Dropout Prevention and Classworks

One of the greatest challenges facing school districts today is keeping high school students both in school and on track for graduation.  Nationally only some 70% of students graduate on time with a regular diploma; students who grow up in poverty or not speaking English graduate at much lower rates.  At least half of the students who enter ninth grade do not graduate from high school.  Adding more complexity, NCLB has brought greater emphasis on assessment to these existing challenges.   Most recently, the Bush administration has proposed new rules to bolster NCLB, including the requirement that all states calculate graduation rates in a uniform manner by the 2012-13 school year.  The combination of rigorous coursework, end of course tests and graduation exams is proving too much for many students entering high school and they ultimately fail to graduate or drop out.

As we all know, a student who is most likely to fail or drop out gets behind well before high school.  The predictors often surface prior to middle school in course grades and high stakes assessment results.  Use of Classworks, particularly with its unique ability to read assessment data and place students in the courseware based on identified knowledge deficiencies, helps address the needs of likely dropout candidates before they ever enter high school.  The same formula works well in ninth grade academies either using school assessment data or Classworks assessments to place students in the Classworks instruction. 

An example of this effective use of Classworks to keep students on track for graduation is South View High School in Cumberland County, North Carolina.  At South View, the primary concern was helping students pass end of course exams in the early core classes of Algebra 1 and English 1.  If students at this early level could be kept on track to graduate, then the path to graduation would seem much less daunting than that of a student who should be in the tenth grade or higher and is taking credit recovery almost from the outset for having failed these early core requirements.  Studies show that most students who drop out experience issues almost immediately upon entering high school, yet most high schools’ instructional technology applications are designed to help students only after they have failed a course instead of preventing that result from the outset. 

At South View, Classworks was integrated into the block schedule for Algebra 1 and English 1 to provide additional instruction and to help keep students engaged for the entire 90 minutes in these core subjects.  The strategy worked with proficiency rates on End of Course Tests telling the story. Students using Classworks in English I outperformed both district and state averages by 4 percentage points while those without Classworks use fell short. Similarly, Algebra I students with Classworks support far exceeded district and state proficiency levels with a proficiency rate of 88%, compared to a district average of 55% and a state average of 67%.

With the proposed changes to NCLB, High Schools will be faced with much greater scrutiny, particularly as it relates to graduation rates.  Classworks can be a valuable partner in helping keep these students on track for an on-time graduation.