2015 Building a Grad Nation Report: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic

This sixth annual report to the nation highlights the significant progress that has been made, but also the serious challenges that remain – closing gaping graduation gaps between various student populations; tackling the challenge in key states and school districts; and keeping the nation's focus on ensuring that all students – whom Robert Putnam calls "our kids" – have an equal chance at the American Drea

Grad Nation: Building a Grad Nation, Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, 2017-2018 Annual Update

High school graduation rates help us better understand how states, schools, and districts across the country are doing at graduating their students, bringing about more equitable outcomes for students facing the greatest challenges, and creating pathways for long-term success. This is essential because a high school diploma has become a prerequisite to postsecondary education and obtaining a livable wage and is associated with a wide range of important health and civic outcomes. Although strong and consistent progress has been made over the past decade in raising graduation rates, too often the same students, particularly those who are Black, Hispanic, low-income, and with disabilities, still have the most disparate outcomes, resources, and opportunities. In the 2018 Building Grad Nation report, we take an in-depth look at the progress that was made between 2011 and 2016 in raising high school graduation rates and the state and district sources of those improvements, and identify where challenges remain. We also link improvements in high school graduation rates to the need to ensure that all students, including those historically underserved by the education system, graduate high school prepared for postsecondary education.High school graduation rates help us better understand how states, schools, and districts across the country are doing at graduating their students, bringing about more equitable outcomes for students facing the greatest challenges, and creating pathways for long-term success. This is essential because a high school diploma has become a prerequisite to postsecondary education and obtaining a livable wage and is associated with a wide range of important health and civic outcomes. Although strong and consistent progress has been made over the past decade in raising graduation rates, too often the same students, particularly those who are Black, Hispanic, low-income, and with disabilities, still have the most disparate outcomes, resources, and opportunities.AT&T Lumina Foundatio

Grad Nation: Building a Grad Nation, Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, 2016-2017 Annual Update

This year signifies two key milestones in the GradNation campaign to raise high school graduation rates. First, the release of the 2015 federal graduation rate data marks five years since states began reporting the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR). The ACGR, for the first time, created a common formula for collecting graduation rate statistics across states and provides data on individual student subgroups down to the school and district levels. With five years of ACGR data, it is clearer than ever before where progress is being made and where it is not, which students continue to graduate at higher and lower rates and how this varies by state, and where graduation rate gaps are closing and persisting between student subgroups. Second, there are now just five years of federal graduation rate data reporting between now and the culmination of the GradNation goal to raise high school graduation rates to 90 percent by the Class of 2020. We have made remarkable progress as a nation, but need to accelerate our progress to reach our goal. These milestones are significant not simply because we are halfway to the endpoint of a 10-year campaign to bring greater attention to the state of high school graduation in our country, but also because they mark an opportunity to learn from the progress and challenges of the first five years of ACGR and to renew our commitment to graduating more students ready to move successfully into the postsecondary or career path of their choice. Since the 2010-11 school year, the national high school graduation rate is up more than four percentage points, rising from 79 percent to a record high of 83.2 percent in 2015. Over this five-year period, graduation rates have increased in almost every state and for every student subgroup. Progress since 2001 in raising high school graduation rates has resulted in 2.8 million more students graduating from high school rather than dropping out. This progress, however, is tempered by slowing gains, stubborn graduation rate gaps for historically underperforming subgroups, and the significant number of students who still attend low-graduation-rate high schools. The nation needs to nearly double its rate of progress in boosting high school graduation rates in the coming years in order to reach its 90 percent goal by the Class of 2020. Questions also continue to be raised over the validity of increasing graduation rates and the alternative pathways that are being created for the students who fall off track to graduation. In this year’s Building a Grad Nation report, we examine areas of concern in high school graduation rate reporting, including measurement errors, cases of schools and districts gaming the system, and issues around lowering diploma standards, as well as other areas of progress and remaining challenges on the path to 90 percent.This year signifies two key milestones in the GradNation campaign to raise high school graduation rates. First, the release of the 2015 federal graduation rate data marks five years since states began reporting the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR). The ACGR, for the first time, created a common formula for collecting graduation rate statistics across states and provides data on individual student subgroups down to the school and district levels. With five years of ACGR data, it is clearer than ever before where progress is being made and where it is not, which students continue to graduate at higher and lower rates and how this varies by state, and where graduation rate gaps are closing and persisting between student subgroups. Second, there are now just five years of federal graduation rate data reporting between now and the culmination of the GradNation goal to raise high school graduation rates to 90 percent by the Class of 2020. We have made remarkable progress as a nation, but need to accelerate our progress to reach our goal.AT&T State Far

Grad Nation: Building a Grad Nation, Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, 2013-2014 Annual Update

