Differentiate senior year supports by students' college qualifications at the end of eleventh grade¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 4 claims (3 for, 1 mixed) · 3 studies (3 associational), q2 · 0 of 3 report an effect size · 4 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The report groups students into five college-qualification bands (from access to very selective colleges down to two-year colleges only) and argues educators must grapple with different issues for each trajectory. The highest-qualified students (about 6 percent, concentrated in selective enrollment and IB programs) already take advanced loads, while the roughly 50 percent qualified for selective or somewhat selective colleges lack a common organizing framework, and over 40 percent graduate with such low qualifications that their options are severely limited. The report recommends that "The first priority is to intervene earlier and ensure that students do not get to senior year having just passed their courses," and that senior year serve as a launching pad for non-college-bound students too.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Data on students' junior-year GPA and ACT scores to assign college-qualification groups

Constraints¶

• Post-graduation outcomes of the lowest-qualified group could only be sketched with employment and enrollment data, without college grades or remediation information

Target Learners¶

• twelfth-grade students across the college-qualification spectrum in an urban district

Target Learning Goals¶

• college match and access
• employment and training pathways for non-college-bound graduates

Claims¶

• Among selective enrollment students, 64 percent are qualified to attend a selective or very selective college but only 37 percent enroll in one [+W]
• Only CPS graduates with access to very selective colleges (above 3.3 GPA and ACT 26+) have four-year college graduation prospects exceeding 50 percent [+W]
• Nearly two-thirds of graduates from academically advanced programs graduate with access to a selective or very selective four-year college [~W]
• CPS graduates' grades predicted college enrollment: graduates needed at least a 2.5 GPA for close to a 50 percent likelihood of enrolling in a four-year college [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Melissa Roderick, Vanessa Coca, Eliza Moeller, and Thomas Kelley-Kemple. (2013). From High School to the Future: The Challenge of Senior Year in Chicago Public Schools. UChicago CCSR Research Report. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/high-school-future-challenge-senior-year-chicago-public-schools