Increase Graduation Rates Research Articles

Are Students Dropping Out or Simply Dragging Out the College Experience? Persistence at the Six-Year Mark

Abstract Standard analyses of college outcomes look at six-year graduation rates, treating all non-graduates alike as “failures”. However, we find that 36% of non-graduates are still enrolled. Using micro-level data with rich information on demographic and academic background, we employ a multinomial logit model to distinguish among graduates, persisters, and dropouts six years following matriculation. We find that there are significant differences across these populations. Separate evidence indicates that as many as half of those persisting at the six-year mark will graduate within a few years. Thus, six-year graduation rates understate “success,” but future success is not the same for all groups. Holding academic background constant, reported graduation rates are lower for Hispanics because they are taking longer to graduate and lower for first-generation college students because they are dropping out. The most important factor is academic background, suggesting that increased financial aid is unlikely to substantially increase graduation rates.

Critical analysis of accountability policy in alternative schools: implications for school leaders

Purpose – The expansion of alternative education, globally, has coincided with a shift towards greater accountability for ensuring educational access and opportunity, high academic standards and increased graduation rates. While studies suggest the pervasive influence of accountability may be redefining how school leaders provide meaningful learning experiences and facilitating high achievement, little is known about school leaders of alternative schools administering accountability polices. If there are inconsistencies between meaningful learning experiences for at‐risk students and performance‐based standards outcomes, this may suggest issues around equity and alternative schools that should be evaluated. Using a theoretical frame of policy implementation, specifically the authoritative design of policy and social constructs of compliance, this study aims to examine how alternative school leaders implement accountability policies.Design/methodology/approach – This cross‐case study employs a qualitative ...

Leading Indicators: Increasing Statewide Bachelor’s Degree Completion Rates at 4-Year Public Institutions

For the United States to maintain national and global economic stability, colleges must graduate more students. Four-year completion rates have declined and less than one-third of full-time, degree-seeking students graduate in 4 years. Some researchers and policymakers have suggested ‘leading indicators’ to track postsecondary educational achievement. This study examined the relationship between pre-college factors (e.g., socio-economic status, college readiness, race/ethnicity, etc.), leading indicators (e.g., earning 30 credits at the end of year one, continuous enrolment, summer course credit, etc.) and degree completion at Kentucky’s 4-year public institutions. The results showed that the effects of some leading indicators varied based on pre-college factors. Overall, factors related to credit accumulation had the most impact on the likelihood of increasing graduation rates. Policy and practice should consider the impact of pre-college factors on the effectiveness of leading indicators to most efficiently increase degree completion rates.

Collaborative Role of Courts in Promoting Outcomes for Students: The Relationship Between Arrests, Graduation Rates, and School Safety

Schools throughout the United States have adopted zero‐tolerance strategies to address school discipline. These policies have resulted in a significant increase in suspensions and expulsions. The placement of police on campus has exacerbated the problem by adding arrests and referrals to juvenile court as a disciplinary tool. This article discusses the origin of zero tolerance and its negative effects on school safety and graduation rates. This article examines three jurisdictions and their application of a collaborative model using judicial leadership to convene stakeholders resulting in written protocols to reduce school arrests and suspensions and developing alternatives that have produced better outcomes for students, the school, and the community.Keypoints Reduce arrest of students for minor offenses Develop alternatives to suspension, expulsion, and arrests Create system of care targeting chronically disruptive student for behavior improvement Improve school safety using a Positive Student Engage Model for Campus Police Improve school climate Increase graduation rates

Investigation of a Special Education Program in a Public Cyber Charter School

For students with disabilities who are at risk of leaving high school without graduating, virtual schools have become a popular alternative to traditional schools. One promising approach to increasing graduation rates is to design learning environments that serve students with disabilities through the 5 Cs framework designed to increase school completion: Connect, Climate, Control, Curriculum, and Caring Community. A utilization-focused evaluation guided our investigation to determine the presence of and application of the 5 Cs in a special education program in a public cyber charter school. Specific examples are provided, and recommendations for practice and future research are discussed.