This report highlights key developments in the effort to boost high school graduation rates during the past decade. It also outlines what it will take to get to 90 percent and identifies five critical areas – closing the opportunity gap between low-income students and their middle-to-high-income peers; solving the big city challenge; improving outcomes for students with disabilities; focusing on California; and boosting graduation rates for young men of color in key states – to help the nation reach its goal. Part 1: Data and Trends highlights the latest graduation rates at the national and state levels, dropout factory trends, fi ve areas of focus to reach the 90 percent goal, and a timeline of key developments in addressing the dropout crisis. Part 2: Progress and Challenge provides an update on four key planks – chronic absenteeism, middle grades reform, adult and peer supports, and re-engaging dropouts – of the nation’s shared effort to implement the Civic Marshall Plan to reach the 90 percent goal. Part 3: Moneyball for Dropout Prevention shares best available research on what works. Part 4: Paths Forward offers policy recommendations and other ways to keep the nation on track to reach the 90 percent goal, with students prepared for college and the workforce. Part 5: Final Word offers a letter from young leaders. Throughout the report, we provide case studies and snapshots to highlight best evidence in dropout prevention and recovery and specific examples of success within schools, communities, states, and the nation.This fifth annual update on America’s high school dropout crisis shows that, for the first time in history, the nation has crossed the 80 percent high school graduation rate threshold and remains on pace, for the second year in a row, to meet the goal of a 90 percent high school graduation rate by the Class of 2020. After the nation witnessed flat-lining high school graduation rates for three decades, rates have risen about 10 percentage points over the last 10 years. Improvements have been driven by dramatic gains in graduation rates among Hispanic and African American students. But it is in those same populations that some of the greatest challenges remain.AT&T Targe

Grad Nation: Building a Grad Nation, Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, 2014-2015 Annual Update

In 2013, the national high school graduation rate hit a record high of 81.4 percent, and for the third year in a row, the nation remained on pace to meet the 90 percent goal by the Class of 2020. This sixth annual update on America’s high school dropout challenge shows that these gains have been made possible by raising graduation rates for students who have traditionally struggled to earn a high school diploma, and focuses on the student subgroups and geographic areas that both contribute to this progress and are key to driving toward the 90 percent goal. Continuing a pattern seen in earlier years, rates of improvement among states and large districts varied considerably between 2011 and 2013. Some districts, including those with a majority of low-income and minority students, made big improvements, while others lost ground. This is significant because it indicates that high school graduation rates are not increasing because of broad national economic, demographic, and social trends. Rather, the constellation of leadership, reforms, and multi-sector efforts at state, district, and school levels drove this progress, and shows that with focus, graduation rates can be increased for all students in every part of the country.This sixth annual report to the nation highlights the significant progress that has been made, but also the serious challenges that remain – closing gaping graduation gaps between various student populations; tackling the challenge in key states and school districts; and keeping the nation’s focus on ensuring that all students – whom Robert Putnam calls “our kids” – have an equal chance at the American Dream.AT&T Targe

Grad Nation: Building a Grad Nation, Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, 2015-2016 Annual Update

The nation has achieved an 82.3 percent high school graduation rate – a new record high – and had another year of significant gains for nearly all student subgroups. These gains have been made possible by the schools, districts, and states that prioritized raising their graduation rates and made sure more students leave high school equipped with a high-quality diploma. Over the past decade, a majority of states increased the number of students graduating high school on time, and put themselves in good position to reach a 90 percent high school graduation rate by the Class of 2020. At the same time, the number of high schools failing to graduate one-third or more of students has been reduced, meaning fewer students are attending high schools where graduation is not the norm. All of this progress, however, is tempered by the fact that this year the national rate of improvement – 0.9 percentage points – puts the nation off pace to reach the 90 percent goal, and marked the first time since 2011 the national graduation rate increased by less than one point. There are also very real concerns that too many of our most vulnerable students remain in low-graduation-rate schools, and that the alternative pathways that have been created to meet their needs may, in many cases, not be up to the task. Additionally, questions have been raised about the validity of rising graduation rates and whether the increasing number of high school diplomas being earned is translating into success in postsecondary education and careers. In this year’s Building a Grad Nation report, we examine these issues further and explore both the important progress the nation has made and the considerable challenges that remain.The report is based on the most recent comprehensive data from the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education (2013-14). The 2016 report provides a new national and state-by-state examination of graduation rates for regular district, charter, virtual and alternative schools, a look at the validity of graduation rates, and policy recommendations for change.AT&T Target State Far

Grad Nation: Building a Grad Nation, Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, 2015-2016 Annual Update

The nation has achieved an 82.3 percent high school graduation rate – a new record high – and had another year of significant gains for nearly all student subgroups. These gains have been made possible by the schools, districts, and states that prioritized raising their graduation rates and made sure more students leave high school equipped with a high-quality diploma. Over the past decade, a majority of states increased the number of students graduating high school on time, and put themselves in good position to reach a 90 percent high school graduation rate by the Class of 2020. At the same time, the number of high schools failing to graduate one-third or more of students has been reduced, meaning fewer students are attending high schools where graduation is not the norm. All of this progress, however, is tempered by the fact that this year the national rate of improvement – 0.9 percentage points – puts the nation off pace to reach the 90 percent goal, and marked the first time since 2011 the national graduation rate increased by less than one point. There are also very real concerns that too many of our most vulnerable students remain in low-graduation-rate schools, and that the alternative pathways that have been created to meet their needs may, in many cases, not be up to the task. Additionally, questions have been raised about the validity of rising graduation rates and whether the increasing number of high school diplomas being earned is translating into success in postsecondary education and careers. In this year’s Building a Grad Nation report, we examine these issues further and explore both the important progress the nation has made and the considerable challenges that remain.The report is based on the most recent comprehensive data from the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education (2013-14). The 2016 report provides a new national and state-by-state examination of graduation rates for regular district, charter, virtual and alternative schools, a look at the validity of graduation rates, and policy recommendations for change.AT&T Target State Far