Indicators

This report from the National High School Center outlines steps that schools can take to identify at-risk students and provide the necessary support systems and relevant interventions to assist students in obtaining a high school diploma. Further, the report discusses the use of early warning data systems to target interventions for groups and individual students, offers a variety of best practice approaches undertaken by higher-performing high schools, and presents effective programs that are currently being implemented to stem the dropout problem.

This white paper from Jobs for the Future provides state-level policymakers with a framework for raising graduation rates in their states. The five commitments offered in this piece are: 1) A High School Diploma That Signifies College and Work-Readiness, 2) Pathways to High School Graduation and College for Overage, Undercredited, and Out-of-School Youth, 3) Turnaround of Low-performing High Schools, 4) Increased Emphasis on Graduation Rates and College-Readiness in Next Generation Accountability, and 5) Early and Continuous Support for Struggling Students.

Students who took Advanced Placement (AP) courses and passed the exams tended to have a higher probability of college graduation compared to students not participating in AP even after controlling for student’s 8th grade mathematics test score, free and reduced price lunch status, average test scores, and percent economically disadvantaged students in the student’s school. The percent of a school’s students who took and passed AP is the best AP-related predictor of the probability of students from that school to graduate from college.

This study from MDRC uses a large-scale, multisite, experimental design to determine the effects of Career Academies on a range of student educational, developmental, and work-related outcomes, including student achievement and student engagement. This report provides information on the implementation of Career Academies.