School Counseling and Student Outcomes: Summary of Six Statewide Studies

The six statewide research studies presented in this special issue use a variety of designs, instrumentation, and measures. Nevertheless, they can be integrated at the level of results to shed light on some important questions related to effective practice in the field of school counseling. In fact, one can argue that, when separate studies that are conducted in a variety of contexts achieve similar findings, greater confidence can be placed in the conclusions. These six studies provide valuable evidence of the relationship between positive student educational outcomes and school counseling program organization, student-to-school-counselor ratios, counselor time use, and specific school counseling activities. School Counseling Program Organization. Several of these research studies focused on whether student outcomes are influenced by how the school counseling program is organized. The Utah and Nebraska studies were designed to evaluate the extent to which components of The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2012) were associated with enhanced outcomes for students. The two studies share a common design and use virtually the same instruments. The Utah study found evidence that having a strong ASCA National Model programmatic orientation in the school counseling program was associated with increased ACT scores, increased percentages of students taking the ACT, and enhanced student achievement in math and reading as measured by the state achievement tests. The Nebraska study found that the extent to which a program had differentiated delivery systems as prescribed by the ASCA National Model and by traditional comprehensive developmental guidance (CDG; Gysbers & Henderson, 2012) was associated with decreased suspension rates, decreased discipline rates, increased attendance, and enhanced student achievement as measured by the state achievement tests in math and reading. The finding that a programmatic orientation was more strongly related to outcomes in Utah while having a differentiated delivery system was more important in Nebraska most likely reflects historical differences between the states in terms of implementation of comprehensive developmental guidance. In comparison to Nebraska, Utah has a much longer history of statewide initiatives focused on CDG implementation. In earlier stages of implementation, perhaps having a differentiated delivery system is the most salient factor related to outcomes because counselors need to be able to deliver preventative curriculum, provide individual planning services, and engage in responsive services in order to have a program that actually reaches all students. After a differentiated delivery system is in place, developing the mechanisms that support planning, management, and professional decision making may become more salient factors because these mechanisms increase the effectiveness of the services actually delivered. If this interpretation is correct, it has implications for program development. In implementing an ASCA National Model program, the most effective approach may be to focus first on helping counselors develop a differentiated delivery system, then focus on developing the mechanisms (e.g. mission statement, advisory council, decision-making processes) that guide the management of these activities. Further research is needed to study effective implementation practices. School counselor data use is a hallmark of the ASCA National Model. The Utah study found that school counselor data use was associated with enhanced student achievement as measured by the state achievement tests in math and reading (and increased graduation rates in vocational programs). This finding was not replicated in Nebraska, perhaps because data use may become more salient after a differentiated delivery system is in place. In contrast to Utah, school counselor data use in Rhode Island proved to be associated with decreased suspension rates and fewer student self-reports of being teased or bullied. …

Addition by Subtraction: The Relation Between Dropout Rates and School-Level Academic Achievement

