Public High School Graduates Research Articles

The Effect of Residential School Choice on Public High School Graduation Rates

This study evaluates the effect of school district size on public high school graduation rates. The study calculates the graduation rate for each graduating class in each state between 1991 and 2002 and uses a fixed-effects model to examine the relationship between these graduation rates and changes in the size of each state's school districts during that period. The analysis indicates that decreasing the average size of a state's school districts by 200 square miles leads to an increase of about 1.64 percentage points in its graduation rate. To put this result into context, if Florida decreased the size of its school districts to the national median, it would increase its graduation rate by about 4.5 percentage points.

TRANSFER CONDITIONS OF LATINA/O COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS: A SINGLE INSTITUTION CASE STUDY

This study reported in this article examined the transfer process for Latina/o students at Esperanza Community College. Esperanza is one of the 108 community colleges in California with one of the largest concentrations of Latina/o students. In California, 42 out of every 100 Latina/o public high school graduates pursue some form of higher education. For most, the community college is the entry point, Of these, 32 out of every 100 students begin their pursuit of higher education at a California community college. An average of three Latina/o students transfers to a university. Recommendations considered essential to create a prevailing community college transfer culture are offered.

High School Graduation Rates in the United States: Implications for the Counseling Profession

This article reviews a troubling report of a nationwide study of U.S. public high school graduation rates conducted by J. P. Greene (2001) of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. The statistics revealed that fewer students were graduating from high school in the United States than is being reported by school districts, states, and the National Center for Education Statistics. They also revealed that graduation rates were much lower for African American and Latino students than for White students. The author summarizes the research on the consequences of dropping out of school and discusses the implications of these findings for counselors and the counseling profession.

The Influence of High School Graduation Requirement Policies in Mathematics and Science on Student Course-Taking Patterns and Achievement

One of the most widely implemented educational reform efforts of the last two decades has been the adoption of increased high school graduation requirements, especially in mathematics and science. The present study examines the effect of that reform. More particularly, this article first investigates the extent to which a commonly adopted requirement that students complete three credits in mathematics and science was implemented at schools. Using multilevel regression analysis, the study then examines the relationship between three-course requirements in mathematics and science and three expected outcomes: increases in the number of credits students earned in mathematics and science, increases in the level of mathematics and science classes completed by students, and increases in student achievement in math and science, as measured by 8th- to 12th-grade test score gains. To test this relationship, the author drew a nationally representative sample of 1992 public high school graduates from the National Educational Longitudinal Study conducted in 1988. Analysis of these data indicates that many schools that required students to complete three courses in math or science in order to graduate did not strictly enforce this policy, allowing a substantial percentage of the students to graduate without earning three credits in these subjects. Nevertheless, three-course requirements influenced students to earn more credits in mathematics and science; however, only some students completed this additional coursework in advanced classes. In addition, student test score gains did not vary by high school graduation requirement policy. These findings suggest that increasing the number of credits students have to earn in mathematics and science to graduate from high school by itself may not be sufficient to improve student proficiency in these subjects.

There is No Simple Way to Build a Middle School Reading Program

IN THE spring of 2001 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution featured an article on why students drop out of high school. Included in the commentary were current public high school graduation rates from the U.S. Department of Education.1 The figures clearly indicated that a significant number of students who entered high school were not earning regular diplomas four years later. The most recent figures (1999) for students not completing high school range from 13.7% in Nebraska to 49.6% in Georgia. An Atlanta high school science teacher quoted in the article said that, despite the fact that her ninth-grade science books are written at a sixth-grade level, her students can't read or comprehend the information in them. All these high school students having difficulty textbooks were once in the middle grades. This simple observation suggests that we need to provide instruction at the appropriate levels for all middle school students. New federal legislation calls for annual testing in mathematics and in grades 3 through 8. Obviously, there is a growing conviction that middle schools need to build strong programs. Yet there is no simple way to accomplish this task. The Nation's Report Card: Fourth-Grade Reading 2000 cites the fact that 37% of fourth-grade students read below the basic level.2 Unfortunately, as these youngsters move into middle schools, they may not have access to classes or trained teachers. As a result, they will have even fewer opportunities to improve their skills and increase their independent activities than they had in their elementary schools. In addition to basal series, elementary schools make a variety of programs available to their students. These include early intervention programs, such as Four Blocks, Reading Recovery, and Success for All. Why aren't there similar programs for middle school students? Comparing in elementary schools and middle schools is like comparing apples and oranges. Elementary school teachers are involved with early in their college classes. The majority of elementary teachers are responsible for instruction, especially those who teach in the primary grades. Thus programs such as Four Blocks are built on a strong foundation. Furthermore, elementary school libraries have high rates of book circulation. In contrast, the roots of middle school problems run deep. Academic licenses for middle school teachers have typically been restricted to the subject-matter disciplines of English, mathematics, science, and social studies. Many middle schools have either eliminated classes or offer such classes taught by teachers who lack the rigorous training required for a reading license. The rate of circulation of library books in middle schools -- an indicator of the level of independent -- is significantly below that of elementary schools.3 Given these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that many middle schools that seek to build a strong program must build on a weak foundation. Because achievement is the crucial link between middle school students and their future success, it is vital that middle schools provide the personnel, time, and resources needed to produce successful readers. Middle school students should have the support of teachers every day, just as they are also engaged each day with teachers of English, mathematics, science, and social studies. Moreover, special attention from teachers should be given to those students who read two or more grade levels below their expected level. And because the school library is the logical place for students to find materials with which to practice their reading, middle schools need to ensure that students have access to new books, along with support from librarians. …

