Essential Questions for High School Graduation: High School Graduation Progress

Four-, five-, and six-year high school graduation rates/dropout rates. (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Share on track to graduate. (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Share overage/under credited. (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Students graduate from high school with a regular diploma within four, five, and six years of entering high school (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of students who graduate with a diploma in four years (on-time) (Education-to-Workforce).

Adjusted cohort graduation rate (the percentage of first-time 9th graders who graduate with a regular diploma within four, five, and six years of entering high school, regardless of whether they transferred schools)  (Education-to-Workforce). 

On-time graduation in four years is most commonly reported, as it is the time to graduation that most students should aim to achieve. As such, it is important to ensure equitable outcomes in four-year rates. Data systems should also collect information on whether students complete a high school equivalency credential (Education-to-Workforce). 

Educational attainment of population ages 25 to 34 in the United States (Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Data Center).

Young adults ages 18 to 24 who are high school graduates, disaggregated by race and ethnicity (Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Data Center).

Young adults ages 18 to 24 who are high school graduates and enrolled in school, disaggregated by race and ethnicity (Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Data Center).

High school students not graduating on time, disaggregated by race and ethnicity (Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Data Center).

Young adults ages 18 to 24 who are enrolled in or have completed college, disaggregated by race and ethnicity (Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Data Center).

Young adults ages 18 to 24 not attending school, not working, and no degree beyond high school (Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Data Center).

Teens ages 16 to 19 not in school and not high school graduates, disaggregated by race and ethnicity (Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Data Center).

Teens ages 16 to 19 not attending school and not working, disaggregated by race and ethnicity (Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Data Center).

The percentage of an entering freshman high school class not graduating in four years, disaggregated by race and ethnicity (Annie E. Casey, Kids Count Data Center).

Freshmen cohort graduation rates four years later. In terms of the educational pipeline, the most useful measures track a cohort of students over time to determine whether and how they progress through school. Greene and Winters (2005) and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center (2008) attempt to approximate the percentage of ninth graders who earn a regular diploma four years later (Bridget Terry Long, Dropout Prevention).

According to Greene and Winters (2005), there are several reasons why GED recipients should not be included in the high school graduation rates. They point to research that has found that the returns to a GED are far less than that of a regular diploma (see Cameron and Heckman 1993; Murnane, Willett, and Boudett 1995) (Bridget Terry Long, Dropout Prevention).

While freshmen graduation rates four years later give some sense of the students left behind without a degree, another way to measure the prevalence of dropping out of high school is to use direct estimates. Stillwell and Hoffman (2008) provide an event dropout rate, which is the proportion of students who drop out in a single year (Bridget Terry Long, Dropout Prevention).

A third (and broader) way to measure high school degree attainment is to examine at one point in time the proportion of students who have not completed a high school degree and are not enrolled in school. The U.S. Department of Education tracks this information over time to produce a status dropout rate, which includes any sixteen- to twenty- four- year- old student without a high school credential (i.e., diploma or equivalent, such as GED) regardless of when they dropped out of school (Bridget Terry Long, Dropout Prevention).

Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate: The adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR) is the percentage of students who graduate in 4 years with a regular high school diploma divided by the number of students who form the adjusted cohort for the graduating class. From the beginning of 9th grade (or the earliest high school grade), students who are entering that grade for the first time form a cohort that is “adjusted” by adding any students who subsequently transfer into the cohort and subtracting any students who subsequently transfer out, emigrate to another country (National Center for Education Statistics).

Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate: The ACGR is different from the averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR). The averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR) is an estimate of the percentage of public high school students who graduate on time (i.e., 4 years after starting 9th grade) with a regular diploma. The rate uses aggregate student enrollment data to estimate the size of an incoming freshman class and aggregate counts of the number of diplomas awarded 4 years later. The AFGR estimate is not as accurate as the ACGR, but the AFGR can be estimated annually as far back as the 1960s (National Center for Education Statistics).

Event Dropout Rate: The event dropout rate is the percentage of 15- to 24-year-olds in grades 10 through 12 who leave high school between the beginning of one school year and the beginning of the next without earning a high school diploma or an alternative credential such as a GED. The event dropout rate provides information about the rate at which U.S. high school students are leaving school without receiving a high school credential. The measure can be used to study student experiences in the U.S. secondary school system in a given year. The event dropout rates presented in this indicator are based on data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) (National Center for Education Statistics).

Status Dropout Rate: The status dropout rate is the number of 16- to 24-year-olds who are not enrolled in school and have not earned a high school diploma or an alternative credential, such as a GED, as a percentage of the total number of 16- to 24-year-olds in the population. In this indicator, status dropout rates are estimated using both the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS) (National Center for Education Statistics.)

Status Completion Rate: Data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) can be used to calculate the status completion rate, the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds not enrolled in high school or a lower education level who hold a high school diploma or an alternative credential, such as a GED. This rate includes all civilian, noninstitutionalized individuals 18 to 24 years old who have completed high school, including individuals who completed their education outside of the United States. While the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate and the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate focus on a particular cohort of students in the U.S. secondary school system who graduated with a high school diploma, the status completion rate, presented in this indicator, describes the educational attainment of individuals in a given age range. Moreover, the status completion rate counts both high school diploma recipients and alternative credential recipients as high school completers (National Center for Education Statistics).

State- and district-level high school graduation rates over time, disaggregated by gender, race/ethnicity, and income level  (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Unemployment rates and earnings by educational attainment (i.e. Less than a high school diploma, High school diploma only, Some college but no degree, Associate’s degree, Bachelor’s degree, etc.) (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Four-, five-, and six-year high school graduation rates/dropout rates (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

The American Graduate initiative, which was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), is public media’s long-term commitment to improving youth outcomes through education and career readiness. Public media is uniquely positioned to serve as content creators, trusted communicators, conveners, and community connectors. Since 2011, national producers and local stations have engaged with more than 1,700 partners, including the GradNation campaign, to create public understanding of the challenges students, especially those in high poverty communities, face on the path to a high school diploma (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Systemic Approach—This strategy for dropout prevention calls for a systemic approach and process for ongoing and continuous improvement across all grade levels and among all stakeholders, through a shared and widely communicated vision and focus, tightly focused goals and objectives, selection of targeted research-based strategies and interventions, ongoing monitoring and feedback, and data-based decision making. It also requires the alignment of school policies, procedures, practices, and organizational structures and continuous monitoring of effectiveness (The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention).

School-Community Collaboration—This strategy for dropout prevention focuses on the power of an engaged and responsive community where everyone in the community is accountable for the quality of education, resulting in a caring and collaborative environment where youth can thrive and achieve. Critical elements of this type of collaboration rely on effective, ongoing, and multidimensional communication so that dropout prevention is a communitywide and ongoing effort (The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention).

Early Literacy Development—Early literacy interventions to help low-achieving students improve their reading and writing skills establish the necessary foundation for effective learning in all subjects. Literacy development focus should continue P-12 (The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention).

Service-Learning—Service-learning connects meaningful community service experiences with academic learning. This teaching/learning method promotes personal and social growth, career development, and civic responsibility and can be a powerful vehicle for effective school reform at all grade levels (The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention).

Alternative Schooling—Alternative or non-traditional schooling and delivery model options (e.g., alternative times and environments, blended learning, virtual learning, competency-based credit opportunities) provide alternative avenues to credit earning and graduation, with programs paying special attention to the student’s individual and social needs, career goals, and academic requirements for obtaining a high school diploma and transitioning successfully to life beyond graduation (The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention).

Afterschool/Out-of-School Opportunities—Many schools provide afterschool, before-school, and/or summer academic/enhancement/enrichment opportunities (e.g., tutoring, credit recovery, acceleration, homework support, etc.) that provide students with opportunities for assistance and recovery as well as high-interest options for discovery and learning. These opportunities often decrease information loss and can inspire interest in arenas otherwise inaccessible. Such experiences are especially important for at-risk students because out-of-school “gap time” is filled with constructive and engaging activities and/or needed academic support (The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention).

Individualized Instruction— Learning experiences can be individualized, differentiated, or personalized In an environment that is fully personalized, the learning objectives and content as well as the method and pace may all vary so personalization encompasses differentiation and individualization (The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention).

Quality CTE programs and related career pathways and guidance programs with P-20W orientation are essential for all students. Youth need workplace skills as well as awareness and focus to increase not only the likelihood that they will be prepared for their careers, but also that school will be relevant to what is next (The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention).

The Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) is considered to be the “gold standard” of graduation rate metrics; there are still ways it can be improved to guarantee the best data is available. There is still variability in what is considered a “regular” diploma, how transfer students are taken into account, and how certain subgroups (e.g., students with disabilities, English learners, low-income students) are identified within the cohort. These and other issues challenge our ability to compare graduation rates across states, but more troubling, have created loopholes for states in calculating their rates (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Promote policies and practices that reduce harmful disparities. It is evident that Black, Hispanic, and low-income students are less likely to be on track to graduate on time and enroll in postsecondary. Greater investments need to be made in these students and their schools starting in early education, and harmful, reactive disciplinary practices – particularly out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, and law enforcement referrals – should be replaced with proactive practices and policies that keep students in school and attempt to address their underlying issues (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation). 

States should address inequities between high- and low-poverty school districts by establishing weighted funding formulas that provide more state funding to schools serving students with the greatest needs. States and districts should also work together to determine where those dollars can have the greatest impact and follow the evidence of what works, especially as they begin to develop comprehensive support and improvement plans for their lowest-performing schools. (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Align diplomas with college and career ready standards. Two recent reports on the quality of high school diplomas found mismatches between high school graduation requirements and state college admissions criteria, as well as the number and types of students earning a college and career ready diploma in the few states that offer one (Almond, 2017; Jimenez & Sargrad, 2018). The misalignment between what students need to graduate high school and what they need to be prepared for postsecondary hurts students, many of whom end up tracked into remediation courses (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

State leaders should establish diploma requirements aligned with state college and university admissions criteria, and schools and districts should ensure more students, especially those that are at the greatest disadvantage, earn a college and career ready diploma. Making a well-aligned college and career ready diploma the default diploma option can help ensure more students are on track to graduate prepared for postsecondary or career pathways (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Support schools and districts with comprehensive support and improvement plans. Districts with identified low-performing high schools must develop support and improvement plans. These plans must include evidence-based strategies and be approved and monitored by the state (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

States, with the help of researchers, should curate lists of evidence-based strategies and programs to assist districts in the development of these plans and connect schools and districts to organizations and networks that can provide necessary and individualized technical assistance. School improvement will not happen without a strategic, sustainable approach, and schools, districts, and the communities they serve will need help determining the best course of action and implementing their plans (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Avoid and eliminate practices that lower the bar for students. Over the past decade, there has been a marked increase in the use of credit recovery courses and alternative programs to move off-track students toward their diploma. While some of these courses and programs may be useful for a small subset of students who have mitigating circumstances, many of them fail to provide a rigorous education and prepare students for life beyond high school (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

