Partnership For Urban Education Research (PUER) - July, 2008
Executive Summary
Six of California’s largest urban school districts have joined together in the Partnership for Urban Education Research (PUER), to address the most pressing issues in urban education. The six PUER districts have agreed to work together to increase data availability, enhance internal research capacity, and promote collaboration and information sharing across district lines for the benefit of their students. PUER seeks to build a partnership in which participating districts can use their collective research capacity to carefully evaluate their own instructional programs and practices. In this study, six PUER school districts—Fresno Unified School District (FUSD), Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), and San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD)—joined efforts to identify opportunities for improving the current dropout reporting system. The PUER districts are working with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) to review and publish their research.
The six PUER school districts recommend adoption of the Longitudinal Four-Year Dropout Rate (L4YDR) as the most reliable dropout calculation formula for estimating the number of dropouts in each entering cohort of high school students. (See Box.) This report includes L4YDR estimates of dropout rates in all six districts. In order to increase data transparency, the PUER districts also recommend the publication of sub-categorical data that would allow school districts and the state to distinguish between students who have in fact left school from students who remain engaged with the educational system. The report also includes data that tracks the various paths students follow as they move toward the goal of high school graduation.
The Longitudinal Four-Year Dropout Rate (L4YDR) measures the percentage of students from an entering cohort of ninth-grade students who drop out of school within four years of initial enrollment. Calculation of the L4YDR requires longitudinal data on individual students covering four years. The formula used to calculate the L4YDR is:
where
Dyg = High School Dropouts: Students who were enrolled in grade g during the fall survey in year y and left the educational system without graduating from high school or completing an approved secondary education program.
and
Eyg = Enrollment: Students enrolled in grade g during the fall survey in year y.
This report also reviews dropout intervention strategies in use in the six districts that seek to decrease the number of dropouts and increase the integrity of dropout data. Finally, the report provides recommendations to the California Department of Education as it moves forward with the implementation of a student-level longitudinal data system.
Dropout rates are a major cause for concern among parents, educators, and policymakers. Recent research suggests that almost one third of students and one half of California’s Latino and African-American students will never graduate from high school.[i] High school dropouts often lack basic career skills to be successful in the workplace and are more prone to experience unemployment in today’s global economy. Failing to complete high school not only produces negative outcomes for the individual; it also leads to serious economic and social consequences for California.
In order to address the dropout problem, policymakers must work with school districts to produce more accurate dropout measures and better understand why students drop out of school. There have been numerous efforts to bring attention to the issue. The bipartisan National Governors Association, signed a Graduation Counts Compact in 2005, and made an unprecedented commitment to rely on a common method for calculating each state’s high school graduation rate.[ii] In California the California Dropout Research Project has worked to synthesize existing research and undertake new research to inform policymakers and the larger public about the nature of—and potential solutions to—the dropout problem.[iii]
California has taken a significant step toward accurate measurement of dropout rates with the establishment of the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS). This system has the potential to help schools make significant strides in tracking students. CALPADS maintains longitudinal, individual-level data on student demographics, program participation, grade level, enrollment, course enrollment and completion, discipline, state assignment, teacher assignment, and other information required to meet state and federal reporting requirements. The data is linked longitudinally using a unique, anonymous Statewide Student Identifier (SSID) that is maintained by local educational agencies.[iv] The implementation of CALPADS is a unique opportunity to improve dropout documentation and measurement through a more transparent and less complicated process.
Recently six of California’s urban school districts have joined together in the Partnership for Urban Education Research (PUER), in collaboration with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), to address the dropout issue by 1) identifying the problems with dropout documentation, 2) offering a standardized method of computing cohort survival rates, and 3) presenting current strategies for preventing dropouts. The participating districts include Fresno Unified School District (FUSD), Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), and San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). This report is the product of their collaboration.
[i] California Department of Education, 2007; de Cos, 2005; Swanson, 2005.
[ii] National Governors Association. Implementing Graduation Counts: State Progress to Date.
[iii] Rumberger, Russell W. Solving California’s Dropout Crisis. California Dropout Research Project: Policy Committee Report. February 2008.
[iv] California Department of Education (2008). California School Information Systems (CSIS), available at www.cde.ca.gov.