Education researchers at Johns Hopkins have created
the Graduation Gap Web site, a resource for educators,
policy-makers, parents and others interested in improving
America's high schools.
Recent research has shown that no more than seven out
of 10 students who enter high school leave with a diploma,
with only five out of 10 minority students reaching that
same benchmark in many areas of the country. The price
these students and society pay for their lack of education
is tremendous.
Online at
www.gradgap.org, the Graduation Gap promises to be an
important tool for everyone interested in high school
reform, now at the forefront of educational issues.
President Bush recently announced his High School
Initiative, and the nation's governors, calling 2005 "the
Year of the High School," will host a high school summit
this month.
The site will provide user-friendly data sets, tables,
charts and analysis aimed at providing the best information
available on the size, nature and location of the
Graduation Gap. Robert Balfanz and Nettie Legters of the
Center for Social
Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins define the
Graduation Gap as the difference between existing high
school graduation rates and skill levels and those needed
to meet the economic and social challenges of the 21st
century.
The first set of data tools on the Graduation Gap site
will allow researchers, legislators, policy-makers, school
reformers, school district officials, social reformers and
the public to analyze the promoting power of the high
schools in their state and the nation. Promoting power is
a concept that compares the number of freshmen enrolled in
a high school to the number of seniors four years later (or
three years later in a 10-12 school). It is the best
available school-level estimate of graduation rates. The
promoting power data sets, tables and charts on the
Graduation Gap Web site enable analysis of:
How successful high schools in
each state and the nation are at graduating their
students.
How many high schools in each
state have high graduation rates and their characteristics
(free-lunch level, minority concentration, size and
location).
The number and characteristics of
the high schools that produce many, if not most, of the
dropouts in each state and nationally.
The extent to which minority
students attend high schools with high and low graduation
rates at the same frequency as nonminority students.
"Once these facts are understood, federal, state and
local decision-makers will be in a stronger position to
estimate the level and type of resources needed to provide
every community with a high school that is equipped and
able to educate and graduate all its students," Balfanz and
Legters wrote in the Web site's policy brief.
Key findings from the Promoting Power data summarized
in the policy brief include the following:
Only about 20 percent of high
school students in the United States are likely to attend
high schools with exemplary graduation rates (90 percent or
higher).
In only six states do most high
schools have graduation rates of 90 percent or higher.
Minority students are four times
more likely to attend a high school with very low
graduation rates and three times less likely to attend a
high school with very high graduation rates than
nonminority students.
Most high schools with very low
graduation rates serve substantial populations of
low-income students, yet less than one-third of these
schools appear to receive Title 1 funds.
Additional resources and links will be added to the
Graduation Gap site, including a review of what is known
about transforming high schools with low graduation rates,
additional data on the minority graduation gap and
information on the middle grades connection.
CSOS is an educational research and development
center, established at Johns Hopkins in 1966, to improve
the educational system and to develop curricula and provide
technical assistance to help K-12 schools use the center's
research.
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