States, especially those with large numbers of credit recovery schools, should examine their quality and determine whether they are helping young people or simply offering meaningless credentials. And where these programs are having success, researchers and education leaders should do more to learn what works in engaging and graduating students who often face some of the greatest challenges (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Create state specific high school graduation plans. States should develop “Path to 90 Percent On-Time High School Graduation for All Plans” that analyze which districts, schools, and students within their state will need additional supports and/or guidance on implementing customized evidence-based approaches to enable all students to graduate, on-time, prepared for postsecondary success (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Strengthen the transition from high school to postsecondary and careers. K-12 education leaders can ease the transition from high school to postsecondary and careers by creating alignment between high school and college entry requirements, helping students understand their postsecondary options and the application and financial aid process, and providing greater access to early college, career academies, and CTE coursework pathways (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Postsecondary institutions should do more to support students, particularly first generation and low-income students, both before they step onto campus and once they are there. This can include working with high schools to offer remediation courses prior to high school graduation, eliminating test score-based admission requirements, developing more structured and strategic advising and engagement opportunities for students during the summer gap and school year, particularly in the critical freshman year, and ensuring students have access to tutoring and other academic support. And as more low-income students enter postsecondary, it is important that these institutions recognize their needs and understand that financial aid packages often are not enough to cover basic expenses like food and housing (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Employers can help strengthen the transition between education and the workplace. They can increase engagement with schools by providing internships and job shadowing to ground learning in real experiences. Employers can also work with high schools and postsecondary institutions to create a more innovative last semester of high school where students can have the opportunity to have more practical, hands-on experiences (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

State-level compulsory school age requirements. In the report The Silent Epidemic, researchers observe that no state has a legal dropout age below 16, and that almost nobody drops out of school before entering high school. States set minimum and maximum compulsory age requirements to be in school. While no state has a legal dropout age below 16, the majority of states permit a student to drop out of high school when they turn 16. Typically in 10th grade, a 16-year-old student has new found authority under law to make a choice. The report’s researchers question the soundness of this policy, particularly since the U.S. guarantees, and provides substantial resources for, a public education through 12th grade. They propose that raising maximum compulsory school age requirements – specifically raising the legal dropout age to 18 – would, when coupled with well-trained staffs, more manageable caseloads, working partnerships with other government agencies to support parents and guardians who struggle to keep their children in school, and efforts to address the issues that caused students to leave school, would have a significant effect on reducing the dropout rate (Civic Enterprises, The Silent Epidemic).

Accurate data at the state and federal levels. Schools and communities cannot adequately address the dropout problem without an accurate account of it. States need to do further work to make dropout rates more accurate, tracking students within states and across state lines. And more work needs to be done to build the data systems that will allow states to collect and publish graduation and dropout rates and to monitor progress state by state over time (Civic Enterprises, The Silent Epidemic).

College- and career-ready (CCR) graduation rate. The number of students who graduated with a CCR diploma divided by the total number of graduates, which may include four-year and extended-year graduates. A CCR diploma is one that satisfies a state’s content standards for English/language arts (ELA) and mathematics by twelfth-grade graduation, generally requiring students to complete, at minimum, four years of grade-level ELA and three years of math through Algebra II or Integrated Math III (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

College- and career-ready (CCR) graduation rate. The number of students who graduated with a CCR diploma divided by the total number of graduates in the Class of 2014, which may include four-year and extended-year graduates (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

College- and career-ready (CCR) gap. The gap in attainment of a CCR diploma between (1) white students and students of color, (2) students from low-income families and students without this designation, (3) students with disabilities and those without this designation, and (4) English language learners and those without this designation (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

Leverage higher education and workforce leaders in the design of high school graduation requirements (Education Strategy Group).

Prioritize both flexibility and consistent rigor: States should maintain a streamlined set of diploma options that uphold a consistent standard of rigor, ensuring all pathways adequately prepare students for a range of high-value opportunities after high school— from college to apprenticeships to good jobs with living wages (Education Strategy Group).

Include measures of college and career readiness: States should consider a robust set of measures that indicate students’ readiness for continued education and training beyond high school, such as: earning early postsecondary credit (Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, dual credit); completing a CTE pathway; earning an industry recognized credential; completing work-based learning, including youth apprenticeship; demonstrating leadership on co/extra-curricular activities; demonstrating competency in core skills such as communication and collaboration; and/or completing community service hours (Education Strategy Group).

Create and use data to monitor and continuously improve: Develop and implement a data strategy for understanding how different student groups and geographies are meeting the graduation requirements, and report that disaggregated data publicly on an annual basis (Education Strategy Group).

Expand what students need to know and be able to do to graduate. While traditional graduation requirements are primarily grounded in content-defined course or testing requirements, competency-based education goes further. Alongside rigorous academic content, competency-based education asks students to demonstrate mastery of durable skills crucial to postsecondary and workforce readiness (KnowledgeWorks, Four Key Insights into Competency-based Graduation Requirements).

Ground advancement in mastery, not seat time. Competency-based education allows students to move at a pace that makes sense for them while making sure they have the support they need to be successful. This moves credit accumulation away from the tradition of the time-based Carnegie Unit and centers it instead on what students know. Almost all the states that we reviewed give schools and/or districts wide-ranging latitude to award credits based on mastery, with some notably going further than others (KnowledgeWorks, Four Key Insights into Competency-based Graduation Requirements).

Rethink where, when and how graduation requirements can be met. Competency-based education moves beyond the time and location constraints imposed by the Carnegie Unit and asks students to demonstrate mastery, regardless of the time, place or method that they may use for doing so. Many states have introduced policy flexibilities that codify this level of student choice (KnowledgeWorks, Four Key Insights into Competency-based Graduation Requirements).

Balance local control with reasonable state guardrails. Competency-based education moves beyond a one-size-fits-all model and seeks to personalize education for all students. While nearly every state dictates some level of baseline graduation requirements, many of the states that we reviewed balance this with considerable local flexibility in determining what students know and how they’ll demonstrate it in relation to graduation requirements (KnowledgeWorks, Four Key Insights into Competency-based Graduation Requirements).

Align high school graduation requirements to requirements for admission to state public university system (Jimenez and Sargrad, Are High School Diplomas Really a Ticket to College and Work?)

Align high school graduation requirements to college and career readiness benchmarks and indicators of a “well-rounded” education that includes coursework and other educational experiences (Jimenez and Sargrad, Are High School Diplomas Really a Ticket to College and Work?).

States ensure alignment between high school diploma requirements and state college admission standards. A recent report by the Center for American Progress (CAP) compared high school graduation requirements for each state’s standard diploma to admission requirements for that state’s public university system, and to measures of quality. According to CAP’s analysis, in nearly every state for at least one subject, there is a preparation gap between the courses required to receive a standard diploma and the courses required for admission into the state’s public four-year university system. Only two states require a 15-credit college-ready curriculum, just one state requires students to take three courses in a career pathway, and four states have aligned their high school diploma requirements with the requirements to be eligible for admission to the state public university system (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Align state’s diploma with college and career readiness standards (Education Strategy Group).

In eight states (Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming), a high school graduation test is required for students to receive a diploma. Four states (Tennessee, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia) have replaced high school graduation tests with end-of-course exams that factor into a student’s course grades (Education Strategy Group).

Several states incorporate experiences aimed at better preparing students for higher education or the workforce into their graduation requirements or “diploma pathways.” These experiences may include partaking in opportunities such as dual enrollment, industry credential programs, financial literacy courses, or career preparation courses (Education Strategy Group).

Some states, like Texas, Illinois, Alabama, California, and New Hampshire, require or provide the option for students to complete financial aid applications, such as the FAFSA, to facilitate access to higher education (Education Strategy Group).

A select few states, like Colorado, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and DC, are mandating the development of individualized learning plans tailored to students’ academic and career goals, alongside requiring transition-related tasks such as resume preparation or career exploration activities (Education Strategy Group).

In 2019, Washington state eliminated the state assessment mandate for graduation, and opted to provide a range of graduation pathway options to assess and better prepare students for college and career. These pathways include meeting graduation scores in Smarter Balanced Assessments (SBA),  earning credits through dual enrollment programs, achieving certain scores on AP/IB/Cambridge exams, meeting SAT/ACT graduation scores, completing transition courses, exploring performance-based options, combining multiple pathways, achieving standard on the ASVAB, or completing a sequence of Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses (Education Strategy Group).

Idaho students must complete a senior project to earn their diploma, demonstrating their ability to analyze, synthesize, and communicate information effectively. It includes research, thesis development using experiential or integrated project-based learning, and project presentation. Additional requirements may vary by district. Completion of a postsecondary certificate/degree or participation in an approved pre-internship/internship can also meet this requirement (Education Strategy Group).

Policymakers should align their state’s diploma with college and career readiness expectations: The high school diploma should provide a more robust signal of readiness than completion of courses alone. It should represent the state’s vision for redesigning the high school experience, with the full set of college and career experiences (and intended competencies) included. While the specific demonstrations may evolve over time, the fundamental alignment must remain constant. This approach ensures the diploma continues to signal readiness, adapting to the needs of today’s economy without losing its core purpose (Education Strategy Group, Rethinking High School Graduation Requirements).

Leverage higher education and workforce leaders in the design: It’s not enough for K-12 leaders to design high school graduation requirements in the hope that the requirements will set students up to be ready for success in college and career; higher education and workforce leaders need to be deeply engaged in the development to ensure alignment and buy-in (Education Strategy Group, Rethinking High School Graduation Requirements). 

Prioritize both flexibility and consistent rigor: States should maintain a streamlined set of diploma options that uphold a consistent standard of rigor, ensuring all pathways adequately prepare students for a range of high-value opportunities after high school— from college to apprenticeships to good jobs with living wages. And students should have a variety of ways to demonstrate readiness that is inclusive of, but not solely based on, course completion and/or assessment benchmarks. States can integrate experiential learning opportunities, including work-based learning, that help demonstrate mastery of key competencies (e.g., communications, teamwork) into diploma options, providing authentic opportunity to both demonstrate and validate readiness in contexts that will engage students (Education Strategy Group, Rethinking High School Graduation Requirements). 

Include measures of college and career readiness: States should consider a robust set of measures that indicate students’ readiness for continued education and training beyond high school, such as: earning early postsecondary credit (Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, dual credit); completing a CTE pathway; earning an industry-recognized credential; completing work-based learning, including youth apprenticeship; demonstrating leadership on co/extra-curricular activities; demonstrating competency in core skills such as communication and collaboration; and/or completing community service hours (Education Strategy Group, Rethinking High School Graduation Requirements).

Create and use data to monitor and continuously improve: Develop and implement a data strategy for understanding how different student groups and geographies are meeting the graduation requirements, and report that disaggregated data publicly on an annual basis (Education Strategy Group, Rethinking High School Graduation Requirements).

State policymakers should move from traditional high school graduation requirements which emphasize mastery of academic content standards and high school diploma attainment college and career readiness standards which prioritize both the mastery of academic content and experiential learning to support college and career readiness (Education Strategy Group, Rethinking High School Graduation Requirements).

