Our thanks to Marie O’Hara, Director of Research and Hans Voss, Senior Associate at Achieve for presenting on this week’s The Intersection: A Biweekly Education Policy Conversation. Marie and Hans joined us to discuss their newly launchedGraduating Readywebsite that explores the landscape of state high school graduation options, including course and assessment requirements. This new website includes a data explorer that populates details of every state’s high school graduation options as well as deeper dives into some important trends in both requirements and outcomes.
Key Takeaways:
New website with Data Explorer | Achieve’s new website allows users to view information about all of the graduation options each state offers to students and what courses are required in each option. The data can be filtered by state, diploma classification, and subjects.
Graduating Ready | Graduation rates are at all-time highs in states across the country, but many students are still not prepared to succeed in college, career, or the military. Understanding graduation requirements across various types of diplomas can be helpful in reconciling this disconnect between graduation requirements and what is needed to be “college- and career-ready.” Furthermore, for the 22 states that offer more than one graduation option, data about graduation rates across subgroups and diploma types are essential for promoting equitable outcomes.
Default Options | The percentage of students completing high school college and career ready (CCR) is significantly higher when a CCR course of study is made the default option as opposed to students having to opt-in. Among states that report student outcomes, 88% of students complete a CCR course of study when it is made the default, compared to 47% when they must opt-in, and 40% when they must opt-in and pass an assessment.
For more on our conversation with Marie and Hans, check out the full webinar below!
Stay tuned for our next webinar by following us on Twitterfor updates. See you at the Intersection!