Extra help for ‘late graduates’ pays off in the long run
By Ellie Ashford
04/09 -- As more policymakers call for high school completion based on students graduating within four years, there are concerns that struggling students and returning dropouts who take longer to earn a diploma could be neglected.
A new study by NSBA’s Center for Public Education (CEP) found it is definitely worth the extra effort to give students more time to earn the credits they need to graduate.
“On-time graduation remains the best prospect for students, and districts should make on-time graduation the first priority,” states Better Late Than Never, an original study issued by the center in February. “But the extra work late graduates put toward earning a high school diploma pays off -- not only in academic outcomes, but in every aspect of life, including work, civic participation, and health.”
According to the Education Commission of the States (ECS), 81 percent of the class of 2005 completed high school in four years, and 85 percent completed high school in five years.
Updated regulations for implementing the No Child Left Behind Act issued last fall require states to calculate graduation rates as the number of students who graduated in four years with regular high school diplomas divided by the number of students who entered ninth grade four years earlier. Students who transferred into a school are added and those who transferred out are subtracted.
That definition, along with student achievement data, is used to determine whether a state is meeting its adequate yearly progress goals. It is based on a definition adopted by the National Governors Association. In 2005, the governors of all the states agreed to the NGA’s Graduation Counts Compact, which called for the adoption of a common definition for a four-year high school completion rate.
NGA reported in 2008 that 16 states are using the definition. All but five states have definite plans to do so in the near future.
Late graduates succeed
Better Late Than Never defines “late graduates” as students who were in eighth grade in 1988 but graduated in July 1992 or later. Approximately 4.6 percent of those students were late graduates, and 78.3 percent were “on-time graduates.” Another 7.7 percent received GEDs, and 9.4 percent were dropouts.
The CEP study is based on data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, which followed a nationally representative sample of eighth graders through high school, college, and the workforce until 2000.
According to the report, late graduates “do markedly better in all arenas than GED recipients and dropouts. And when the data is controlled to compare students of equivalent socioeconomic status and achievement level, late graduates come close to on-time graduates’ achievement.”
Among other findings from the report:
• “Late graduates distinguish themselves not so much by enrolling in college, but in completion,” the report says. About 59 percent of late graduates enroll in college, compared to 51 percent of GED recipients, but are nearly four times as likely to earn at least an associate’s degree.
• More late graduates than GED recipients and dropouts are employed with full-time jobs. Late graduates are also less likely to earn incomes at the low end of the income scale.
• Late graduates do significantly better in terms of job benefits. Of the late graduates employed after 1994, close to two-thirds (63 percent) held a job that offered retirement benefits compared to just over half (53 percent) of GED recipients and less than half of dropouts (45 percent).
• Seventy-six percent of late graduates had health insurance coverage compared to 66 percent of GED recipients and 61 percent of dropouts.
• Although late graduates are no more likely to be registered to vote than GED recipients, late graduates are significantly more likely to have voted in a recent election (40 percent versus 29 percent).
• Late graduates had more positive health factors. They were more likely than GED recipients and dropouts to be non-smokers and to exercise more.
Alternative schools
According to the CEP study, late graduates are more likely to be minority or English language learners, live in a poorer household, and have two or more risk factors associated with dropping out. Late graduates tend to complete middle school and enter high school academically behind their peers, often taking non-academic math courses in ninth grade.
Many late graduates are former dropouts who end up earning a diploma from an alternative school, like Lancaster County Academy, which is located in a Lancaster, Pa., shopping mall. Most of the academy’s students, who come from 12 school districts, are 18 or 19 years old, but many are in their mid-20s and some are even older.
Many students dropped out because they were pregnant or already parents, says Diane Tyson, executive director of the school, which is operated by Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13. Others have mental health issues, such as bipolar disorder, depression, or anxiety; are in drug or alcohol rehabilitation; or have major physical health problems that caused them to miss a lot of school. Some have quit school to help support their families.
About a quarter of the students who earn a diploma from the academy go directly to a postsecondary school, Tyson says. About 50 percent do so within two years.
The school has a flexible schedule -- it’s open until 8 p.m. Monday through Thursdays and year-round -- and offers a self-paced program that includes a “career connections” component as well as regular high school courses. Requirements include 12 hours of job shadowing and service learning tied to a student’s career plans.
“Our goal is not to put barriers in front of them, but to help them succeed,” Tyson says.
The Banner LINC School in Chicago serves students age 17 and older who have zero to five high school credits. Many dropped out, were expelled from regular high schools, or have been in the juvenile justice system, says Chris Aguirre, a re-enrollment facilitator in the Department of Graduation Pathways at Chicago Public Schools. Many are parents who have had to take time off for child care, and some are homeless.
These youths don’t want or need the distractions of a regular high school, like a pompom squad. “No 19-year-old wants to be in a class with 14-year-olds,” Aguirre says.
“If we didn’t offer alternative programs, these kids would be lost,” he says. “Their parents have given up on them, and many had experienced life on the streets and low-paying jobs before they realized the value of earning a diploma.”
A former hardcore gang member was the school’s valedictorian and is now in college, Aguirre notes. Another student earned 17 credits in a year and a half by taking courses at night, in the summer, and online. Meanwhile Aguirre is arranging extra tutoring for a girl who enrolled at age 17 after being out of school since the sixth grade and is reading below the first-grade level.
“These students want to come back,” he says. “They have to be counted.”
Complex issues
The main reason for setting a common definition for high school completion is to make it easier to compare dropout rates among states and among school districts.
“We have a dropout crisis but it’s hard to calculate how severe it is,” says Melissa Lazarin, associate director of education policy at the Center for American Progress. Using a common definition based on completing high school in four years is “a great step forward” in establishing accountability for graduation rates, she says.
Policies encouraging high school completion in four years could potentially discourage support for credit recovery and other programs aimed at getting dropouts back in school, says Jennifer Dounay, a senior policy analyst at ECS.
“We shouldn’t turn a blind eye to students who take more than four years,” Dounay says.
Using a high school completion definition based on four years raises all sorts of issues, says Elizabeth Holtzapple, director of research and evaluation for the Cincinnati school district. The state of Ohio counts students as high school graduates no matter how many years it takes but is considering changing to a four-year definition due to the NCLB regulations, Holtzapple says.
IDEA allows students with disabilities to continue their education beyond the traditional high school grades, Holtzapple notes, and “If students need five or six years to complete high school, we still have an obligation to educate them until they are 22” under state law.
Cincinnati has a high mobility rate, with many students transferring in and out from schools in nearby Kentucky. “The data is very complex, and a lot of issues need to be resolved,” Holtzapple says. Among them: How would students be counted if they started high school in one state and graduated in another? How would districts know whether a student spent two years in ninth grade in another state?
The CEP report calls for school boards to encourage students to stay in school and graduate on time, but says schools should be recognized for helping those who take longer than four years. It also says accountability systems should give schools credit for all students who graduate later, not just those in special groups, such as English language learners or students with disabilities.
“What is magic about 12 years?” asks Tyson of the Lancaster Academy. “Why does no one complain that it often takes kids six years or more to graduate from college? We know kids learn at different rates and have different learning styles. Is it important that they graduate in four years or that they graduate at all?”
To access Better Late Than Never, visit www.centerforpubliceducation.org.
Reproduced with permission from School Board News. Copyright © 2009, National School Boards Association. Opinions expressed in this newspaper do not necessarily reflect positions of NSBA. This article may be printed out and photocopied for individual or educational use, provided this copyright notice appears on each copy. This article may not be otherwise transmitted or reproduced in print or electronic form without the consent of the Publisher. For more information, call (703) 838-6789.