The Education Commission of the States provides a national comparison of state policies addressing graduation requirements, including pathways, diploma types and endorsements, course and assessment requirements, as well as non-course requirements and flexibilities for students and schools. This study found: (a) At least 21 states have identified multiple diploma options or pathways to graduation in state policy; (b) At least 46 states and the District of Columbia identify minimum credit requirements to earn a standard diploma; (c) At least 44 states and the District of Columbia permit students to substitute specific courses, assessments or other experiences for existing credit requirements; (d) At least 34 states require students to complete specific assessments as a graduation requirement (Education Commission of the States, 50-State Comparison).

State high school graduation requirements should align with their CCR standards. The misalignment of high school graduation requirements and CCR standards diminishes the value of the high school diploma and sends the message that all students are not expected to meet the rigor required with the CCR standards (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

States with CCR diplomas should make the CCR diploma the default diploma for all students. As seen in the cases of Arkansas, Indiana, and Texas, when states automatically place students in a CCR diploma pathway—coupled with the necessary support—traditionally underserved students perform better and the gaps between student subgroups shrink (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

All states with multiple pathways should track and publicly report diploma pathway data disaggregated by diploma type and by student subgroup. Moreover, states should track this data during and through completion of postsecondary education, as Indiana does, and report the data in state and local report cards under ESSA. This will enable parents and the public to see which pathways best prepare students for postsecondary education (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

States also should track and publicly report in the aggregate and disaggregated by student subgroup data pertaining to students graduating from high school with waiver diplomas (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

School districts should track and publicly report diploma pathway data disaggregated by diploma type and student subgroup, both districtwide and by school (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

School districts and individual secondary schools (including middle and high schools) should educate parents and students about the long-term postsecondary outcomes of students who select less rigorous diploma pathways so that parents clearly understand the likely outcomes of all possible diploma options (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

For accountability requirements under ESSA, states should consider using the percentage of students enrolled in postsecondary education without the need for remediation and the percentage of students graduating with a CCR diploma as indicators of school quality or student success. This action, coupled with this report’s recommendation for disaggregating diploma pathways data during and through completion of postsecondary education, would provide meaningful data for parents and communities while ensuring the data is acted upon as part of the state’s accountability system (Alliance for Excellent Education, Paper Thin).

Ensure clear alignment of the requirements for high school graduation with the admissions requirements for state public university system. This will require the collaboration and coordination of the high school and state college systems in the areas of course type, amount, and curricula. One subject area that needs careful consideration is science, since misalignment can occur because public universities require laboratory science and providing this type of science may be particularly challenging for under-resourced school districts.

Require completion of the 15-credit college-ready coursework required by most public university systems to receive a standard high school diploma. Research shows that non college-goers have better life outcomes if they take a rigorous high school course load regardless of college enrollment. This includes all of the following courses, or demonstrations of mastery of their equivalents: three years of math up to Algebra II; four years of English composition; three years each of social studies and science, including biology, chemistry, physics, with laboratory experience; and two years of the same foreign language. Any advanced or honors diplomas offered by states should exceed these expectations and could align with requirements for math and science college majors.

Offer an additional career-readiness diploma for students that choose not to attend a four-year university. This diploma should require at least three CTE courses in the same field in addition to the 15-credit college-ready coursework. States should make these courses available to all students and ensure that they are in in-demand fields within the local labor market that lead to a well-paying job.

Publish the graduation rates disaggregated by student group and diploma type, for example, the race, ethnicity, income, and disability status of students who received a standard high school diploma and other diploma options. Also, states report the disaggregated postsecondary outcomes for each diploma type, including course-taking patterns, credit accumulation, and college graduation rates.

Ensure that all districts have the resources and educator workforce to offer the courses and preparation needed for students to meet the requirements for both standard and career readiness-diplomas, especially in math, science, and foreign language. This could include using technology solutions to enhance course access for students.

Develop and maintain systems to monitor districts on appropriate methods to collect and analyze graduation requirement completion. Such systems would help to ensure the integrity and accuracy of the data (Center for American Progress, Are High School Diplomas Really a Ticket to College and Work?)

Children who missed 11 or more days of school per year due to illness or injury (Kids Count).

Percentage of students who are present for more than 90 percent of their enrolled days, excluding students enrolled for fewer than 90 days. The EW Framework selected an attendance rate of 90 percent as a minimum recommendation to align with the most commonly reported measure of chronic absenteeism, used by Attendance Works and the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) (Education-to-Workforce).

Students demonstrate satisfactory attendance by being present for 96 percent or more of enrolled days (Education-to-Workforce).

Students who are “at risk” are identified as being present for 91 to 95 percent of enrolled days (Education-to-Workforce).

The recent release of national data for the 2022-23 school year by the U.S. Department of Education shows that chronic absence slightly decreased from its high of 30% of students in the 2021-22 school year to 28% in 2022-23. While modest improvements in reducing chronic absence are occurring, it remains a challenge nearly everywhere (Attendance Works, Continued High Levels of Chronic Absence).

Percentage of students attending schools with 20% or higher levels of chronic absence. In 2022-23, two years after schools reopened for in-person learning, a majority of students still attended schools with 20% or higher levels of chronic absence. This serious absenteeism is in stark contrast to 2019, when slightly over a quarter of schools experienced such high levels of chronic absence (Attendance Works, Continued High Levels of Chronic Absence).

Level of chronic absence per campus – Low Chronic Absence (0 – 4.9%); Modest Chronic Absence (5 – 9.9%); Significant Chronic Absence (10 – 19.9%); High Chronic Absence (20 – 29.9%); Extreme Chronic Absence (30%+) (Attendance Works, Continued High Levels of Chronic Absence).

Level of chronic absence per campus, disaggregated by Elementary, Middle, and High School levels  (Attendance Works, Continued High Levels of Chronic Absence).

Level of chronic absence per campus, disaggregated by campus’ level of economic disadvantage (defined as percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals) (Attendance Works, Continued High Levels of Chronic Absence).

Chronic absence or failure in middle school indicates high risk for eventual dropout. There is a growing body of work, across multiple cities, that consistently shows middle school attendance and course failures are strong predictors of whether students eventually obtain a high school diploma (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

In Philadelphia, Neild and Balfanz (2006) examined eighth-grade indicators, while Balfanz, Herzog, and MacIver (2007) examined sixth-grade indicators to determine whether they could identify students with a very high probability of eventual dropout. At both grade levels, they found that students with Fs in math or English, less than 80 percent attendance, or an out-of-school suspension (in the sixth-grade study) were at high risk of not graduating. Students’ demographic characteristics and their test scores were not as predictive as grades and attendance (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

In New York, Kieffer and Marinell (2012) examined students’ fourth-grade test scores and attendance as predictors of being on-track for graduation in ninth grade, as well as changes in attendance and test scores from fourth through eighth grade. Course grades were not included in this study, but researchers found that both attendance and test scores in the early grades were predictive of being off-track for graduation in the ninth-grade year, along with declining attendance or test scores. Declining attendance through the middle grade years was particularly indicative that students were at elevated risk of not graduating (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

In Baltimore, the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC, 2011) showed that chronic absenteeism, course failures, and suspensions in sixth grade were strongly associated with not graduating within one year of the expected date. Chronic absenteeism had the strongest relationship of all the indicators (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Chronic absenteeism/ average daily attendance (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

K-12 chronic absenteeism (California Department of Education & WestEd, Cradle-to-Career Data System Public Data Definitions).

K-12 days of attendance (California Department of Education & WestEd, Cradle-to-Career Data System Public Data Definitions).

K-12 days of expected attendance (California Department of Education & WestEd, Cradle-to-Career Data System Public Data Definitions).

Percentage of students who are present for more than 90% of their enrolled days, excluding students enrolled for fewer than 90 days (Education-to-Workforce Framework).

Percentage of students with less than 10 absences in a school year (or less than 5 percent of the school year) (National Education Association).

Proportion of K-12 chronically absent students (California Department of Education & WestEd, Cradle-to-Career Data System Public Data Definitions).

Average number of days children from focal populations were present in preschool (STEP Forward with Data Framework).

Percentage of enrolled preschool children from focal populations who are present for more than 90% of their enrolled days, excluding children enrolled for less than three months (STEP Forward with Data Framework).

Federal, state, and local governments will be essential in the development and funding of efforts to expand PreK, to develop integrated PreK-3rd initiatives, to reduce chronic absenteeism, to expand summer learning opportunities, to assure that schools provide high-quality instruction, and to provide access to health insurance and to effective opportunities for parents to increase their educational levels and human capital (Annie E. Casey, Double Jeopardy).

Build Awareness: Educate the school community (staff, students, parents and partners) about chronic absence, what it is and why addressing it matters for ensuring an equal opportunity to learn (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Track Daily Attendance: Require recording attendance daily in elementary schools and by class in secondary schools, and differentiating whether absences occur during in-person or any virtual learning in student information systems (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Establish a Common Definition of a Day of Attendance: Student attendance should measure exposure to instruction across all modes of learning, including in-person and any virtual learning options. EDFacts supports the following definition: a student counts as present for a full day of instruction if they attend school for at least .5 of the day (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Monitor Chronic Absence: Monitor and publish data on how many students are missing 10% of school for any reason. Share data broken down by school, grade, race/ethnicity, income, home language, disability, foster care, experiencing homelessness, ZIP code and mode of learning. Use legislation to define chronic absence and require public reporting (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Invest in Accessible and Usable Data Systems: Ensure the availability of meaningful and actionable attendance metrics that can be collected and analyzed without undue burden to educators (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Report on Type of Absences: Publish data broken down by excused, unexcused or suspension and disaggregated by school, grade, race/ethnicity, income, home language, disability, foster care, experiencing homelessness, ZIP code and mode of learning (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Expand Metrics for Attendance and Engagement: Explore the adoption of collecting and reporting on metrics to ensure an equal opportunity to learn and attend school. This includes analyzing attendance data in conjunction with data on the percent and number of students enrolled, students with up-to-date contact information and students with or without connectivity (i.e., access to the internet, broadband, computers, tablets). Support analysis of data by school, grade and student group (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Provide Enriching and Engaging Opportunities for Students: Ensure that students – especially those who are chronically absent – benefit from a whole child approach that includes enrichment activities and addresses the health and educational needs of students (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Establish a Multi-Tiered System of Supports: Adopt a multi-tiered approach to reducing student absenteeism that begins with foundational supports, prevention and early intervention (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Adopt a Cross-Sector Approach: Forge partnerships with youth-serving systems (education, health, housing, justice, employment, etc.) to effectively deliver a whole child education, positive youth development and workforce readiness (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Promote Fair Attendance Practices: Research has found significant disparities in the labeling of absences as unexcused versus excused, as well as which students are suspended from school. Use such data to identify and eliminate inequitable practices before they contribute to disengagement and dropping out of school (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Use Alternatives to Legal Action: Adopt a positive, problem-solving and systemic approach to reducing student absenteeism. A punitive approach does not solve barriers to attendance and can be especially harmful when students are already experiencing trauma. Enact legislative changes that eliminate ineffective punitive responses to student absenteeism in truancy laws (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Invest in Long-Term Recovery: Use chronic absence data along with other indicators to identify where there are instructional losses and to allocate internal resources (experienced teachers, professional development, instructional supports, etc.) as well as external resources (tutoring, expanded learning, community school strategies, technology, health services, etc.) to those in greater need. Build district capacity to sustain reductions in chronic absence. Evaluate the impact of investments in engagement and recovery and sustain strategies proven to be effective (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Track attendance in longitudinal student data systems (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Calculate and report on chronic absence by district, school, grade and student subgroup (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Establish school and district attendance teams to review chronic absence, in addition to other key attendance data, such as average daily attendance, truancy and satisfactory attendance (missing 5% or less of school), to inform strategies designed to reduce absenteeism (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Address improved attendance in school improvement plans (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Support the creation of multi-tiered systems that begin with prevention and early intervention (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Use the prevalence of chronic absence to identify schools in need of community resources (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Use chronic absence data to allocate state resources to address barriers to attendance (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Promote effective approaches to reducing student absenteeism, using absentee data to problem solve rather than punish. (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Adopt effective behavior management that reduces reliance on school suspensions. (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Adopt, monitor and report expanded metrics for monitoring attendance and engagement (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

Prior Year Chronic Absence: Students who missed 10% of school in the prior school year should be prioritized for extra outreach and support for the current school year and the upcoming summer. A wealth of research shows that chronic absence in the prior year indicates students, starting in kindergarten, were more likely to fall behind in reading, experience lower achievement in middle school and less likely to graduate from high school. Keep in mind that large numbers of students chronically absent in a particular grade, student group or school can indicate a need for intensified investments in foundational and tier 1 supports, not just expanded early intervention. See Attendance Works free data tools for help on using your data (Attendance Works, Expanded Metrics).

