As REL Southwest, Edvance Research conducted research that replicated the work of the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR), adapting the indicator for use in Texas.  Five Texas districts participated in this study. 

 

 

Failure to graduate from high school is a widespread problem in the United States.  As is the case across the country, large numbers of Texas students fail to graduate from high school each year.

 

One response to this nation-wide challenge has been the development of on-track indicators designed to identify students who are at risk of not graduating from high school. Researchers from the Consortium for Chicago School Research (CCSR) were among the earliest developers of these indicators. CCSR compared students’ course performance in their first year of high school with their graduation rates four years later (Allensworth and Easton 2005), and classified students as on-track for graduation based on two criteria:

 

Students who failed to meet one or both of these benchmarks were classified as off-track. This analysis found on-track status at the end of the first year of high school to be a useful predictor of whether or not students graduated from high school in four years (Allensworth and Easton 2005).