Patterns of GPA decline varied widely across high schools, suggesting school environment plays an important role in the transition¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2023: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Of 64 high schools with at least 20 Black students, 17 saw Black students lose more than 0.5 GPA points on average while 14 saw them improve; 13 of the 14 schools with gains had incoming classes averaging below 2.5. → Seeskin 2018

Evidence¶

Seeskin 2018¶

Seeskin, A., Nagaoka, J., & Mahaffie, S. (2018). Hidden risk: Changes in GPA across the transition to high school. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/hidden-risk-changes-gpa-across-transition-high-school

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Descriptive school-level analysis of GPA change distributions across CPS high schools (Figure 7). "Of the 64 CPS high schools with at least 20 Black students in their 2016–17 freshman cohort, 17 schools saw their Black students lose more than 0.5 points" while 14 improved; Black and Latino students in selective enrollment schools tended to see especially large declines.

"Of the 64 CPS high schools with at least 20 Black students in their 2016–17 freshman cohort, 17 schools saw their Black students lose more than 0.5 points in core GPA on average between the eighth and ninth grades, while 14 saw their Black students improve their GPAs, on average"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• High- and middle-achieving Black students saw core GPA declines at least twice as large as White peers with similar eighth-grade GPAs — related
• CPS students' core GPAs continue to decline between eighth and ninth grade despite steady improvement in both eighth- and ninth-grade grades — related
• Students with higher eighth-grade achievement saw larger core GPA declines across the transition to high school — related
• GPA declines in arts and PE/health greatly exceeded declines in core subjects between eighth and ninth grade — related
• Gains in sophomore performance were unequal: about one in five Latino and Black young men were off-track at the end of sophomore year — related
• Some high schools mitigated the typical negative effects of proximity to homicide: most student outcomes declined after a nearby homicide, but not all schools saw average declines — related
• Unexcused absences quadruple from eighth to ninth grade, explaining most of the drop in grades and pass rates across all student groups — related