Attendance (in-person and remote): Schools and districts should take attendance daily in a consistent manner, and differentiate in student information systems whether absences are occurring during in- person or remote learning. Establish a common definition of what constitutes a day of attendance during remote as well as in-person instruction. The current U.S. EDFacts definition is that a student counts as present for a full day of instruction if they attend school for at least .5 of the day (Attendance Works, Expanded Metrics).

Data on absences and attendance can be used to notice which students have satisfactory attendance (missing less than 5% of school), have at-risk attendance (miss 5-9% of school), moderate chronic absence (miss 10-19% of school), or are experiencing severe chronic absence (missing 20% or more of school). Knowing which and how many students fall into these attendance bands can inform school and district strategies for reducing chronic absence, and also help indicate the level of support that may be needed for individual students and families as well as groups of students
 (Attendance Works, Expanded Metrics).

Attendance during the first month: Schools and districts should, within the first two weeks of school, identify which students have not shown up yet for the current school year.  Analysis of chronic absence data demonstrates that a low level of student participation in the first weeks of school predicts later absenteeism. Utilize this information to organize an outreach effort to understand why students and families are not participating (Attendance Works, Expanded Metrics).

Relationships: Research and experience show that strong reciprocal relationships with caring adults and educators are key to keeping students and families involved in school and learning. Educators can make a huge difference by using both in-person and virtual relationship-building strategies with students and their families. See our suggestions for activities in our Back-to-School calendar of activities for elementary grades and for secondary grades (find the calendars on this page), as well as the Spring Attendance Slump page (Attendance Works, Expanded Metrics).

When educators take attendance they can do so with intentionality and in a caring manner. For example, if a student is chronically absent, educators can make an extra effort to welcome them back. Educators can also recognize good and improved attendance and provide social-emotional check-ins at either the classroom or with individual students. Teachers can also encourage connections using group assignments and online chats to keep students engaged with each other. Virtual connections (phone calls, texts and emails) can be essential tools for sustaining and deepening relationships and communication if students are unable to show up to class (Attendance Works, Expanded Metrics).

Strategies aimed at attendance improvement could likely have as much or more of a pay-off for high school and college graduation as efforts aimed at improving test scores. While there is considerable local and national focus on improving test scores as a mechanism for improving educational attainment, attendance is often seen as a low-level goal. Yet, middle school attendance is much more predictive of passing high school classes than test scores and is as predictive of high grades in high school as test scores. High school outcomes are also higher for students who improve their attendance during the middle grades than for students who improve their test scores. Students who end their middle grade years with strong attendance are much more likely to do well in their high school courses than students with weak attendance, regardless of what their attendance or test scores were in fifth grade (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Ensure access to preventative health care, especially as children enter school. This may include not only expanding enrollment in children’s health insurance, but also providing children with immunizations and comprehensive screenings (vision, dental, hearing, and developmental delays) (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

Offer a high-quality education that responds to the diverse learning styles and needs of students. When the educational experience engages children’s interest and meets their learning needs, families are much more likely to feel that going to school is worthwhile (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

Implement early warning systems to identify problems, such as chronic absence, to allow for timely intervention (Alliance for Early Success).

Engage families of all backgrounds in their children’s education. Attendance improves when schools create a wide variety of opportunities for families from all backgrounds to support their child’s learning (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

Educate parents about the importance of attendance (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

Encourage families to help each other attend school (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

Offer incentives for excellent attendance to all children, such as materials (pencils or tows), acknowledgement in class or at morning assembly, extra recess time, opportunities to dress casually if uniforms are required (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

Conduct early outreach to families with poor attendance and, if appropriate, case management to address social, medical, economic, and academic needs (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

Coordinate public-agency and, if needed, legal response for families in crisis (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP): A home visiting program that identifies and partners with families to improve student attendance and family engagement (Connecticut Department of Education).

School employs a tiered approach to improving attendance by promoting positive conditions for learning (Attendance Works).

Creating a culture of attendance by taking a positive, not punitive, approach to absenteeism that is centered on belonging and engagement, and helping everyone to understand why daily attendance matters in pre-K through 12th grade (Attendance Works).

Avoid Funding Cliffs: Introduce policies that protect schools and school districts that have experienced significant drops in enrollment and attendance against major losses in funding. The funding should provide sufficient resources for schools to support students and families (Attendance Works, Policy Recommendations).

Policy makers can adopt a standard definition of chronic absence (missing 10% or more of school), whether the school is in person, virtual or a blend, support daily attendance taking (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can ensure the state has a longitudinal student database—ideally beginning in preschool—that tracks attendance for each student using a unique identifier (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can make chronic absence a policy priority and direct districts and schools to identify contributing factors to student absenteeism (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can promote the adoption of learning opportunity metrics (contact, connectivity, attendance, participation and relationships) in addition to chronic absence (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can require that school improvement plans include prevention-oriented strategies to reduce chronic absence and improve attendance (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can sponsor legislation that sets a common definition for chronic absence, promotes monitoring and public reporting of data, and requires schools and districts to address high levels of chronic absence. (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can support data sharing between education, health and social service agencies and other community-based youth and family organizations to target intervention efforts. (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can ensure adequate and equitable resources so that all students have a substantially similar opportunity to meet performance standards regardless of geographic location, and that state and local funding are sufficient to reasonably expect that all students can meet academic performance standards (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can coordinate and secure resources to eliminate the digital divide (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can use chronic absence data to identify districts, schools, student populations and communities that need additional resources to remove barriers to attendance and ensure positive conditions of learning. (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Policy makers can build public awareness and consensus about addressing chronic absence (Attendance Works, Policy Makers).

Advocate for a standard definition of chronic absence: missing 10% or more of school, whether the school is in person, virtual or a blend, and support the public and timely release of data (Attendance Works, Policy Advocacy).

States establish standards for accountability, adopt regulations and provide guidance that sets expectations for school districts and schools to achieve (Attendance Works).

States ensure consistent and comparable data across schools and districts by specifying how attendance concepts are defined and offering guidance on how to collect accurate data (Attendance Works).

The U.S. Department of Education collects and reports chronic absence data. States must track chronic absenteeism as a school quality indicator, along with more traditional academic measures for accountability in the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA) (Attendance Works).

In November 2023, South Dakota offered grants for districts to spend on efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism. Money from the grants will fund transportation; mentoring and tutoring programs; student, family, and community engagement activities. (South Dakota DOE).

Administrators in the 200-student Leola district in South Dakota began investing in Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, as chronic absenteeism grew during the pandemic. PBIS involves identifying students at high risk of failing or dropping out and developing systems to support them. With a nearly $200,000 grant from the state, the district hired a full-time employee who works with students on credit recovery and develops programming to help reduce absenteeism. The grant also helped pay for three staff members to participate in a “check and connect” mentoring program that pairs adults with students to help them return to regularly attending school. (EdWeek, Why Chronic Absenteeism is a Budget Problem).

Sarah Lenhoff, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Wayne State University, argues against tying school funding to Average Daily Attendance. Punishing districts where students are chronically absent only makes the problem more likely to recur, Lenhoff says. Instead, she’d prefer to see states require districts to allocate a certain funding amount toward evidence-based programs that address chronic absenteeism. (EdWeek, Why Chronic Absenteeism is a Budget Problem).

Ericka Weathers, an assistant professor of education policy at the University of Pennsylvania, argues against state policies that aim to discourage chronic absenteeism but that might end up exacerbating it. For example, some states have truancy laws that require that students be suspended or that parents go to court or even jail if their children don’t show up to school. Taking children away from school, or taking away the option for parents to take their children to school, could end up costing the district in future years. “If money’s taken away because kids are absent, it’s leaving less money to tackle the problems in a more restorative, preventative, and less reactive approach,” Weathers said. (EdWeek, Why Chronic Absenteeism is a Budget Problem).

Percentage of children who do not experience any of the following: in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, disciplinary use of restraint and seclusion, or expulsions. (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of children who often or very often exhibit positive social behaviors when interacting with their peers (Rhode Island Kids Count).

Percentage of students who can function appropriately in group learning activities, participating actively, taking turns, following directions and working cooperatively (Rhode Island Kids Count).

Percentage of children who do not experience any of the following: in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, disciplinary use of restraint and seclusion, or expulsions (Education-to-Workforce Framework).

In using Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), ensure some student groups are not rewarded disproportionately to other student groups.  Ensure equity across gender, race, ethnicity, economic status, disability status, etc. (Promise Partnership Utah).

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Research-based strategies for promoting positive behavior through school-wide interventions (PBIS).

Restorative Justice in Schools: strategies for non-punitive discipline and fostering a positive school climate (National Association of Community and Restorative Justice).

National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments offers research and tools on school climate, student behavior, and emotional well-being (NCSSLE).

Explicit and integrated social-emotional skill building for students (CASEL).

Failure rates in core courses to identify students who might be at risk (Promise Partnership Utah).

Grade 9 students are prepared to transition to high school and are on track to graduate on time. Percentage of students in grade 9 with a GPA of 2.5 or higher, no Ds or Fs in English language arts or math, attendance of 96 percent or higher, and no in- or out-of-school suspensions or expulsions (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of students in grades 6–8 with a GPA of 3.0 or higher (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of students in grades 9–12 with a GPA of 3.0 or higher (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of students in grade 8 who meet grade-level standards in reading/English language arts and math as measured by state standardized tests (Education-to-Workforce).

High school students earn course grades necessary to gain admission to college (Education-to-Workforce).

Children ages 6 to 17 who repeated one or more grades since starting kindergarten. (Kids Count).

