In previous posts, we reviewed President Obama’s recent town hall remarks on Hispanic educational attainment and discussed the challenges faced by English language learners in accessing challenging coursework and fulfilling graduation requirements.  Getting students on track early in high school by ensuring access to college preparatory coursework in English and mathematics is critical to keeping them on track to fulfilling college entrance requirements.

On March 28^th, President Obama participated in a televised town hall meeting at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C. with students, parents, and teachers to discuss Hispanic educational attainment. The event was part of Univision's "Es el Momento" (The Moment is Now) initiative, which is focused on creating a college-bound culture in the Hispanic community.

Between the school years of 2006–07 and 2019–20, the number of Hispanic public high school graduates is projected to increase 60 percent.[1] As Obama stated during the town hall meeting,

Three years ago this month, the Consortium on Chicago School Research (a partner organization of the National High School Center) released a report that identified a relatively simple approach to increasing college-going rates among Chicago Public Schools (CPS) high school graduates.

In our most recent posts, we have examined indicators that can identify students with disabilities who are at risk of dropout.  In order to increase the graduation rate of students with disabilities, the National High School Center suggests the following recommendations:

A recent IES-funded study explored high school students’ academic progress at the end of ninth grade in five Texas school districts as an indicator of whether they would graduate from high school.[1] In the report,  Applying an On Track Indicator for High School Graduation: Adapting the Consortium on Chicago School Research Indicator for Five Texas Districts, researchers examined 12,662 students and used one of the Chicago Consortium on School Research’s (CCSR)

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released a report that looks at high school dropout and completion rates from 1972-2008. The report, Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 1972–2008, includes discussions of many rates used to study how students complete or fail to complete high school.