Background/ContextEfforts to improve student achievement should increase graduation rates. However, work investigating the effects of student-level accountability has consistently demonstrated that increases in the standards for high school graduation are correlated with increases in dropout rates. The most favored explanation for this finding is that high-stakes testing policies that mandate grade repetition and high school exit exams may be the tipping point for students who are already struggling academically. These extra demands may, in fact, push students out of school.Purpose/Objective/FocusThis article examines two hypotheses regarding the relation between school-level accountability and dropout rates. The first posits that improvements in school performance lead to improved success for everyone. If school-level accountability systems improve a school for all students, then the proportion of students performing at grade level increases, and the dropout rate decreases. The second hypothesis posits that schools facing pressure to improve their overall accountability score may pursue this increase at the cost of other student outcomes, including dropout rate.Research DesignOur approach focuses on the dynamic relation between school-level academic achievement and dropout rates over time—that is, between one year's achievement and the subsequent year's dropout rate, and vice versa. This article employs longitudinal data of records on all students in North Carolina public schools over an 8-year period. Analyses employ fixed-effects models clustering schools and districts within years and controls each year for school size, percentage of students who were free/reduced-price lunch eligible, percentage of students who are ethnic minorities, and locale.Findings/ResultsThis study finds partial evidence that improvements in school-level academic performance will lead to improvements (i.e., decreases) in school-level dropout rates. Schools with improved performance saw decreased dropout rates following these successes. However, we find more evidence of a negative side of the quest for improved academic performance. When dropout rates increase, the performance composites in subsequent years increase.Conclusions/recommendationsAccountability systems need to remove any indirect benefit a school may receive from increasing its dropout rate. Schools should be held accountable for those who drop out of school. Given the personal and social costs of dropping out, accountability systems need to place more emphasis on dropout prevention. Such an emphasis could encompass increasing the dropout age and having the school's performance composite include scores of zero on end-of-grade tests for those who leave school.

From Zero Tolerance to Student Success in Ontario, Canada

Since 2003, Ontario, Canada’s high school graduation rates have increased 13% while suspensions and expulsion rates have simultaneously decreased. This article examines relationships between the province’s safe school policy and Student Success/Learning to 18 (SS/L18), a policy designed to increase graduation rates. Analyses of teachers’ perceptions, policy texts, provincial data, and an external evaluation of SS/L18 suggest that efforts to increase graduation rates through SS/L18 may also be helping to reduce suspensions and expulsions—perhaps to a greater extent than recent changes to Ontario’s safe schools policy, including the elimination of zero tolerance and adoption of a progressive discipline approach.

National Genome Research Initiative: A New Paradigm For Teaching Research To Undergraduates In South America

Introduction: From 2007 to 2011, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) recruited professors across the US to test a new paradigm in undergraduate education: the National Genome Research Initiative (NGRI). Undergraduates were taught to isolate bacteriophages, characterize their findings, and report to the scientific community. Objective: The educational goal of the NGRI program was to expose science undergraduates to an authentic research experience to increase graduation rates. The scientific goal was to isolate mycobacteriophages to be used as therapeutic agents against disease-causing mycobacteria. Materials and Methods: In a one-semester lab course undergraduates are taught to find, grow, and purify bacteriophages. In the second semester, students use bioinformatic software to annotate sequences of their bacteriophages. Results: Ahead of data on student graduation rates, the NGRI program has generated expanded productivity for US undergraduates. Over a four year period, thousands of participants were taught to collect bacteriophages, annotate sequences, and present their findings. Those undergraduates will have isolated 2300+ phages, annotated 250+ sequences, presented hundreds of posters at conferences across the US, and are co-authors on papers published by labs participating in the NGRI program. Discussion: Many professors in the US academic community are convinced that the NGRI program will have lasting impact on the US educational system. Several professors have banded together to form the Phage Galaxy Consortium to continue HHMI’s goal of implementation of the NGRI program at all US colleges. Conclusions: HHMI’s paradigm is ready for distribution to Central and South America.