Proficient reading by third grade. Results of a longitudinal study of nearly 4,000 students find that those who don’t read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to leave school without a diploma than proficient readers.  For the worst readers, those who couldn’t master even the basic skills by third grade, the rate is nearly six times greater (Annie E. Casey, Double Jeopardy).

Student grades and course failures are best predicted by earlier grades and attendance. High school test scores are strongly predicted by earlier test scores. Background characteristics, study habits, and grit are not predictive of high school performance, once students’ middle grade GPAs, attendance, and test scores are taken into account. Background characteristics (e.g., race, gender, neighborhood poverty, free lunch eligibility, being old-for-grade, and special education status) are all related to high school grades and test scores, but they do not tell us any more about who will pass, get good grades, or score well on tests in high school, once we take into account students’ eighth-grade GPAs, attendance, and test scores. Students’ misconduct and suspension records in middle school are also not predictive of high school performance, once we take into account their attendance, grades, and test scores. Likewise, students’ reports of their study habits in eighth grade, and their responses on a grit scale measuring perseverance in the middle grades, are not predictive of their performance in high school beyond their current grades and attendance (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Middle school test scores are much weaker indicators of high school grades than middle school grades and attendance. Many high school interventions are based on test score proficiency—meeting standards on tests, or reading at grade level. This is the reasoning behind programs that offer support based on test scores, such as double dose coursing or grade promotion standards in middle school that delay students’ entry into ninth grade based on test scores. However, while middle grade test scores are moderately related to passing classes and getting high grades in high school, most of the relationship between test scores and later performance seems to work through students’ grades. That is, students with strong test scores are more likely to get good grades than students with weak test scores, but it is the grades that matter for later outcomes. Grades are based on a number of factors in addition to tested skills, including attendance, assignment completion, and quality of work over the course of an entire semester. Once we account for students’ GPAs and attendance in the middle grades, their test scores do not provide much additional information about their likelihood of passing their classes in high school, and they only improve the prediction of getting high grades (As and Bs) in high school among students who also have high grades in middle school (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Students need at least a 3.0 GPA in the middle grades to be college-bound; a 3.5 GPA gives them at least a 50 percent chance. Prior research on high school predictors of college graduation shows that, by far, the most important predictor of college graduation is students’ high school GPA. Only students who graduate from high school with at least a B average have a moderate chance of earning a college degree. Parallel to this finding about college, only those students who leave eighth grade with GPAs of at least 3.0 have a moderate chance of earning a 3.0 GPA in high school. Students who plan to go to college need to get the message that college requires very strong levels of effort and engagement in both the middle grades and in high school (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Eighth-grade GPA combined with attendance provides a better prediction of who will be on-track at the end of ninth grade than either indicator alone; adding other indicators only marginally improves the prediction (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Eighth-grade core GPA is also the best predictor of earning high grades, followed by test scores and attendance. The best indicators of students’ readiness to excel in high school classes are similar to those predicting the likelihood that students will pass their high school classes (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Prior Research Shows Passing Classes and Earning High Grades in High School Are Essential for High School and College Graduation, While Test Scores Matter for College Access There is often a perception that students’ performance on tests is what matters for high school and college graduation. While there are innumerable studies showing significant relationships between test scores and educational attainment, grades are more strongly and consistently found to be related to educational attainment than test scores (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

High grades in high school are essential for college graduation. While passing courses is critical for graduating from high school, it is not enough to be ready for college. Students who are likely to succeed in college are not merely passing courses; they are working hard and earning high grades. Research in Chicago, and across the country, has found that students’ high school grades are, by far, the most important predictor of getting into college and eventually graduating—more important than ACT or SAT scores or high school coursework (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

In California, Kurlaender, Reardon, and Jackson (2008) examined the relationships between seventh-grade achievement indicators and high school graduation. They found that, among indicators studied, course failures in middle school were the strongest predictors of eventually not graduating among those they studied. Test scores, retention in the elementary and middle grades, and the timing of when students took algebra were similarly related to graduation—but not as strongly as course failures (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Eighth-grade students with less than 80 percent attendance or GPAs less than 1.0 are at extremely high risk of being off-track in ninth grade. These are students with extremely low grades and attendance in the middle grades. Eighth-grade students with C/D averages and chronic absence in middle school are at high risk of being off-track in ninth grade. These students are more likely to be off-track than on-track in high school; they have a 50 to 75 percent likelihood of being off-track (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

High School GPA as an indicator of Academic Preparation: Considered one of the best predictors of college entrance, persistence, and completion through correlation and regression analysis. Captures academic performance (cognitive) and personal attributes (noncognitive), such as motivation and perseverance. However, calculating the measure requires a GPA threshold to define “college-ready,” and though there is a linear relationship between high school GPA and college outcomes, there are no clear GPA cutoffs to indicate readiness. (An analysis of Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) data finds that more than 50 percent of entering postsecondary students with a high school GPA of 3.0 or above earn a credential. However, this cutoff varies by credential type, making it difficult to set one standard. Among associates-seeking students, the high school GPA threshold for reaching this 50 percent attainment rate is higher (3.5), while it is lower for bachelor’s-seeking students (2.5).  Some studies, such as Geiser & Santelices (2007) and Roderick, Nagota, & Coca (2009) show that a threshold of 3.0 is more predictive for student outcomes than other thresholds, but variability by credential level steers the IHEP framework away from setting a specific standard. (IHEP, Toward Convergence).

The University of Chicago Consortium of School Research found that freshman GPA is a statistically valid indicator and predictor of future student academic success. It is strongly predictive of eleventh-grade GPA, which plays a big role in college admission. Freshman GPA also predicts high school graduation, college enrollment, and one-year college retention, and, in fact, is a much better predictor of these important milestones than test scores. It is a strong “leading indicator” of subsequent positive outcomes, suggesting that students who have strong freshman grades are likely to do well academically in the future. This evidence also supports a focus on students who are struggling in ninth grade, who may need additional help to overcome a poor freshman year and improve the likelihood of better academic outcomes in the future. (UChicago Consortium, The Predictive Power of Ninth-Grade GPA).

The percentage of students who have achieved at least a 3.0 GPA at the end of their 9th-grade year. To build a strong foundation for postsecondary success, it is essential that students start high school on the right foot. Numerous studies have shown that GPA is a better predictor of postsecondary success and less discriminatory than standardized test scores.16 And 9th-grade GPA, in particular, has been found to be predictive of 11th-grade GPA, postsecondary enrollment, and first-year retention. High schools may use GPA to qualify students for advanced coursework (such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and dual enrollment), and colleges consider GPA when making admissions, scholarship, and course placement decisions. Given these wide ranging implications, the significance of achieving a strong high school GPA is paramount. (EdStrategy, From Tails to Heads).

Average course academic grades. (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Average performance on portfolio-alternative assessments. (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Share of students on track to graduate (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Share of students who are over/under credited (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Student academic proficiency measured by standardized assessments in math and literacy (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Student academic growth measured by standardized assessments in math and literacy • Average course academic grades (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Average science performance (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Average performance on portfolio-alternative assessments (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Intervention in middle school: For students with 80 percent or lower attendance in the middle grades or a GPA of less than 1.0 in the middle grades, interventions are strongly warranted while they are in middle school. These students are extremely likely to drop out of school, with a risk greater than 75 percent, unless they experience a substantial change in the way in which they are engaging with school. Students earning a mix of Cs and Ds or below, or who attend less than 90 percent of the time in middle school, have less than a 50 percent chance of being on-track when they get to high school. Moderate interventions might be sufficient to get them to succeed in high school (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

High school transition: In the summer before ninth grade, high schools can use students’ grades and attendance from middle school to identify students for whom it is most critical to establish trusting relationships. Students with eighth-grade attendance less than 90 percent or a GPA of less than 2.0 in eighth grade are very likely to need support during the ninth-grade year. Schools could reach out to these students and their parents to establish positive connections before problems occur (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Maintaining high expectations: Students need to know that college readiness means at least B-level work, starting at least in the middle grades. If students do not have at least a B average in the middle grades, they are extremely unlikely to end high school with at least a B average. Students with lower than a 3.0 high school GPA have a slim chance of graduating from college, and they will be ineligible to attend many colleges or receive most scholarships. Middle schools can reach out to families of students who are not making high grades to let them know that they are not on-track to be ready for college (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College). 

School-family communication: Schools can make sure that teachers are keeping up with their grading in the parent portal and have clear grading policies, so that students and parents always know where their grades stand and can notice if they slip. For some students, this knowledge may be enough to motivate higher work effort. For others, it may take support from teachers, mentors, or support staff to reach out, determine why students’ grades are low, and then develop strategies to support their particular needs (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Class structure: The ways that teachers structure their classes can influence whether students put in strong or weak work effort. Teaching is a complex task. Teachers need to design methods for engaging students around challenging academic work, even though students enter their class with different skill levels, different histories of success, and their own issues and priorities. The ways in which teachers implement their lessons have implications for the degree to which their students put in effort. Clear grading standards and constant feedback can provide motivation to keep up with work (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Student mindsets: Teachers can modify their instruction and their interactions with students to encourage positive mindsets about the work. When a student is not putting in effort, a teacher or other adult could find out why they are putting in little effort—what it is about the class or about students’ own experiences and skills that is preventing strong performance. Teachers also can design courses so that they intentionally develop students’ learning strategies, such as metacognitive skills and study habits, as part of teaching their course subject. Explicitly teaching strategies to do better in class can pay off with better success on tests and assignments in that class and in future work (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Consistent attendance: Attendance is critical, at least as important as test performance. It may seem like a low bar—get students to come to school every day. Efforts aimed at 100 percent attendance could actually have substantial pay-off in students’ eventual success in college and careers, but problems with attendance are often dismissed as being of low importance compared to progress on tests. Figuring out how to get to school when other factors may interfere—from family sickness and transportation issues, to the pull of more interesting activities—is not of secondary importance to improving test scores (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Prioritize learning growth over benchmark scores: Schools and the public are concerned about meeting ACT benchmarks, but reaching benchmark scores is less important for college readiness than maximizing learning growth and getting good grades. Students need classroom environments that encourage them to put in strong effort, earn high grades, and show high rates of learning growth. If students are coming into high school with strong middle school records and not performing well, high schools need to find out why (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Research has shown that students learn more when they are in orderly environments with high expectations. Schools can achieve this in multiple ways. For academically strong students, they can run honors classes, IB programs, and advanced classes. Or they can put sufficient support staff in place in mixed-ability classes so that expectations are high for all students, and so that teachers are able to provide differentiated instruction in an orderly environment. They can make sure that students with low achievement have sufficient support, time for learning, and student centered pedagogy to enable them to be engaged and successful in challenging classes. Students tend to put in more effort and earn higher grades when teachers are attuned to their academic needs and provide support as soon as they start to struggle (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Early Warning Monitoring Systems: Monitoring systems could help students get the right level and kinds of support to keep them on-track for high school and college graduation. High schools in Chicago have made extraordinary progress over the last five years in improving student performance in the ninth grade by using early warning indicators to support student performance in their classes. Ninth grade on-track rates have increased from around 59 percent to close to 85 percent in just a few years. In many high schools, educators have designed systems for reaching out to ninth-grade students whose absences are high or grades are low to find out why they are struggling and figure out ways to help them perform better (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

In recent years, districts and charter networks across the country have recognized the importance of ensuring that students start their high school careers on the right foot and, in response, have designed and implemented programs targeted specifically towards 9th graders. For example, as part of the To & Through Project, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) partnered with the University of Chicago to conduct rigorous research on the factors that impact college success for the district’s students. They found that students who were “on track” during their freshman year (defined as earning at least five course credits and failing no more than one semester of a core course) were three times more likely to graduate from high school than their offtrack peers, and 9th-grade GPA was nearly twice as predictive of high school graduation as standardized test scores. Leveraging these findings, CPS developed a rapid reporting system to alert schools of 9th-grade students with low grades, and some schools appointed “on-track coaches” to intervene with tutoring programs, peer mentors, and after-school help sessions. CPS also hosts a month-long “Freshman Connection” for students who may be at risk of not graduating. The program features half-day lessons on topics such as organization and goal-setting, as well as academic instruction in English language arts and mathematics. As a result, freshman on-track rates have increased from 65 percent in 2008–2009 to 89 percent in 2017–2018 (EdStrategy, From Tails to Heads).

