How do we know if we are preparing students for life after high school? Are our current measures of high school quality indicative of how well their graduates fare after high school? Are there existing practices that states and others can use to inform these questions? 

Education Sector recently published “College- and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success.” Authored by policy analyst Chad Aldeman, the report describes the relative value of NCLB school measures (i.e. AYP) in predicting graduate success in higher education and career. Mr. Aldeman concluded that students graduating from schools that met AYP were not necessarily more likely to be successful in college as indicated by student participation in remedial coursework, first term GPA, and persistence from freshman to sophomore year. 

Relying on the strong data systems in Florida, Mr. Aldeman then proposes a College- and Career- Readiness Index that incorporates only those data that are already being collected in the state to better describe how well high schools are preparing students for postsecondary life. The model incorporates additional data points that are focused on college- and career-readiness resulting in greater “year-to-year consistency” of the model versus solely relying on the existing measures of the Florida A+ Accountability System or NCLB measures. 

Mr. Aldeman’s proposal also includes indicators that would be available after high school graduation, which may prove more challenging to collect, but are necessary for ongoing validation of models such as this. Overall, the index he proposes helps paint a more complete picture of what a successful high school looks like based on key measures of student success and readily available postsecondary student data. 

I encourage you to review Mr. Aldeman’s work and consider additional areas of measurement that can be valuable to an index such as this. For example, are there aspects of financial and social preparation that can also complement the index? What data elements are available in your state that can build a fuller picture of future student success beyond high school? How can the lessons of the states highlighted in Mr. Aldeman’s research enlighten your work as a practitioner, researcher, or policymaker? 

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