Unlocking the Gate: What We Know About Improving Developmental Education

One of the greatest challenges that community colleges face in their efforts to increase graduation rates is improving the success of students in their developmental, or remedial, education programs — the courses that students without adequate academic preparation must take before they can enroll in courses for college credit. Emphasizing results from experimental and quasi-experimental studies, this literature review identifies the most promising approaches for revising the structure, curriculum, or delivery of developmental education and suggests areas for future innovations in developmental education practice and research. This analysis focuses on four different types of interventions for improving students’ progress through remedial education and into college-level courses, including (1) strategies that help students avoid developmental education by shoring up their skills before they enter college; (2) interventions that accelerate students’ progress through developmental education by shortening the timing or content of their courses; (3) programs that provide contextualized basic skills together with occupational or college-content coursework; and (4) programs that enhance the supports for developmentallevel learners, such as advising or tutoring. While research on best practices in developmental education abounds, little rigorous research exists to demonstrate the effects of these reforms on students’ achievement. Programs that show the greatest benefits with relatively rigorous documentation either mainstream developmental students into college-level courses with additional supports, provide modularized or compressed courses to allow remedial students to more quickly complete their developmental work, or offer contextualized remedial education within occupational and vocational programs. These strategies show the most promise for educators and policymakers who must act now, but they should also continue to receive attention from researchers. Many of the strategies have not yet been evaluated using more rigorous and reliable research methods, and/or early promising results have not been replicated in other settings. This literature review also notes several promising reforms that merit further study: technologyaided approaches, improved alignment between secondary and postsecondary education, and curricular redesign that reconsiders the key skills that academically underprepared students will need in their careers. Finally, it flags two generic issues — placement assessments and faculty support — that will likely need to be addressed for community colleges to see large-scale changes in their developmental-level students’ achievement.

Making “Health in All Policies” a Reality Requires You!

Making “Health in All Policies” a Reality Requires You!

Online college laboratory courses: Can they be done and will they affect graduation and retention rates?

Online education has been steadily growing during the last decade. This growth has mainly taken place in the non-laboratory science fields. This essay describes some of the best practices to increase and maintain student retention, increase student engagement and increase graduation rates for college running online laboratory science courses. This article further discusses how to run successful, hands-on laboratory courses for your online students. The most common issues are being discussed and what can be done to provide the students with the same hands-on experience online as what they would experience in a more traditional classroom setting.DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v5i4.289

High School Best Practices: Results from Cross-Case Comparisons

Identifying what commonalities exist in high schools where students consistently outperform other demographically similar students is of particular interest to administrators and practitioners looking to increase graduation rates among all students. Schools that particularly improve the performance of students with special needs and those from diverse backgrounds have become a top priority in recent years. For this study, a set of schools whose students consistently performed better than a demographically similar set of schools was identified and compared. The study employed a multiple case study methodology, with interview and document collection in each of the fifteen schools. Findings suggest that four interrelated practices distinguish higher-performing schools from their average performing counterparts. These practices are a well-defined and enacted focus on rigor, capacities to innovate, open and transparent communication within the school and with the broader community, and the willingness and capability to use a variety of evidence to make strategic decisions.

A Study of Zero Tolerance Policies in Schools: A Multi-Integrated Systems Approach to Improve Outcomes for Adolescents

School officials throughout the United States have adopted zero tolerance policies to address student discipline, resulting in an increase in out-of-school suspensions and expulsions. The introduction of police on school campuses also increased the referral of students to the juvenile courts. Although school personnel generally view zero tolerance policies as a constructive measure, this approach denies recent research on adolescent brain development that mischief is a foreseeable derivative of adolescence. A case study method examined one juvenile court's innovative multi-integrated systems approach related to the adverse trends associated with zero tolerance policies. A multi-disciplinary protocol resulted in more effective youth assessments that reduced out-of-school suspensions and school referrals; increased graduation rates by 20%; and decreased delinquent felony rates by nearly 50%. The resulting protocol changed how the system responds to disruptive students by significantly reducing out-of-school suspensions and school referrals, and putting into place alternatives as well as providing community resources to address the underlying causes of the behavior. A multi-systems approach that targets the reasons for disruptive behavior improves student educational and behavioral outcomes.

Government funding as leverage for quality teaching and learning

The South African Higher Education Funding Framework uses funding as a lever to achieve equitable student access, quality teaching and research, and improved student retention and success. Maximising a university subsidy from the national Department of Education necessitates innovative strategies at the pre- and post-student admission stages. This paper describes how the resource base of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal was increased by the Academic Development and Student Support project which enabled the Faculty to meet enrolment targets and increase graduation rates.

