One in seven adults’ ages 18-24 in Ohio lacks a high school diploma and faces bleak prospects of prospering in our economy. Dropouts earn $10,000 less each year than the average high school graduate according to the U.S. Census Bureau, are almost twice as likely to be unemployed, and typically earn an average annual income of $20,241 which hovers just above the poverty line for a family of three in Ohio. Dropouts also drag down the Ohio economy; over the course of their life, they consume an estimated $292,000 in public aid beyond what they pay in taxes.
To mitigate the number and cost of dropouts, Ohio has permitted the creation of ninety-four dropout prevention and recovery schools. Collectively, these schools enrolled sixteen thousand students in the 2015-16 year. They serve at-risk and re-enrolling students—pupils who previously dropped out but are now re-entering the education system—with the aim of graduating students who might otherwise slip through the cracks.
To hold these schools accountable for successfully educating at-risk students, Ohio has created an alternative report card. This report card assigns an overall rating of “Exceeds,” “Meets,” or “Does Not Meet” standards based on the school’s state assessment passage rate, graduation rate, ability to achieve progress from year-to-year, and the achievement gaps between student groups. Prior to 2012-13, dropout-recovery schools were rated on the same report-card indicators as all public schools.
Whether this new alternative accountability framework appropriately captures the success of these schools is up for debate. This past summer, a committee of legislators and civic leaders debated the definition of quality, heard from community members and school leaders, and reviewed the components of the current report card. The committee failed to recommend any changes (it had to meet a legislative deadline of August 1), though a new committee convened in November to continue this important work. (Disclosure: Fordham’s Chad Aldis has been named to this newly reconstituted committee.)
Should the committee choose to maintain the state’s recently created alternative report card, some adjustments are needed to ensure that high-performing dropout-recovery schools are distinguished from schools that continually fail to improve the learning of at-risk students.
Attention should be paid to one component in particular of the accountability rating—the progress measure that, generally speaking, gauges whether dropout-recovery students are making at least one year of academic growth. A very large majority of dropout-recovery schools appears to be falling short of growth expectations. In 2015-16, just seven schools exceeded the progress standards, eighteen met them, and an overwhelming majority of schools—sixty-nine of them—failed to meet the state’s standard for academic progress. In the previous year (2014-15), only one school exceeded standards, thirty-three met standards, and fifty-nine failed to meet the growth expectations. Given these results, the committee should review this measure’s methodology and confirm that the norm-referenced group used to calculate student growth along the NWEA’s Measures of Academic Progress test is appropriate for dropout-recovery students. Ohio law requires dropout-recovery schools to use a norm-referenced exam, not state exams, to gauge student growth over time. Ensuring that we accurately and fairly capture student progress, especially for pupils who may be years behind, should be a high priority.
Additionally, the way Ohio evaluates graduation rates should make certain that schools are not punished for taking in students who “drop-in” years after the expiration of their expected four-year graduation rate. (Four-year graduation rates, along with extended rates—up to eight years—are included in the alternative accountability system.)
Many also take issue with dropout-recovery schools being measured against the adjusted cohort graduation rate, as dropout-recovery schools face the consequences of a student’s previous school passing them on from one grade to the next without accomplishing adequate academic progress. A student’s transcript may report that they are in the eighth grade when they have really only mastered reading and math skills at the sixth-grade level. Yet, dropout-recovery schools are held accountable for graduating that student in four years. Testimony from school leaders during the summer’s dropout prevention and recovery school study committee emphasized the time crunch schools feel as soon as students who are academically far behind step through their doors. School leaders should not face perverse incentives to reject or rush students through the curricula because they are on the hook to meet four- or five-year graduation rates.
Finally, the performance standards should be adjusted to reflect high yet attainable standards. Currently, for dropout-recovery schools to attain a “Meets” graduation rate, they must graduate just 8 percent of all eligible students in four years. This standard is much lower than that of traditional schools, which must graduate 84 percent of seniors to earn a C rating and 93 percent to earn an A on the four-year graduation indicator. However, dropout-recovery school’s overall graduation rate standard could be set so low to account for the challenges these schools face in meeting typical adjusted cohort graduation rate timelines. Moving forward, the committee should evaluate the performance standards alongside their respective measures to ensure these are aligned and appropriately rigorous. Should the committee decide to phase in higher performance standards, they should also consider what supports, like re-engagement programs, could be implemented to help schools meet these targets.
As the new dropout-recovery committee works into 2017 to define what quality means for these schools, they should give thought to Ohio’s current system and explore ways to better distinguish high-performing from low-performing dropout-recovery schools. The quality of education for at-risk students, and by extension, Ohio’s long-term economic condition, is at stake.
