I N N O V A T O R
News about high school innovation
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Feb. 6, 2009
Welcome to INNOVATOR, a bimonthly report on high school change in North Carolina from the North Carolina New Schools Project. INNOVATOR informs practitioners, policy makers, and friends of public education about high school innovation in North Carolina as well as success stories and research from across the nation.
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In This Issue
NC's innovative schools lose few students as dropouts
Link between course completion, dropouts shown in study
Guidance, support cited in reports on college readiness
Student performance up on AP exams, but gaps persist
High school innovation continues to stem exodus of dropouts

Innovative high schools in North Carolina continue to show strong evidence of success in keeping students engaged in school and on track to graduation. Students who are enrolled in the pioneering small schools are significantly less likely to drop out than their peers in larger, traditional high schools.

The combined dropout rate last year for the innovative schools that are partners with the North Carolina New Schools Project was 3.37 percent -- compared to a 4.97 percent rate for the state as a whole, according to an NCNSP analysis of dropout data released Thursday to the State Board of Education. The state's overall dropout rate represented the first decline since the 2004-05 year. The dropout rate last year was 5.24 percent.

Learn and Earn early college high schools and redesigned high schools with a focus on science, technology, engineering and math showed particularly strong results. Some whole-school conversions of large comprehensive high schools had less success last year stemming dropouts.

Among all 82 innovative high schools open this year and last, just less than half -- 39 schools -- reported losing no students as dropouts. An additional five schools had only one dropout. Of 59 total public and charter high schools across the state last year reporting no dropouts, 39 were innovative schools.

The latest dropout data provides another year of evidence that high school transformation has a powerful impact on the critical issue of student engagement. Of the dozen innovative high schools that in their initial 2005-06 school year lost no more than two students as dropouts, 10 maintained the same track record through 2007-08, even as they added grades and grew their enrollments. For all 82 schools that were open during the last two years, 51 had two or fewer dropouts during the 2007-08 year.

State education leaders cited early college high schools and other small schools as a factor helping to improve North Carolina's dropout numbers. The 17,000 students who were enrolled in the 82 innovative schools accounted for about 4 percent of the state's 450,000 high school students, but the 541 dropouts from those schools represented a much smaller share of all dropouts -- 2.4 percent.

Keeping more students in school and on track to graduation isn't a simple task with a single approach. But there's widespread agreement among educators that students are more likely to stay in school and engaged when they feel solid connections with their school.

Michael Basham, superintendent of Hertford County schools, told members of the State Board of Education on Thursday that such connections help give students hope -- a key ingredient in helping students persist and succeed.

"When you know the students and give them hope, good things happen," Basham said. "It boils down to giving students hope that they can be successful."

Hertford schools were highlighted during Thursday's state board meeting for a three-year trend of a declining dropout rate. The district in rural, northeastern North Carolina has cut its dropout rate in half in the last three years, from 5.82 percent to 2.95 percent. Basham said the addition of an early college high school this year will help reduce the number of dropouts even more.

Basham also cited two other key factors that he said have made a difference: the strong commitment of the county's school board to serious efforts to change high school outcomes and the leadership of effective principals.

The state's innovative high schools also had success with students in 9th grade -- the year when students are most likely to quit. About a third of all dropouts in North Carolina last year were 9th graders. Yet 49 of the 76 innovative high schools that enrolled 9th graders last year lost no freshmen as dropouts. And compared to schools with similar demographics, 65 of the 76 innovative schools with freshmen last year were more successful in keeping their 9th graders in school.

Early college high schools continue to stand out as a particularly effective hedge against dropouts. Of the 42 schools, most of which are located on community college campuses, 29 reported no dropouts; 36 with no 9th grade dropouts.

In addition, 10 redesigned schools that opened last year with a focus on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) also show promise in helping reduce dropouts. Nine of the schools lost no students as dropouts from the 9th grade, which for most of the schools was their only grade last year. Several other start-up schools that opened in 2005 with a health-science focus also continue to lose few, if any, students as dropouts.  The 10 STEM schools were opened as part of "turnaround" efforts ordered by the state in high schools with chronically low performance.

The greatest challenges remain large traditional high schools that have converted fully to a set of smaller innovative schools.  Across those campuses, the dropout rates vary, with a few of the new schools dipping below the state average and others exceeding it. 