Truancy Programs: Are the Effects Too Easily Washed Away?

Truancy has been identified as a risk factor of criminal behavior but results are mixed as to the best means to reduce this school-based concern. The Truancy Prevention Initiative has been implemented in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina under the direction of the Recovery School District to reduce levels of truancy, increase graduation rates, and decrease youth crime. This article emphasizes the statutes and ordinances behind this initiative in order for it to be compared to current evidence-based literature to forecast its effectiveness. In addition, social disorganization and deterrence theories are used to analyze the foundational elements of the Truancy Prevention Initiative. The Truancy Prevention Initiative is a promising program that requires process and outcome evaluations to draw a stronger conclusion of its effectiveness.

It’s Only Part of the Story: The Fallacy of Improved Outcome Data in New York City’s Effort to Make Its High Schools Small

This article examines a recent reform effort that has opened hundreds of small high schools in poor urban communities in New York City, The New Century Schools Initiative (NCSI). Outcome data have shown that NCSI has dramatically increased graduation rates among poor students and students of color. However, an ethnographic study of the instructional practices at 3 NCSI high schools revealed that these schools are struggling to maintain high expectations and to prepare their students for higher education. In a climate that prioritizes outcome data, these challenges are obscured. Consequently, this article argues that urban school reform focus its efforts on improving instructional practice so to truly make sustainable improvements in the education of poor students.

The Effects of Higher Admission Standards on NCAA Student-Athletes: An Analysis of Proposition 16

This study examines the effect of an increase in minimum admissions standards on college enrollment and graduation rates of student-athletes. In 1996, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) enacted Proposition 16, which increased admission standards for freshmen student-athletes at Division I schools, in an effort to improve graduation rates. Results indicate that Proposition 16 increased graduation rates significantly for Black student-athletes, and had no significant impact on graduation rates for White student-athletes. Results also indicate that graduation rates declined for Black student-athletes at Division II schools, which may have been driven by students transferring to Division I. As a result of the higher admission standards, Division I schools changed recruiting patterns and relied less on freshmen student-athletes, particularly Black student-athletes, to fill scholarships. Even though fewer Black freshmen student-athletes enrolled in Division I schools, the overall number of Black student-athletes did not change, suggesting that a greater proportion of transfer students into Division I schools were Black.

Enhancing Drug Court Success

This study evaluates the impact of enhanced drug court services in a large county in Southern California. These enhanced services, including specialty counseling groups, educational/employment resources, and increased Residential Treatment (RT) beds, were designed to increase program retention and successful completion (graduation) of drug court. This study examines outcomes for 477 male and 273 female drug court participants between January 2004 and March 2005 in Orange County, California. Data were gathered from various sources including the Drug Court management information system (MIS) and probation records. The results suggest that several enhancements individually increase participation retention (as opposed to termination) in drug court, particularly education, employment, RT, and two specialty counseling groups (Alcohol Recovery and Mask of Addiction). Similarly, participant graduation rates were improved with the individual effects of education, employment, and the same two specialty counseling groups. The combination of RT, specialty counseling groups, and employment achievement increased graduation rates for drug court participants. This research suggests further examination of these variables in alternate settings to determine the extent to which these strong but preliminary results are generalizable.

Small High Schools on a Larger Scale: The Impact of School Conversions in Chicago

This study examines 4 years of small school reform in Chicago, focusing on schools formed by converting large traditional high schools into small autonomous ones. Analyzing systemwide survey and outcome data, the authors assess the assumptions embedded in the reform’s theory of change. They find that these schools are characterized by more collegial and committed teacher contexts and more academically and personally supportive student contexts. There is some evidence of decreased dropout rates and increased graduation rates for the first cohort of students but not for the second cohort. The authors do not find stronger instruction, nor do they find student achievement has improved. They discuss implications for reformers and policy makers who are interested in small schools in particular and high school reform in general.