Uncommon Schools, a charter network in New York and New Jersey, developed a program called “Target 3.0,” a mandatory class to boost the grade point averages of all students with a GPA below a 2.5. Uncommon developed the program after analyzing their data and recognizing that “getting above a 3.0 GPA was very significantly correlated with future college success.” With 54 percent of their alumni earning a bachelor’s degree within six years, Uncommon predicts that they will close the college graduation gap between low- and high-income students within the next four years, with the goal of 70 percent of students attaining a postsecondary degree within the next six years. 

Percentage of first-time grade 9 students who complete Algebra I or an equivalent course by the end of their 9th-grade year. Completion of Algebra I by grade 9 is highly predictive of later outcomes, including high school graduation and success in college, and proficiency in algebra is linked to job readiness and higher earnings once students enter the workforce (Education-to-Workforce).

Rate of on-time enrollment in pre-algebra and algebra (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Implement a curriculum that prepares all students for college and includes opportunities for college-level work for advanced students. This includes providing courses that are required for entry into a two- or four-year college and providing rigorous academic coursework that prepares students for the demands of college. Recommended courses include four years of English, at least three years of mathematics, two to three years of science and social studies, and one to two years of a foreign language. The What Works Clearinghouse panel recommends that at a minimum, all students should pass Algebra I by the end of their 9th-grade year. (What Works Clearinghouse, Helping Students Navigate the Path to College).

Texas Senate Bill 2124 requires school districts to automatically enroll sixth-grade students who demonstrate high performance in fifth-grade math into advanced math courses, such as an Algebra I pathway. Families are notified and may opt out, but written consent is required to remove a student. The policy aims to expand access to advanced coursework, especially for underrepresented students, by shifting from an opt-in to an opt-out model (Texas Education Agency).

Grade 9 students are on track to graduate high school in four years, enroll in postsecondary education, and succeed in their first year of postsecondary education. Grade 9 is a foundational year on students’ paths to on-time high school graduation and postsecondary education. For example, grade point average (GPA) in grade 9 predicts GPA in grade 11, which plays a role in college admissions and predicts students’ postsecondary enrollment and first year postsecondary retention (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of students in grade 9 with a GPA of 3.0 or higher, no Ds or Fs in English language arts or math, attendance of 96 percent or higher, and no in- or out-of-school suspensions or expulsions (Education-to-Workforce).

Middle grade attendance and grades can be used to identify a set of students who are at very high risk of failing classes and being off-track in high school, and many of these students can be identified by at least as early as sixth grade. Students with a very high risk of failure in high school are chronically absent in the middle grades or are already receiving Fs in their classes in the middle grades. Many of the students who are at high risk of ninth-grade failure can be identified by at least as early as sixth grade, although some fall into this group as their attendance declines through the middle grade years. Without a dramatic change in their educational experience, these students have very little chance of graduating from high school; they and their future teachers are set up for failure (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

While some students can be identified as at high risk of failing in high school, many other students who fail their ninth-grade classes in Chicago do not show signs of being in academic trouble in the middle grade years. The majority of students who fail their ninth-grade courses, and are off-track for graduation in Chicago, cannot be identified precisely in middle school. While there are calls for early identification of dropouts in middle school, the change in context over the transition to high school makes it difficult to predict exactly who will fail in ninth grade, beyond the students with very high risk. Once students start to show signs of struggle in ninth grade, with absence from classes or low grades, they become at high risk of not graduating (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Students often leave the middle grades looking like they are prepared to do very well in high school, but their grades and attendance drop dramatically in ninth grade. Students without exceptionally high performance in middle school are unlikely to get high grades in high school, and even having a very strong record in middle school does not ensure a student of high grades in high school. In fact, 40 percent of students who left eighth grade with As or Bs in their classes and ISAT test scores of 310 (exceeding standards) in math earned a C or lower in their ninth-grade math class. Students who enter high school with strong records but no longer perform well in high school are another group of students ripe for intervention—intervention to make sure they reach their college potential (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

The ninth-grade on-track indicator simply shows whether students are making sufficient progress in ninth grade to be likely to graduate. A student is on-track if she ends ninth grade with at least five full-year credits and no more than one semester F in a core course (English, math, science, or social science). Ninth-grade on-track is highly predictive of eventual graduation (80 percent correct prediction). It is more predictive of graduation than any other middle or high school predictor, other than the combinations of predictors that include twelfth-grade performance (i.e., those that are measured during the year of graduation, rather than several years prior), based on comparisons of studies from across the country (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Passing classes is essential to graduate high school. To obtain a diploma, students need to accumulate credits. That means they need to pass their classes. For most dropouts, the pattern of course failures begins in the ninth grade; failures then accumulate in later grades, until they are so far behind that they cannot catch up. As a result, a simple indicator of whether students are on-track or not in ninth grade, based on failures in the ninth-grade year (see box above; The Ninth-Grade On-Track Indicator), is very predictive of eventual graduation, and accounts for almost all of the differences in graduation rates by students’ race, gender, economic status, and other background characteristics, including test scores. Each semester course that a student fails in ninth grade lowers the probability of graduating by 15 percentage points. (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Monitor progress monthly to trigger rapid intervention (University of Chicago Network of College Success).

Dedicated 9th grade teams and/or academies to provide academic support, mentorship and orientation to high school  

Educators can reach out early to each student whose grades and attendance start to slip (CCSR).

Educators should make sure their class is organized coherently so that students know exactly what they need to do to earn good grades (CCSR).

Foster teacher collaboration around students and risk factors. Absences are lower than expected in schools where teachers take collective responsibility for the whole school, not just their own students (CCSR).

Some Chicago schools have used Freshman Watchlists to identify rising 9th graders who will likely need support, reaching out to these students during the summer through the district’s Freshmen Connection program. Once students are in high school, schools can put students on the right path toward graduation by closely monitoring their attendance and grades. Many schools that have used ninth-grade “success reports” to identify students in need of support have shown substantial improvements in their ninth-grade on-track rates and progress toward graduation. (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Percentage of tested students who meet grade-level standards in reading/English language arts and math, as measured by state standardized tests. (Education-to-Workforce).

Percent of children graduating from high school by age 19, disaggregated by their third grade reading proficiency (i.e. proficient, high; proficient, medium; not proficient, basic; not proficient, below basic). One in six children who are not reading proficiently in third grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers. The rates are highest for the low, below-basic readers: 23 percent of these children drop out or fail to finish high school on time, compared to 9 percent of children with basic reading skills and 4 percent of proficient readers (Annie E. Casey, Double Jeopardy).

Percent of children not graduating by their third grade reading proficiency and by race and ethnicity. The rate of those not graduating high school was highest for poor Black and Hispanic students, at 31 and 33 percent respectively—or about eight times the rate for all proficient readers. Graduation rates for Black and Hispanic students who were not proficient readers in third grade lagged far behind those for White students with the same reading skills (Annie E. Casey, Double Jeopardy).

High-quality early education is a cost-effective investment for improving both early and later school success, particularly for students in low-income families and for Black and Hispanic children (Annie E. Casey, Double Jeopardy).

A recent study of an integrated PreK-3rd approach implemented in Chicago found improved educational outcomes leading to a long-term societal return of $8.24 for every $1 invested in the first four to six years of school, including the PreK years (Annie E. Casey, Double Jeopardy).

The integrated PreK-3rd approach to education, if fully developed and effectively implemented, involves six components: (1) aligned curriculum, standards, and assessment from PreK through third grade; (2) consistent instructional approaches and learning environments; (3) availability of PreK for all children ages 3 and 4, as well as full-day kindergarten for older children; (4) classroom teachers who possess at least a bachelor’s degree and are certified to teach grades PreK-3rd; (5) small class sizes; and (6) partnership between the school and families. (Annie E. Casey, Double Jeopardy).

Unfortunately, studies show the effects of good PreK programs can “fade out.” But research also shows that gains for students are sustained if high-quality PreK is linked with the elementary grades, to create a common structure and coherent sets of academic and social goals (Annie E. Casey, Double Jeopardy).

High school students meet typical coursework requirements for admission to a four-year college. A high school education should ensure that students are eligible to pursue their chosen pathway after graduation. In many states, however, the requirements for a high school diploma fall short of the admissions criteria at many four-year colleges and universities (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of high school graduates who successfully complete the coursework required for admission to a four-year college or university, which includes: four years of English classes, four years of math classes (including at least four of the following: pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, Algebra II or trigonometry, precalculus, calculus, statistics, quantitative reasoning, and data science), three years of laboratory science (including biology, chemistry, and physics), two years of social sciences, two years of foreign language, one year of visual or performing arts (Education-to-Workforce).

Monitor the percentage of students who complete at least two courses in a single CTE program of study, as defined under Perkins V (Florida Department of Education).

Track the proportion of CTE concentrators who earn recognized postsecondary credentials before graduation (Department of Education).

Assess the number of students earning postsecondary credits through dual or concurrent enrollment in CTE-related courses (Department of Education).

Measure student involvement in internships, apprenticeships, or cooperative education experiences aligned with their CTE programs (Department of Education).

Evaluate additional factors such as the alignment of CTE programs with labor market demands, integration of academic and technical skills, and the inclusion of career counseling services (Department of Education).

High school course-taking and sequencing has been found to be a leading predictor of postsecondary success (Balfanz et al., 2016), yet statistics from the Civil Rights Data Collection shows that many high schools do not offer high-level courses that help students succeed at the next level. (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation).

Universal advising guide to equip counselors and other caring adults with aligned messages and counseling resources (Education Strategy Group).

Conduct regular labor market analyses in collaboration with workforce boards and industry partners to determine which career pathways to offer. Update course offerings every few years to stay aligned with economic shifts (Without Limits).

Partner with community colleges and industry certification bodies to embed dual enrollment and credentialing opportunities into CTE pathways. Ensure that credits and certifications are portable and recognized by employers and postsecondary institutions (MDRC).

