Use course-failure data to prompt school self-evaluation and targeted intervention before students' second year¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 2 studies (1 associational, 1 design), q1–q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The report recommends two uses of on-track data: interventions for individual failing students before their second year of high school, and school self-evaluation using course-failure data. Schools can ask diagnostic questions such as "Are failure rates higher at specific times of the day?" and whether specific teachers' failure rates exceed colleagues teaching similar courses. The report urges focusing on "individual students who are at high risk of failure, rather than assuming that certain types of students will fail in high school."

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Schools need access to their own course-failure and on-track data, broken down by time of day, subject, teacher, and student background

Constraints¶

• All data are correlational, so the report cannot say with certainty that preventing students from falling off-track would raise graduation rates
• For students whose failures reflect disengagement from school, efforts to improve on-track rates may be misdirected if they do not address underlying problems

Target Learners¶

• First-time ninth-grade high school students in urban high schools

Target Learning Goals¶

• Improved course passing, credit accumulation, and on-time graduation

Claims¶

• Students off track for graduation after ninth grade are less than half as likely to graduate than their on-track peers [+W]
• The first two semester course failures in ninth grade are associated with a 30 percentage point decrease in the probability of graduating [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Design credit-recovery interventions to address broader academic deficits and engagement, not only algebra content

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Allensworth, E. M., & Easton, J. Q. (2005). The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation. Consortium on Chicago School Research. https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/track-indicator-predictor-high-school-graduation