College & Workforce Readiness

Report: States Should Track Early Dropout Indicators

By Sarah D. Sparks — November 02, 2010 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

As states and districts prepare to report new common longitudinal graduation rates this year, national graduation-rate researchers argue educators should go beyond the basic data.

“Improving graduation rates in this country requires more than simply reporting accurate rates,” concludes a new report by the Committee on Improved Measurement of High School Dropout and Completion Rates, a joint project by the National Research Council and National Academy of Education. The former is the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the latter an invitation-only group of noted education scholars.

“To truly improve outcomes for students,” the report adds, “data systems need to incorporate information that enables early identification of at-risk students.”

The 2010-11 school year is the first in which states, districts, and schools must report their high school graduation rates based on a common method in which cohorts of students entering 9th grade are tracked through graduation. Next year, the four-year adjusted cohort rate, as it is known, will be used for federal accountability under the No Child Left Behind law.

The federal method is “a good start, but it’s not the whole story,” said Robert M. Hauser, the committee chairman.

States will get more bang for their bucks by building systems that track individual students from year to year, Mr. Hauser said, allowing districts to diagnose more fine-grained graduation-rate trends. For example, the committee advised districts building their graduation-tracking systems to include warning indicators, such as: frequent absences, failing grades in reading or math, poor behavior, being overage for grade, having a low 9th grade grade point average, failing 9th grade, or having a record of frequent school or district transfers.

Creating more-nuanced systems, the researchers argue, will allow schools and districts to identify struggling students in earlier grades and tailor interventions to keep them in school or encourage those who have already left to return to school.

“You shouldn’t lock the barn door after the horses have left; you should get these indicators before the students go off track,” Mr. Hauser said.

A version of this article appeared in the November 03, 2010 edition of Education Week as Scholars Urge Creation of Early-Warning Systems

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness A FAFSA Calculation Error Could Delay College Aid Applications—Again
It's the latest blunder to upend the "Better FAFSA," as it was branded by the Education Department.
2 min read
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, poses for a portrait in the Folsom Library on Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. A later-than-expected rollout of a revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid, is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions. Noyola said he hasn’t been able to submit his FAFSA because of an error in the parent portion of the application. “It’s disappointing and so stressful since all these issues are taking forever to be resolved,” said Noyola, who receives grants and work-study to fund his education.
Jesus Noyola, a sophomore at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, stands in the university's library on Feb. 13, 2024, in Troy, N.Y. He's one of thousands of existing and incoming college students affected by a problem-plagued rollout of the revised Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FASFA, that schools use to compute financial aid. A series of delays and errors is resulting in students and their parents putting off college decisions.
Hans Pennink/AP
College & Workforce Readiness How Well Are Schools Preparing Students? Advanced Academics and World Languages, in 4 Charts
New federal data show big gaps in students' access to the challenging coursework and foreign languages they need for college.
2 min read
Conceptual illustration of people and voice bubbles.
Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Learning Loss May Cost Students Billions in Future Earnings. How Districts Are Responding
The board that annually administers NAEP warns that recent research paints a "dire" picture of the future for America's children.
6 min read
Illustration concept of hands holding binoculars and looking through to see a graph and arrow with money in background.
Liz Yap/Education Week and iStock/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness The New FAFSA Is a Major Headache. Some High Schools Are Trying to Help
High schools are scrambling to help students navigate what was supposed to be a simpler process.
5 min read
Image of a laptop, and a red "x" for a malfunction.
IIIerlok_Xolms/iStock/Getty