The Relation of High School Career and Work-Oriented Education to Postsecondary Employment and College Performance: A Six-Year Longitudinal Study of Public High School Graduates

The employment and college enrolment history of high school graduates (N = 4,476) of a large, suburban school district was examined, with particular interest in how the postsecondary employment and school of graduates who had completed a career- and work-oriented secondary educational program (N = 399) compared with that of other graduates (N=4,476). Overall, program participants fared better on many employment outcomes than non-program participants, and as well as non-program participants on college performance. They worked more quarters and had more continuous employment than non-program participants. Program participants also earned more over the six-year follow-up and each year from 1994 through 1998. They were also less likely to be employed in areas traditionally considered short-term or temporary in their first jobs than were non-program graduates, and more were employed in trades than were non-program participants. Finally, program participants performed nearly the same on college outcomes as did non-program participants. Results call for adjusting thinking about the benefits of career- and work-oriented secondary education for all students, whether their postsecondary plans are to enrol in college or to enter employment.

Autour de l'intégralité intransigeante: la papauté, l'Eglise et la réception romaine au Canada français

In French Canada, the representations of the papacy are linked to the totality of the doctrinal and disciplinary Roman corpus and to the uncompromising position of the Catholic Church. What happens when the historical continuity of this relationship which guarantees ecclesiastical hold is threatened? When the social credibility of that hold starts to crumble? Official definitions are stiffened, although couched in modernized language, in order to stem further losses. Nonetheless, a certain degree of adjustment can be detected. It is present in what is not said or in subtle shifts of emphasis. This is especially manifest in the representations of papal attributes from the post-Second World War period to the present. The desired enticement fails to strengthen the commitment of the faithful. The mitigated response which results is apparent in the 1962-3 survey of public high school graduates, as well as in polls taken during the 1970s and the 1984 papal visit. Although the gap seems to widen, it is far from sudden or unexpected.

Integration and Scholastic Performance: A Pilot Study of Chicago Public High School Graduates Attending the University of Illinois, Chicago

Grade point averages of 897 white university students representing 25 public high schools in Chicago were examined. Socioeconomic status and individual ability were taken into consideration. A comparison was then made of the scholastic performance of white students who attended integrated high schools and that of white students who attended white-segregated high schools. With no refinement as to ability or socioeconomic status, white students from integrated high schools performed as well as white students who attended white-segregated high schools. However, when the above average ability—above average socioeconomic status groups—are compared, the findings are barely significant (if P = .05). This leaves open the question of whether there may be some slight suppression of achievement associated with attendance at an integrated high school. More research is necessary before definite conclusions can be teached.

Comparative Achievement of Graduates of Public and Catholic High Schools in their Freshman College Year

THIS STUDY is a comparison of the achieve ment of 111 public high school graduates with that of 103 Catholic high school graduates se lected from the freshman class at the University of Kentucky during the school year 1961-62.2 The public school group was randomly selected from the same freshman class in subgroups of approximately the same size as that of the corre sponding Catholic school subgroup (Colleges of Agriculture, Arts and Sciences, Commerce, Edu cation, and Engineering). In addition students were classified on the basis of sex. The two groups were compared in all their subdivisions. Since the correlations of entrance examination scores and achievement were .42 for the Catho lic school graduates and .46 for the public school graduates, it seemed prudent to compare the two groups with respect to several nonintellectual var iables commonly regarded as bearing some rela tion to achievement. In this instance only the total of the public high school graduates was compared with the total of the Catholic high school gradu ates?there was no division into subgroups. The nonintellectual variables selected as the basis of comparison of the foregoing groups of graduates of public and Catholic high schools were the fol lowing: the Edwards Personal Preference Sched ule, extraclass activities, leadership, family educa tion, father's economic status, and age at entrance into college. The following freshmen were specifically ex cluded from the study: (1) those whose records offered insufficient data; (2) public school grad uates who had not spent all four years in a public high school; (3) Catholic school graduates who had not spent all four years in a Catholic high school; (4) freshmen who withdrew from college before the end of the academic year; (5) fresh men who were not entering the University of Ken tucky for the first time; and (6) those freshmen who attended neither a public nor a Catholic high school. Sixty-six hypotheses were tested: 60 were re lated to the comparison of achievement and six to the comparison with respect to nonintellectual variables. Method