High school students successfully complete early college coursework (Advanced Placement [AP], International Baccalaureate [IB], or dual credit). There is growing evidence that participation in accelerated postsecondary pathways (such as early college high schools and dual enrollment) has a positive impact on students’ high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment and completion. (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of high school students who enroll in and pass at least one early college course (AP, IB, or dual credit). (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of students enrolled in early college coursework who earn credit-bearing scores on end-of-course tests (for example, a score of 3 or higher on AP tests or 5 or higher on IB tests) or earn postsecondary credit within their dual enrollment courses. (Education-to-Workforce).

Early College High Schools: Use targeted outreach and admissions strategies to prioritize access for historically marginalized groups. Avoid selective admissions criteria like prior academic achievement or test scores, and instead focus on potential and interest (AIR).

Early College High Schools: Build integrated support systems—including dedicated counselors, success coaches, and access to college advisors—to help students persist in dual enrollment courses and plan for postsecondary success (Community College Research Center, Columbia University). 

High schools can partner with local postsecondary institutions to offer dual enrollment courses that allow high school students to earn postsecondary credits with both academic and career and technical concentrations. During the 2010-11 school year, 82 percent of high schools reported students enrolled in dual credit courses with an academic or CTE focus, while 53 percent of all postsecondary institutions reported high school students took courses for college credit within or outside of dual enrollment programs. (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation). 

Percentage of students using academic advising and career counseling services. (Education-to-Workforce).

Percent of students who report having helpful advising More than half of high school students say no one in their school has been helpful in advising on career options or options to further their education (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

College and career counseling services are available in high schools and college campuses. (Education-to-Workforce).

Ratio of number of students to number of full-time equivalent (FTE) counselors. This recommended metric for the K–12 sector should be considered a minimum benchmark for measurement, as the ratio of students to FTE counselors does not provide insight into the quality or effectiveness of advising services. For a fuller picture, data users might be interested in additional information, such as the percentage of time that counselors dedicate to advising, how many students within the school they serve, the amount of time that other staff dedicate to advising (such as school-based administrators, third-party nonprofit program staff, and part-time or full-time volunteers), and/or the degree to which counselors or other staff leverage data to understand matriculation patterns of their school’s graduates and help students make informed decisions based on the likelihood of completion (a practice that research links to the effectiveness of advising services) (Education-to-Workforce).

The EW Framework strongly recommends that K–12 systems assess the quality of advising services by disaggregating data on key indicators of successful student transitions, such as early college coursework completion, SAT/ACT participation, FAFSA completion, selection of a well-matched postsecondary institution, senior summer on track, postsecondary enrollment directly after high school graduation, and/or successful career transition after high school (Education-to-Workforce).

Student-to-counselor ratio: The average U.S. student-to-counselor ratio is 479 to 1, and it grows to more than 1,000 to 1 in some schools. This contrasts greatly with what is necessary to ensure adequate student services. The American School Counselor Association recommends a student/counselor ratio of 250 to 1 in order to implement a comprehensive developmental school counseling program designed to meet the needs of all students. (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

Maintaining or moving toward the 250:1 ratio is considered a key best practice for equitable and effective student support systems. Lower ratios lead to improved student outcomes (ASCA).

Percentage of time counselors spend on assignments that match their professional counseling skills, instead of activities such as conducting testing programs, registering students for courses, filling out college applications, handling disciplinary issues and maintaining student records. Some of these activities, such as coordinating and administering cognitive, aptitude and achievement tests, have been declared inappropriate by the American School Counselor Association; while others merely stretch the limits of any individual professional, leaving less time to focus on direct student services such as career guidance. A survey of high school counselors in Florida found that more than 30 percent reported that “actual career counseling” occupied very little of their time (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

Counselors are trained to help students make good educational and career decisions. Many counselor preparation programs focus predominantly on mental health models rather than academic and career development models. Thus, some guidance professionals lack current and accurate knowledge concerning career guidance and emerging career opportunities, and may have outdated perceptions about postsecondary options that impact the information they share with students (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

School counselors believe every student can learn, and every student can succeed (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors believe every student should have access to and opportunity for a high-quality education (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors believe every student should graduate from high school prepared for postsecondary opportunities (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors believe every student should have access to a school counseling program (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors believe effective school counseling is a collaborative process involving school counselors, students, families, teachers, administrators, other school staff and education stakeholder (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors believe school counselors are leaders in the school, district, state and nation (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors believe school counseling programs promote and enhance student academic, career and social/emotional outcomes (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors apply developmental, learning, counseling and education theories (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors design and implement instruction aligned to ASCA Student Standards: Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success in large-group, classroom, small-group and individual settings (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors create school counseling program beliefs, vision and mission statements aligned with the school and district (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors demonstrate understanding of educational systems, legal issues, policies, research and trends in education (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies.

School counselors provide appraisal and advisement in large-group, classroom, small group and individual settings (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors identify gaps in achievement, attendance, discipline, opportunity and resources (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors apply legal and ethical principles of the school counseling profession (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors provide short-term counseling in small-group and individual setting (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors develop annual student outcome goals based on student data (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors apply school counseling professional standards and competencies (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors make referrals to appropriate school and community resources (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors develop and implement action plans aligned with annual student outcome goals and student data (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors use ASCA Student Standards: Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success to inform the implementation of a school counseling program (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors consult to support student achievement and success (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors assess and report program results to the school community (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors demonstrate understanding of the impact of cultural, social and environmental influences on student success and opportunities (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors collaborate with families, teachers, administrators, other school staff and education stakeholders for student achievement and success (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors use time appropriately according to national recommendations and student/school data (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors demonstrate leadership through the development and implementation of a school counseling program (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

School counselors create systemic change through the implementation of a school counseling program. (American School Counselor Association, Professional Standards & Competencies).

Aligned advising strategies, which bridge the gap between K-12, higher education and the workforce (Education Strategy Group).

Well-planned comprehensive counseling and guidance programs provide the scaffolding which ensures students’ success in informed career decision making. In fully implemented comprehensive counseling and guidance programs, students have access to more college and career information, are more targeted in their course selection, reach higher levels of academic achievement and have higher grades, and feel that their education has better prepared them for their future. (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

Having access to effective college and career advising can help students navigate transitions between high school, college, and the workplace. A small but growing body of evidence shows that counselors vary in their effectiveness at boosting high school students’ graduation rates, college attendance, selectivity, and persistence; moreover, students from low-income households benefit most from being assigned to an effective counselor.  (Education-to-Workforce).

Youth serving institutions reinforce advising efforts

Students benefit from being matched to a counselor of the same race and having a counselor who attended a local college (Better School Counselors, Better Outcomes).

Students benefit from assignment to counselors from the same racial group. A study by Christine Mulhern at RAND calculates that students are roughly two percentage points more likely to graduate high school and persist in college if assigned a counselor from the same racial group relative to one from a different race. Counselor effectiveness also matters most for low-income and low-achieving students, so it may be worth focusing on attracting the best counselors to the schools with more low-income or lower-achieving students (Beyond Teachers: Estimating Individual School Counselor’s Effects on Educational Attainment).

Counselors vary in whether they are most effective for low or high achieving students. Matching students to counselors based on the counselor’s comparative advantage and students’ prior achievement (similar to how many high school courses are assigned) could be a simple way to improve educational attainment. (Christine Mulhern, Beyond Teachers: Estimating Individual School Counselor’s Effects on Educational Attainment).

Counselors should track critical indicators for each student (i.e.: a high school counseling credit check spreadsheet that highlights in green and red the credits that the student has and doesn’t have respectively) (Lauren Tingle, High School Counseling Conversations).

Design, implement and assess a school counseling program informed by disaggregated data identifying student needs (ASCA, The School Counselor and Academic Development).

Deliver information to students and teachers on best practices to attain mindsets and behaviors (i.e., learning strategies, self-management skills, social skills) for student success (ASCA, The School Counselor and Academic Development).

Provide relevance to students’ academic effort and educational pursuits by helping them understand the connection between school and the world of work, assisting them in career planning and career-related goal setting (ASCA, The School Counselor and Academic Development).

Encourage students to engage in challenging coursework and work to address and remove barriers to access the most rigorous coursework appropriate for each student. (ASCA, The School Counselor and Academic Development).

Use disaggregated data to identify and address inequitable practices (ASCA, The School Counselor and Academic Development).

Provide opportunities for students to: Enhance their belief in development of whole self and ability to succeed; Develop a positive attitude toward work and learning; Make decisions informed by evidence, considering others’ perspectives and recognizing personal bias; Develop long and short-term academic goals; Demonstrate self-motivation and self-direction for learning; Demonstrate positive, respectful and supportive relationships with students and adults (ASCA, 2021). (ASCA, The School Counselor and Academic Development).

Work to establish student opportunities for academic remediation as needed (ASCA, The School Counselor and Academic Development).

Emphasize family/caregiver-community-school relationships in addressing academic needs (ASCA, The School Counselor and Academic Development).

Professional Development—Adults who work with youth at risk of dropping out need to be provided ongoing professional learning opportunities, support, and feedback. The professional learning should align with the agreed upon vision and focus for the school/agency, the agreed upon instructional framework of high leverage research-based practices and strategies, and the identified needs of the population served. The professional learning opportunities provided should be frequently monitored to determine the fidelity of implementation and need for additional support and feedback (The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network, 15 Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention).

Keep counselor to student caseloads as low as possible, ideally around 250:1. One study estimates that adding an additional high school counselor improves four-year college enrollment rates by 10 percentage points  (Education-to-Workforce).

The American School Counselor Association recommends a counselor caseload of 250 students, yet many counselors manage double or triple that recommended caseload, with the national average caseload at 471 students  (Education-to-Workforce).

Improving counselor effectiveness by one standard deviation, which is equivalent to having a counselor at the 84th percentile of effectiveness rather than at the 50th percentile, makes students 2.0 percentage points more likely to graduate high school and 1.7 percentage points more likely to enroll in a four-year college (Christine Mulhern, Better School Counselors, Better Outcomes).

Counselors’ effects are most pronounced among low-achieving and low-income students; low achievers, for example, are 3.4 percentage points more likely to graduate if assigned to an effective counselor (Christine Mulhern, Better School Counselors, Better Outcomes).

Solidifying relationships with students so students know who is on their team and that adults are fighting for them (Lauren Tingle, High School Counseling Conversations).

Counselors should be in contact with students’ parents, teachers and friends (Lauren Tingle, High School Counseling Conversations).

Counselors should consult with teachers to ensure teachers and students are on the same page. Counselors should reassure teachers that they are in it together (Lauren Tingle, High School Counseling Conversations).

Counselors should know who the key friends are in students’ lives, who is in the student circle that can help them graduate and really rally a peer group around them (Lauren Tingle, High School Counseling Conversations).

High test scores help students get access to college. When colleges make entrance decisions, they usually rely on both students’ grades and their scores on college entrance exams (the ACT and SAT). For this reason, higher scores on the college entrance exams help students gain access to more selective colleges and programs. High test scores also can help students obtain scholarships (UChicago CCSR, Looking Forward to High School and College).

