High School Graduation Rates and the Path to Prosperity

How does Alabama stack up when it comes to producing high school graduates?  Last month, the U.S. Department of Education released the first report using a new method of calculating high school graduation rates. PARCA has analyzed and mapped the data to compare Alabama with other states. This analysis also explores the relationship between educational attainment in states and median household income. Read the full analysis here. Reading advances; Math needs additional help  When you measure performance, Alabama schools don't measure up in math.                                                                                          Click image for larger version The 2011 National Assessment of Education Progress found Alabama's 4th graders barely beating out Mississippi students, who posted the lowest scores among the 50 states. Alabama 8th graders tied their Mississippi competitors for last place in the U.S. But Alabama is not doomed to remain at the bottom. Earlier this month at PARCA's Annual Meeting, Executive Director Jim Williams presented the evidence that Alabama elementary students have bolted from the back of the pack in reading. Alabama 4th graders are now reading at the national average.      Click here for more about Alabama's improvements in reading and lingering challenges in math.    Closing the achievement gap      Alabama may seem at a disadvantage when competing with other states because of its relatively high poverty rate. In Alabama and across the nation, students from poverty backgrounds score between 20 and 30 percentage points below their more affluent peers on standardized tests. However, PARCA's school-by-school analysis of the state's ARMT scores shows that demographics don't determine its destiny. Many schools in Alabama are beating the odds.                                 To measure performance, PARCA uses the percentage of students at each school that score at Level IV on the state standardized tests. In effect, that's the                                Click image for larger version percentage of students earning an 'A' on the tests.        Research presented by Williams highlighted high-poverty schools that are posting results that are among the best in the state.Research Coordinator Joe Adams pointed to high poverty schools that have made big gains in performance in recent years, demonstrating the progress public schools are making in closing the achievement gap.