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High School Graduation

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ACT (2006). National Score Report. Retrieved October 26, 2006 from the ACT website http://www.act.org/news/data/06/index.html.

ACT's website features complete score information for each state in the U.S. Included is an interactive national map showing the percentage of students in each state who met ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks as well as the percentage who took advanced math and science coursework in high school.

Cahalan, M. W., Ingels, S.J., Burns, L.J., & Daniel, B. (2006). United States High School Sophomores: A Twenty-Two Year Comparison, 1980-2002. (NCES 2006-327). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. PDF (1.41 MB) Retrieved October 25, 2006 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006327.pdf.

Using questionnaire and test data collected in 1980, 1992, and 2002, this report presents time series data on three cohorts of high school sophomores. The report presents information on the changing context of cohort demographics, family characteristics, school characteristics, and school experiences, after school activities, and future plans and expectations. Tested achievement is also presented with results in math from 1980 to 1990 and 2002, and results in reading from 1990 to 2002.

Chapman, C., & Hoffman, L. (2007). Event Dropout Rates for Public School Students Grades 9-12: 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 (NCES 2007-026). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved May 18, 2007 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007026.

The report summarizes and compares event dropout rates for public high school students, by state, for 2002-03 and 2003-04. Among reporting states in 2003-04, the rates ranged from a low of 1.8 percent in Connecticut and New Jersey to a high of 7.9 percent in Louisiana. The event dropout rate measures the percentage of high school students who drop out in a given year. A dropout is a student who was enrolled at the beginning of the year, not enrolled at the beginning of the next year, and who did not graduate from high school or complete some other district- or state-approved educational program.

Educational Testing Services (2005, February). One-Third of a Nation: Rising Dropout Rates and Declining Opportunities. PDF (1.83 MB) Retrieved December 13, 2005 from http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/
PICONETHIRD.pdf.

This Policy Information Report documents high and rising high school dropout rates, declining investments in second-chance programs, and deteriorating opportunities for dropouts in the job market.

Laird, J., DeBell, M., and Chapman, C. (2006). Dropout Rates in the United States: 2004 (NCES 2007-024). U. S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved December 13, 2006 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007024.

This report builds upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates for 2004, and provides data about trends in dropout and completion rates over the last three decades (1972–2004), including characteristics of dropouts and completers in these years. Among other findings, the report shows that in students living in low-income families were approximately four times more likely to drop out of high school between 2003 and 2004 than were their peers from high-income families. Focusing on indicators of on-time graduation from public high schools, the averaged freshman graduation rate for the 3 most recent years for which data are available shows an increase from 72.6 percent for 2001–02 to 73.9 percent for 2002–03 to 74.3 percent for 2003–04.

Planty, M., Bozick, R., and Ingels, S.J. (2006). Academic Pathways, Preparation, and Performance—A Descriptive Overview of the Transcripts from the High School Graduating Class of 2003-04 (NCES 2007-316). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved December 13, 2006 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007316.

This report uses transcript data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) to provide nationally representative information about the level of academic preparation the high school graduating class of 2003-04 had when leaving high school. The report supplies a brief examination of the coursetaking patterns of 2003-04 graduates, with a focus on their participation in mathematics, science, and Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate courses. Additionally, the report links these coursetaking patterns with test achievement in mathematics, grade point average, and expectations for future educational attainment. Major findings in the report are that: the high school graduating class of 2003-04 earned an average of 25.8 course credits (measured in Carnegie units), 19.0 in academic subjects. Overall, about 30 percent of the class earned at least a credit in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses. Among the graduates, 5 percent got no further than basic math or pre-algebra courses, 45 percent completed at least algebra I or II, 36 percent completed at least one trigonometry, statistics, or precalculus course, and 14 percent calculus, as their highest level mathematics in high school. Ninety one percent of graduates who completed an academic curriculum and 46 percent of students who completed an occupational curriculum demonstrated mastery at proficiency level 3 on the ELS:2002 12th grade mathematics assessment, which is simple problem-solving, requiring low-level mathematical concepts.

Seastrom, M., Chapman, C., Stillwell, R., McGrath, D., Peltola, P., Dinkes, R., & Xu, Z. (2006). Users Guide to Computing High School Graduation Rates, Volume 1: Review of Current and Proposed Graduation Indicators (NCES 2006-604). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. PDF (963 KB) Retrieved August 31, 2006 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006604.pdf.

The first volume of this report examines the existing measures of high school completion and the newly proposed proxy measures. This includes a description of the computational formulas, the data required for each indicator, the assumptions underlying each formula, the strengths and weaknesses of each indicator relative to a true cohort on-time graduation rate, and a consideration of the conditions under which each indicator does or does not work.

Seastrom, M., Chapman, C., Stillwell, R., McGrath, D., Peltola, P., Dinkes, R., & Xu, Z. (2006). Users Guide to Computing High School Graduation Rates, Volume 2: Technical Evaluation of Proxy Graduation Indicators (NCES 2006-605). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. PDF (1.83 MB) Retrieved August 31, 2006 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006605.pdf.

The second volume of this report provides documentation of the technical work that the Department leadership used to select an interim graduation rate. The analysis in volume 2 draws upon the student record data from two states to compute the true cohort on-time graduation rate for each of those states, to compute the proxy graduation measures for each of these states, and to compare the performance of each proxy indicator to that of the true cohort rate. The Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) indicator is the only measure that is consistently among the best performing indicators in each analysis.

Swanson, C. (2001). Who Graduates? Who Doesn't? A Statistical Portrait of Public High School Graduation, Class of 2001. PDF (970 KB) Retrieved May 4, 2005, from Urban Institute, Education Policy Center Web site: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/410934_WhoGraduates.pdf

This study, the latest in a series of investigations conducted by the Urban Institute, contributes to the growing body of knowledge in this field of inquiry by providing the most extensive set of systematic empirical findings on public school graduation rates in the United States available to date. Detailed descriptive statistics and analytic results are presented for the nation as a whole, by geographical region, and for each of the states. This study also offers an exceptionally detailed perspective on the issue of high school completion by examining graduation rates for the overall student population, for specific racial and ethnic groups, and by gender. Also analyzed are graduation rate patterns for particular types of school districts, with special attention to the systems in which the nation's most socioeconomically disadvantaged students are educated.

Swanson, C. (2004). Projections of 2003-04 High School Graduates: Supplemental Analysis based on Findings from Who Graduates? Who Doesn’t? PDF (348 KB) Retrieved May 4, 2005, from Urban Institute, Education Policy Center Web site: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/411019_2003_04_
HS_graduates.pdf.

This report presents a supplemental analysis based on the findings of a recent Urban Institute study. In that earlier investigation, Who Graduates? Who Doesn’t, the Institute published a comprehensive and systematic analysis of public school graduation rates in the United States. In this report, the authors make use of their earlier findings on graduation rates to compute projections of the numbers of students they expect to graduate from public high schools at the end of the current school year (2003-04). As was the case in their previous work, detailed national and state results are presented for students as a whole and for selected subgroups.

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