Using Promotion Power to Identify High School Effectiveness

In this study REL Mid-Atlantic examined the promotion power of public high schools in the District of Columbia on college- and career-ready SAT scores, high school graduation, and college enrollment. Promotion power is a measure of school effectiveness that tries to create a level playing field for comparing schools serving different student populations. It separates a school’s contributions to student outcomes from the contributions of the background characteristics of the students a school serves. Key findings include: High schools’ power to promote college-ready SAT scores, high school graduation, and college enrollment varied widely. Schools with high promotion power for high school graduation were also more likely to have high promotion power for college enrollment. Promotion power was less strongly related to student background characteristics than were status measures such as high school graduation rate and college enrollment rate, suggesting that high schools serving different student populations can show strong promotion power.