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High School Graduation
Graduation Requirements | Graduation Rates | On-Track Indicators
Students who graduate from high school significantly increase their prospects for a productive, stable and successful future. Graduation from high school is a critical indicator that students will be able to benefit from and contribute to the workforce, economy and society. In order to ensure more students graduate, it is imperative that there is clear understanding about who currently graduates, who does not graduate, why, and how more students can remain on track to a diploma.
Graduation Rates
Emerging Evidence on Improving High School Student Achievement and Graduation Rates: The Effects of Four Popular Improvement Programs
The National High School Center released methods for improving low-performing high schools based on some of the most rigorous research currently available in the school reform arena. This research brief identifies lessons learned as well as key practices used to strengthen high schools and is based on evaluations of four widely used high school improvement programs - Career Academies, First Things First, Project GRAD, and Talent Development. (November 2006)
The Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate for Public High Schools From the Common Core of Data: School Years 2002-03 and 2003-04
Based on data reported by state education agencies to the National Center for Education Statistics, this report presents on-time graduation rates for public school students in the school years 2002-2003 and 2003-2004. The Department of Education has identified this Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate as an important interim measure in response to a growing concern regarding the accuracy and compatibility of state-reported graduation data. Because this measure does not capture information about individual students who transfer in and out, as does the preferred National Governors Association recommended measure, it is considered an interim approach.
Better late than never? Examining late high school graduates
This brief, produced by the Center for Public Education, argues that students who take longer than four years to graduate high school, “late graduates,” do better than GED recipients and dropouts not only in academic outcomes, but in life aspects including work, civic, and health arenas. The extra effort and time that these students take to graduate from high school pays off. Due to these findings using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, the brief suggests that schools should encourage students to graduate, even late, and accountability systems should give schools credit for all students who graduate late, as the benefits to earning a high school diploma are numerous.
Diplomas Count 2009
The 2009 edition of Diplomas Count, titled Broader Horizons: The Challenge of College Readiness for All Students, examines the idea that some form of postsecondary education is crucial to students’ success after high school. The report points out that there is no firm consensus on how to measure college readiness or ensure that all students clear such a bar. The report includes national and state graduation rates, college-readiness definitions and other state efforts to better prepare students.
Graduation Counts: A Report of the National Governors Association Task Force on State High School Graduation Data
The seminal report of the National Governors Association relays the recommendation to states for calibration of nationwide graduation rate calculations and definitions.
Implementing Graduation Counts: State Progress to Date, 2009
This National Governor’s Association report provides an update on state implementation of the Graduation Counts Compact, through which all 50 governors agreed to a more accurate and consistent formula for calculating high school graduation rates. Four years after the pact was signed, 20 states already use the formula to calculate graduation rates, and all but two plan to by 2011.
Graduation Matters: Improving Accountability for High School Graduation
This brief from the Education Trust explores the need for stronger federal policy that requires high schools to adopt graduation rates – in addition to achievement indicators – as a measure for student and school progress. By identifying varying state-based definitions of Adequate Yearly Progress and successful state policies, it suggests ways in which No Child Left Behind can be altered when reauthorized to improve outcomes for all student sub-groups across the country.
High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007
This report from the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences is based on a series of NCES reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It includes trends within student demographic groups and examines state-by-state dropout and completion rates.
Implementing Graduation Counts: State Progress to Date
One year following the recommendation by the National Governors Association (NGA) for all states to use the Compact formula (the recommended standard calculation for the graduation rate) the NGA’s Center for Best Practices gathered plans and information from governors’ offices and state education agencies regarding implementation.
Rethinking High School: Preparing Students for Success in College, Career, and Life
This case study of five schools looks at their successes in improving graduation and college acceptance rates. The researchers have pulled out five lessons from each of the schoolsregarding: helping students see college as an attainable goal; strengthening academic programs; ensuring a coherent curriculum from middle grades through high school; providing extra support during students’ critical freshmen year, and drawing out-of-school youth back into the classroom.
What Counts: Defining and Improving High School Graduation Rates (requires login)
This examination of the high school graduation rate by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) highlights the necessity and need for a comprehensive, universal formula to be used across states, a vision shared by many stakeholders in high school reform.
Who's Counted? Who's Counting? Understanding High School Graduation Rates
This Alliance for Excellent Education report discusses the role of graduation rates in accountability, the debate surrounding graduation rates, the different methods for calculating graduation rates, and the need for a common graduation rate across all state school systems.