However, the 30 innovative schools created by redesigning part or all of traditional high schools tended to outperform comparable traditional, comprehensive schools Twenty of the 30 did better than their comparison school for all dropouts, and 16 of 25 with 9th grade classes did better than their comparison school for freshmen dropouts.
Students who drop out lag in course completion, study shows

Poor attendance is the reason cited most often for students dropping out of North Carolina's high schools. Nearly half the 22,434 students who quit high school in 2007-08 did so because of attendance problems, according to the state dropout report released Thursday.

But attendance and academic success are closely bound. A student can't succeed if he or she isn't in school. An unsuccessful student is more likely to have poor attendance.

A new research brief from the National Center for Education Statistics underscores that linkage by examining the relationship between course completion and dropping out of high school. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that students who as 10th graders had completed fewer course credits were more likely to drop out.

Yet the numbers strengthen the argument that ensuring that all students graduate ready for college, careers and life means ensuring success from the start. The researchers found that of a sample of students who were in 10th grade in the 2001-02 school year, those who eventually graduated on time in 2004 finished their freshman year with 6.6 credits and their sophomore year with 13.3 credits. By comparison, students who were counted as dropouts after 10th grade had accrued only 3.9 credits by the end of their freshman year and 7.2 credits as sophomores.

Similar kinds of gaps were also measured between on-time graduates and students who eventually dropped out as juniors or seniors. 
Ample guidance, support key to college attainment, reports say

Students need more than good grades and challenging course work to enroll and succeed in college, two recent reports argue. They also need ample information and support to help navigate the process of choosing among colleges, completing applications for admission and financial aid and ultimately enrolling.

The two reports, both issued by the Center for American Progress, say that even as schools work to raise academic standards and make coursework more challenging and meaningful, they must also develop a college-going culture, where the college-counseling role isn't limited to the counselor's office but is instead shared by teachers and other adults.

One of the two reports focuses on Chicago schools, where researchers found that the frequent lack of information about applying for college and financial aid can be a more significant barrier to college enrollment than poor academic performance.

Barriers to College Attainment: Lessons from Chicago concludes that in addition to stronger academic preparation, students also need better support.

"Too many students who aspire to attend four-year colleges fall through the cracks, not taking the steps necessary to apply to and enroll in four-year colleges," the authors of the study say. "Students and their families need to believe that their high aspirations are attainable, and in part this belief is created when students feel supported and capable of achieving their goals."

The other report, Improving Academic Preparation for College: What We Know and How State and Federal Policy Can Help, urges a stronger federal role to communicate the need for college readiness for all students, help develop better alignment between high school and college education, and improve data collection and analysis. States, the report argues, should take further steps to help better support students while increasing academic rigor.
Report on AP tests shows gains, gaps in student performance

More students nationally and in North Carolina are taking and passing Advanced Placement exams, but troubling gaps remain between black students and white, Hispanic and Asian students, according to a report released this week by the College Board.

Nationally, 15.2 percent of students who graduated from public high schools in 2008 passed at least one AP exam with a score of 3 or better, up from 14.1 percent in 2007 and 12.2 percent in 2003. For the class of 2008 in North Carolina -- one of 18 states that at least matched the national average -- the passing rate on at least one AP test was 17.3 percent, compared to 14.8 percent in 2003.
 
While black students in North Carolina represent nearly 30 percent of the state's public school enrollment, they accounted for only a little more than 6 percent of students who received a score of 3 or better on at least one AP exam. For the nation as a whole, black students represent 14.4 percent of public school enrollments, but just 3.5 percent of 2008 graduates who received an AP score of at least 3. No state, the College Board says, has closed the "equity and excellence" gap for black students, while more than a dozen has done so for Hispanic students, American Indian students or both.

Research has found that AP scores of 3 or higher are predictive of both college success and graduation, the College Board said in its report, urging greater efforts to ensure more students have an equitable chance to succeed in AP courses.

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INNOVATOR is produced by the North Carolina New Schools Project, an initiative of the Office of the Governor and the Education Cabinet with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other businesses and foundations. For story suggestions or to opt out of receiving this e-mail report, please send an e-mail to innovator@newschoolsproject.org or call Todd Silberman at (919) 277-3760.