Applying an on track indicator for high school graduation

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Failure to graduate from high school is a widespread problem in the United States. In Texas, state officials have made increasing the proportion of students who graduate from high school a high priority.

One response to this challenge has been development of on-track indicators to identify students at risk of not graduating from high school. Researchers from the Consortium for Chicago School Research (CCSR), an early developer of these indicators, compared student academic performance in the first year of high school with graduation rates four years later and classified students as on track for graduation based on two criteria:

• Earning enough credits to be promoted to grade 10.

• Having no more than one semester “F” in a core course (English, math, science, and social studies).

Students who had not earned sufficient credits for promotion to grade 10 and those who had two or more semester “F” were classified as off track.

This REL Southwest study, Applying an on-track indicator for high school graduation: adapting the Consortium on Chicago School Research indicator for five Texas districts used the CCSR indicator in five school districts across Texas. The study found that:

• In all five Texas districts, a majority of first-time grade 9 students were on track for graduation at the end of grade 9. On-track rates ranged from 61 percent to 86 percent.

• In all five districts, on-time graduation rates were higher for students who were on track at the end of grade 9 than for students who were off track.

• For all racial/ethnic groups, the on-time graduation rate was higher for on-track students than for off-track students.