The Indicators of Educational System Health, established in 2013 by the Washington State Legislature, create a common framework upon which to evaluate the overall health of the educational system and for state agencies to align with in strategic planning. The Washington State Board of Education (SBE) reports on the health of Washington's…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others.…

This report is an annual look at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students' likelihood of obtaining a college degree within 10 years of beginning high school finds that 18 percent of 2016 ninth-graders are projected to earn a bachelor's degree within six years of high school graduation, a number that has held steady since 2015. The report also finds…

Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others. This report presents a number of different ways that member districts can analyze the data themselves by disaggregating results, showing trends,…

Stagnation or promise? The third and final installment of "Quality Counts 2019" offers evidence for both in an annual summing up of the nation's K-12 system. The Education Week Research Center analyzed dozens of factors ranging from the academic to the socioeconomic in coming up with its all-inclusive state rankings and A-F grades. The…

Every two years, the Washington State Board of Education (SBE) reports on the health of Washington's educational system. Established in 2013 by the Washington State Legislature, the Indicators of Educational System Health create a common framework upon which to evaluate the overall health of the educational system. The Board has two important…

There is a growing body of research that suggests the first year of high school is a critical transition point for students. It also finds course-taking and successful completion of those courses in 9th grade to be valuable predictors of students' success in high school. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides states an opportunity to…

This study sought to answer the following questions: (1) Is it feasible to develop Academic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and collect data on them across member urban school districts? (2) Are comparisons between districts on academic performance measures valid and reliable? (3) Do districts collect and maintain requested KPI data in a way…

The Washington State Board of Education (SBE), with assistance from other state education agencies, reports on the statewide indicators of educational system health established in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 28A.150.550 and recommends evidence-based reforms to improve the status of the indicators. The legislation was meant to help the…

A successful freshman year of high school lays the foundation for the path to college: ninth-grade grades are powerful indicators of high school graduation, college access, and college degree attainment. However, the transition from eighth to ninth grade is a time when students' academic performance often declines. This report explores how Chicago…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. In 2002, the board of directors of the Council of the Great City Schools (Council) authorized what became known as the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project to develop and implement key…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. In 2002, the board of directors of the Council of the Great City Schools (Council) authorized what became known as the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project to develop and implement key…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. In 2002, the board of directors of the Council of the Great City Schools (Council) authorized what became known as the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project to develop and implement key…

The School Quality or Student Success (SQ/SS) indicator was one of the most talked about and biggest decisions that fell to the states in drafting their new ESSA accountability plans. This memo summarizes the chosen SQ/SS measures for each state, DC, and Puerto Rico. The most common SQ/SS measures among the states are: (1) Chronic Absenteeism (37…

High school graduation rates in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have shown remarkable improvements over the past 16 years. Students used to be about as likely to drop out as they were to graduate; now they are three times as likely to graduate as to drop out. Moreover, recent large improvements in the percentage of students on-track to graduate…