Transcript How Did North Carolina High Schools Improve Their Graduation

How Did North Carolina High Schools
Improve Their Graduation Rates?
Dr. Janna Robertson
Dr. Robert Smith
Question
How did schools that markedly
improved their graduation rates
accomplish their success?
Methods
Participants
1.
2.
3.
4.
We examined their 2006 graduation rate
Compared it to their 2010 graduation rate
Schools with less than 100 students were
excluded
The top 50 which showed the most
improvement were sent a link to an online
survey
Participants: 23 Schools
Name
Northeastern High
Northampton High West Stem
Southside High
Southern Vance High
Ben L Smith High
Mooresville Senior High
Jacksonville High
Northern Vance High
Shelby High
Polk County High
Franklin High
Bunn High
Westover High
South Brunswick High
Statesville High
Northern Nash High
4yr %
2006
53.8
65.9
58.3
45.7
57
64
65.6
51.1
58.8
65.9
62.4
61.9
59.7
62.2
68
58.5
4yr %
2010
82.8
93.9
82.1
68.9
80.1
86.0
87.1
71.5
79.1
86.0
81.1
80.6
78.2
80.0
84.8
75.2
Difference
2006-2010
29.0
28.0
23.8
23.2
23.1
22.0
21.5
20.4
20.3
20.1
18.7
18.7
18.5
17.8
16.8
16.7
Results: Policies
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
no
yes
Did your school implement changes in Did your school implement changes in
dropout prevention policies that
dropout prevention policies that target
impacted all students?
high-risk students?
Policies
45
40
35
30
Strongly Agree
25
Agree
20
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
15
Non Applicable
10
5
0
Tardees
Late Work
Suspensions
Policy Descriptions
•
•
•
•
•
•
Attendance & tardy changed/enforced/monitored
21 credits
Credit recovery (online)
In school suspension
No failure/all work made up/late work
Individual meetings/family meetings/contracts
Student Characteristics
120
100
80
60
no
yes
40
20
0
Interventions Used
120
100
80
60
40
Not
Applicable 20
At Risk
0
Students
All
Students
Main Interventions
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Top Interventions
Other Interventions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Response to intervention
Small learning communities
Peer and adult tutors, after school and AVID
Student led professional learning communities
Revised schedule, reteach retest
Life skills training
Freshman academy
Online instruction/credit recovery
College preparatory program
Grant funded partnership with the YMCA
Support
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
no
40%
yes
30%
20%
10%
0%
Did your school district
lead the change?
Did your school district Did your school district
support your initiative? provide financial support?
District Support Descriptions
•
•
•
•
•
21 credit/computer programs
Professional development
Buses for after-school tutoring
Graduation coaches
Computers, social worker, alternative high
schools
• Special programs
• Celebrations
Evidenced Based Interventions
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Selection of an evidenced based
model was a significant factor in
improvement
Full implementation without
modifications
Curriculum Relevance
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Not Applicable
no
yes
Did your school district
implement changes to the
curriculum to make it more
relevant?
Were these changes significant
in graduation rate
improvements?
Interesting Teachers
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Not Applicable
no
yes
Did your school make efforts to Were these efforts significant in
hire teachers who are
graduation rate improvements?
interesting?
Overall
• Improved monitoring of students with follow-up and
individual interventions
• Culture change of school with high expectations and
monitoring of high quality teaching
• Changing policies to give student more of a chance and
opportunities
• Hiring, retaining and professional development of teachers
and administrators to “go the extra mile”
• Support staff: Graduation coaches, social workers
• Family involvement, increased and sooner
• Special programs: Academic and life skills
• Strong leadership and make graduation a high priority
Interviews
• Four Interviews completed
• Preliminary results supports surveys but gives
more details
• Demonstrates how Dropout Prevention
success is tailored to the particular school
Conclusions
• There is no one way to improve graduation
rates
• Interventions were pervasive and several
required funding and additional resources
• Strong evidence that graduation rates can be
improved
Some thoughts . . .
• High stakes accountability puts lot of pressure on
schools to increase the numbers –is there a possible
tension between increasing graduation rates and
loosening standards?
• Increasing graduation rates for some schools was part
of larger policy to change the whole school culture of
learning while at others it was more of a stand alone
focus
• 70% of respondents indicated that School districts did
not lead the change. Given that dropping out and the
solutions occur district wide, why are there not more
systemic/district wide approaches?