Average college admission test scores (Urban Institute, Robust and Equitable Measures to Identify Quality Schools).

Universal testing mandates: Evidence suggests that standardized tests like the SAT and ACT can be a useful and cost-effective approach for identifying high-achieving students from marginalized backgrounds for the purposes of college access and outreach initiatives. There is evidence that universal testing mandates requiring all students to take the ACT or SAT raise college enrollment rates among students from low-income households (Education-to-Workforce).

Free college admission exams: One way states are attempting to increase postsecondary access to students is to provide college enrollment exams for free. To date [i.e. as of 2018], 26 states have made either the ACT or SAT a requirement for 11th graders and have administered the exams to students free of cost. Using data from Lumina Foundation’s A Stronger Nation report shows states that require a college admission test have slightly smaller subgroup gaps between white and Black students (13.6 vs. 14.5 percentage points), as well as white and Hispanic students (21.1 percentage points vs. 22.6 percentage points). Increasingly, high schools are joining the movement to provide free college admission testing and some have devoted school hours to SAT test-taking or provided vouchers to cover the cost of ACT exams (Civic Enterprises, Building a Grad Nation). 

Percentage of grade 12 students who complete the FAFSA by June 30 (Education-to-Workforce).

Rates of FAFSA completion. Students who report completing a FAFSA are more likely to enroll in college, enroll in a four-year rather than a two-year college, and enroll full time rather than part time compared to students who do not complete an application (Education-to-Workforce).

Rates of FAFSA completion for low-income students: Students from low-income households who complete a FAFSA are 127 percent more likely to enroll in college in the fall after graduating high school than their peers who do not. One study found that, among students who applied and were admitted to college, there was a 29 percent difference in enrollment—84 percent of students who were admitted and completed the FAFSA enrolled in a four-year college, compared with 55 percent enrollment by students who were admitted but did not complete the FAFSA (Education-to-Workforce).

Student reasons for not completing a FAFSA. (e.g., among fall 2009 ninth-graders who graduated from high school and reported, or their parents reported, not completing a FAFSA, 33 percent thought they or their family could afford school or college without financial aid; 32 percent thought they or their family may be ineligible or may not qualify for financial aid; 28 percent did not want to take on debt; and 23 percent did not have enough information about how to complete a FAFSA) (Stats in Brief, Why didn’t students complete a FAFSA).

High school educators and college access counselors hold information sessions to help students and families understand the process and timeline for FAFSA submission this year (U.S. Department of Education, Better FAFSA Toolkit).

High school educators and college access counselors support students as they create a StudentAid.gov account by giving time to do it with trained school personnel or volunteers (U.S. Department of Education, Better FAFSA Toolkit).

High school educators and college access counselors set FAFSA completion goals for your or key partners’ high schools and use available data to know your school’s current submission rate  (U.S. Department of Education, Better FAFSA Toolkit).

High school educators and college access counselors train teachers, support staff and volunteers on how to fill out the FAFSA (U.S. Department of Education, Better FAFSA Toolkit).

High school educators and college access counselors visit ed.gov/Better-FAFSA to access resources like the Financial Aid Toolkit for counselors and the roadmap for counselors and advocates (U.S. Department of Education, Better FAFSA Toolkit).

High school educators and college access counselors Develop a roadmap for their school and community support providers (U.S. Department of Education, Better FAFSA Toolkit).

Grade 12 students submit a well-balanced portfolio of at least three college applications. Research shows that students who apply to at least two colleges are more than 40 percent more likely to enroll in a four-year college than those who apply to only one (Education-to-Workforce).

There are disparities by race, ethnicity, and income in the rates at which students apply to college. One study found, for instance, that students from low-income households were less likely to apply to college and less likely to apply to multiple colleges than their peers. As another example, among Chicago Public School (CPS) students who aimed to achieve a four-year degree, Black and Latino students were least likely to apply to and enroll in college (Education-to-Workforce).

Percent of students who earn college credit while still in high school, which can improve direct enrollment rates.

The percentage of high school graduates who transition directly to college, typically tracked at the state, district, or school level

Idaho sends every eligible high school senior a letter notifying them that they’ve already been accepted to some or all of the state’s public colleges and universities—no application required. The program led to a 6–15% increase in enrollment at Idaho public colleges, particularly for low-income and rural students (Education Commission of the States).

The Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Act, this initiative rewards high school students who complete a set of experiences—academic coursework, career exploration, and postsecondary planning—with a “college and career endorsement” on their diplomas. Some public institutions offer preferential admissions or placement for students with endorsements (Postsecondary Workforce and Readiness Act – Illinois).

High school graduates select the best “match” college among the institutions to which they were admitted, based on the institutional graduation rate of similar students. Nationwide, 50 percent of students from low-income families attend a less selective college than those to which they have access, even though attending a more selective college can lead to higher graduation rates and future income (Education-to-Workforce).

Percentage of high school seniors who select a college within 10 percentage points of the best matched postsecondary institution to which they were admitted, based on the institution’s graduation rate for similar students by race, ethnicity, or income status (as measured by Pell Grant receipt) (Education-to–Workforce).

KIPP’s College Match Strategies Framework: Each fall, Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) counselors work with high school seniors to create a college “wish list” based on their academic achievement, financial needs, and personal interests. Students and families are given access to a match tool that provides personalized information about “likely,” “match,” and “reach” colleges for that student, based on grade point average (GPA) and ACT/SAT scores, along with data on the graduation rate and net price of each college. Counselors offer guidance on how to select a good mix of schools to which to apply, develop strong applications, request application waivers from colleges, and apply for financial aid. Using a centralized data system, counselors track students’ wish lists—and later, their applications, admissions, and enrollment— which they use to follow up with students at key points in their senior year. Supporting this process is a set of key performance indicators that KIPP monitors; they include the share of seniors who apply to at least nine colleges by December, submit financial aid applications by February, and enroll in college by the following October. KIPP then determines which students did not enroll or enrolled in a college with a much lower underrepresented minority (URM) graduation rate (10 percentage points or lower) than the college with the highest URM graduation rate to which they were admitted. Each year, staff analyze the data to measure progress over time in helping students attend not just any college but one that is a good match (Education-to-Workforce).

Comprehensive counseling and guidance programs are led by counselors, but in order to navigate the complex workplace of the 21st century, students need the services of many qualified professionals who engage them in the career decision-making process. These educational professionals can include career development specialists, CTE teachers, CTE administrators, career coaches, work-based learning facilitators, and a variety of other capable individuals, many with strong connections to CTE. These people, working in concert, provide a powerful service delivery system of programs and activities designed to help students gain proficiency in career decision-making skills. (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

Educators participating in the Educators in Industry externship program reported a deeper understanding of essential workplace skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, and communication. This insight led them to redesign classroom activities to better develop these competencies in students through active, real-world contexts (Educators in Industry).

Adults in the CTE team are prepared and informed. At the school or institutional level, guidance and career development leaders should meet together to identify the different roles that each play. Counselors are trained to understand young people and their age-appropriate development. Career coaches and career facilitators can work with groups of students to help them create portfolios and gain work-readiness skills. Work-based learning coordinators can interact directly with business and industry leaders to create opportunities for students to interface with the workplace. CTE administrators can support professional development and training, provide equipment and space, and approve and encourage the positive efforts of the team (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

A new focus on the reorganization of CTE curriculum has emerged emphasizing career clusters and career pathways as a way to guide young people through the career decision-making process. Career clusters are broad groupings of occupations or careers used as an organizing tool for curriculum design and instruction. The U.S. Department of Education identified 16 national clusters in 1999, and many individual states have adopted or adapted these clusters for their own use. The career cluster framework is serving to reorganize CTE programs in a way that is more meaningful to students as they enter the 21st century workplace and allows more broad exploration of career opportunities (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

Engaging students through personalized and applied learning. Perhaps the most important contribution of CTE to career guidance is its ability to engage students in the educational and career decision-making process through learning that is relevant and personal. Focused CTE programs underscore the relevancy of high school education and help students see how they will use the knowledge they are gaining in their futures, critical elements of career guidance (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

One of the key components being used to personalize student learning is an “individual plan for graduation and beyond,” also known as an “individualized graduation plan.” These plans are often based on career clusters, pathways or programs of study, and they map out the career and college readiness courses a student is required to take, as well as a mix of interest-based courses, other electives and enrichment experiences (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

A variety of electronic tools exist to help students develop individualized graduation plans and integrate them with interest assessments and career exploration tools. Some schools are also using electronic portfolios in order to follow students’ career choices. Computer-based programs can simplify the process for young people by organizing careers into related clusters and by providing links to post-high school institutions and professional organizations (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

Work-based learning experiences like internships, job shadowing, community service projects and youth apprenticeships provided by CTE can further help students make career decisions, network with potential employers, select courses of study and develop job skills relevant to future employment. Through the interaction of work and study experiences, students can enhance their academic knowledge, personal development and professional preparation. (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

As an extension of work-based learning, students also have the opportunity to participate in Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSOs), co-curricular organizations that provide leadership, career development and recognition opportunities for students. (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

The 2006 Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act included a new requirement for CTE to begin implementing “programs of study” to be eligible for federal funding. Programs of study are defined in the Perkins law as options for students in planning for and completing future coursework. They must incorporate and align secondary and postsecondary education elements; include rigorous and relevant academic and CTE content in a coordinated, non-duplicative progression of courses; lead to an industry-recognized credential or certificate at the postsecondary level, or an associate or baccalaureate degree; and may include the opportunity for dual or concurrent enrollment programs. (ACTE, Career and Technical Education’s Role in Career Guidance).

The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) compiled a number of resources related to key topics around improving students’ postsecondary outcomes. This evolving list of resources focuses on best practices and case studies related to reducing the effect of summer melt and ensuring that students who intend to matriculate actually do so  (NCAN, Summer Melt Resources).

NCAN Summer Melt Toolkit: This resource from NCAN is a good introduction to the concept of summer melt. It includes background information, different approaches to combating summer melt (virtual and non-virtual), and steps various stakeholders can take (NCAN, Summer Melt Resources).

Sample Summer Melt Text Messages: You don’t need to start from scratch on crafting a summer melt text messaging campaign. NCAN used these messages during a campaign with Signal Vine during a previous summer melt prevention effort (NCAN, Summer Melt Resources).

SummerLink, a program in the Fort Worth Independent School District, was designed to keep college-bound students on track by offering logistical and emotional support during the transitional summer season before college (Harvard Strategic Data Project).

NCAN has developed two units that focus on college retention/success. In these units summer transition workshops, using social media, and summer bridge programs are highlighted as ways to prevent summer melt (NCAN, Summer Melt Resources).

Research spanning 100 years has shown that students lose ground during summer, particularly low-income students. They lose an average of more than two months in reading achievement over the summer, slowing their progress toward third-grade reading proficiency. It is also, therefore, important for schools and communities to develop opportunities for summer learning which are aligned with instruction that occurs during the regular school year (Annie E. Casey, Double Jeopardy).