How Do Kenwood Academy Students Perform?

How Do Kenwood Academy Students Perform? Consortium on Chicago School Research August 1999 The Chicago Education Alliance sponsored this study to follow the performance of Chicago public high school students. How Do Kenwood Academy Students Perform? August 1999 As a high school teacher, principal, long. (Unfortunately, there is no source of or Local School Council member, you information to follow students who leave are probably eager to know how your the Chicago Public Schools.) Second, to school’s students perform. While you may provide more current information, the re- know about individual students, a clear port follows the past five years of ninth- overview of all students’ academic per- grade classes (1993 to 1997) through their formance is generally not available. To first year of high school to show how well help you learn what happens to Kenwood they performed as freshmen. We chose to students, we have created this report that track freshman year performance because tracks them for four and five years of high it is strongly related to future success or school. failure in high school. Our hope is that this report will help The report focuses on students’ you develop and refine strategies to ed- outcomes–whether they graduate, drop ucate your students and lay the ground- out, or leave the system–and on students’ work for discussions with elementary performance–whether they are on track schools. Because the report tracks raw out- or off track while in high school. To be comes without regard to the student pop- on track a student must have received no ulation your school serves, it is is meant to more than one F in a core course (English, be informative rather than evaluative. We math, social science, and science) and hope it will prove useful. have enough credits to move into the next The report follows Kenwood students grade on time. Please note that promotion in two ways. First, it follows your 1993 standards changed in 1997, which may entering ninth-grade class (which becomes have affected some students’ performance the graduating class of 1997) for five full and outcomes. years – the standard four years of high More detailed information about which school plus one extra for those students students were included and how cate- who need a little more time to graduate. gories are defined is at the end of the The class of 1997 is the most recent group report. of students who can be tracked for that 2 Kenwood Academy Questions This Report Can Answer How Many Kenwood Students Gradu- who performed more than a year below ated within Five Years? Figure 1 (on page grade level. To check on your students 4) shows how the class of 1997 performed who performed at or above grade level on over the subsequent five years. Following the ITBS, look at the first section of Table 3. the color coding, you can see how many students were in each category at the end How Many of the Most At-Risk Stu- of each year. Looking at the light-purple dents Dropped Out? Similarly, you can people on the top left of the graph, you can look at the bottom section of Table 3 to see see the total number of your students who how many students who were more than graduated after five years. Rather than a year below grade level on the ITBS in count the figures, you can then look at Ta- eighth grade dropped out by the end of ble1(onpage5)toseeexactlyhowmany each year. students graduated by June 1998. Did the Likelihood of Graduating How Many Kenwood Students Change Depending on the Elementary Dropped Out? Similarly, you can use Fig- Schools Kenwood Students Attended? The ure 1 and Table 1 to look at the number table on the following page, Table 4, of students who dropped out within five shows the elementary schools your class years by looking at the number of red peo- of 1997 last attended, as well as the num- ple on the top line titled “5th Yr.” You can ber of your students from each elementary also find out how many students dropped school who graduated within five years. out within four years by looking at the red people on the line below it titled “Senior,” Did Kenwood Students’ Performance and so on. Vary by the Elementary School They At- tended? The maps and their correspond- Were Girls or Boys Performing Better? ing tables show which elementary schools To compare performance of the class of your students attended. Figure 2 (on page 1997 by gender, use Table 2 (on page 5) 11) shows the elementary schools attended to see how many boys or girls were on by at least four students from the class of track or dropped out by the end of the 1997 and Figure 3 (on page 16) shows the given years. same thing for the class of 2001. You can compare the two maps to see if the elemen- How Many of the Best Students En- tary schools your students attended have tering Kenwood Graduated within Five changed. Years? Table 3 (on page 6) breaks stu- The colors of the circles on the maps dents into groups based on their average show what percent of your students from math and reading scores from the eighth- each elementary school were on track. To grade Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS). It be on track, a student must have had can help you see how well you are serving enough credits to move into the next grade your most- and least-prepared students. on time and have received no more than The groups are defined as students who one F in core courses (English, math, so- scored at or above grade level on the ITBS cial science, and science) that year. In the in eighth grade, those who performed one map legends, the number of students from year or less below grade level, and those Consortium on Chicago School Research, August 1999 Kenwood Academy 3 the elementary school is equal to or greater ber who received Fs in both subjects to in- than the lower number in the range and dicate whether the students failing one of less than (but not equal to) the higher num- these core subjects were the same students ber in the range. Table 5 and Table 6 pro- failing the other. vide corresponding lists of the elementary schools your students attended, plus the How Do CPS Students Perform as a precise number and percent of students on Whole? Table 9 and Table 10 (on page track for each high school. 22) show the performance of all CPS students for the class of 1997 and five years of Have Kenwood Students Been Perform- CPS freshmen. We do not recommend that ing Better over Time? Figure 4 (on page you compare your students’ performance 20) and Table 7 (on page 21) provide in- to that of CPS as a whole because your formation about how successive classes of school’s student population differs from your ninth graders performed. These fig- that of the system. ures show the performance of the fresh- Please also note that the statistics here man classes of 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, do not match CPS statistics because of dif- 1996–97, and 1997–98. By looking at the ferent methods of calculation. For this re- number of people of each color in Fig- port it was more appropriate for us to use ure 4, you can see, for example, if more a different baseline population of all stu- of your students were on track their fresh- dents graduating from eighth grade, not man year, if fewer were dropping out in just those who go on to CPS high schools. their first year, or whether more left the This means that while the board compares system after graduating from your school. dropouts only to graduates in calculating You can find the precise numbers for each dropout rates, we compare dropouts to category for each year in Table 7. all students who graduated from CPS in eighth grade, including high school grad- How Well Are Kenwood Freshmen uates, those who left CPS, and those who Performing in Their Two Critical Core are still in school. Furthermore, the board Courses? Table 8 (on page 21) shows allows only four years for a student to whether your students are getting off to graduate, whereas we allow five. There- a good start. This table shows the num- fore, the numbers we provide on the per- ber of students who received an F in ei- cent of dropouts and graduates in the ther semester of their freshman year for school system are somewhat smaller than English or math. It also shows the num- CPS’s numbers. Consortium on Chicago School Research, August 1999 4 Consortium on Chicago School Research, August 1999 Figure 1: What Happened to the Class of 1997? 5th Yr. Senior Figure 1: Graduating Class of 1997 Junior Soph Fresh 0 28 56 84 112 140 168 196 224 252 280 308 336 364 392 420 448 476 504 Number of Students On Track Graduated Off Track Dropped Out Left CPS Kenwood Academy Notes: One symbol equals approximately 14 students. See Table 1 on the next page for precise numbers. Status is determined at the beginning of the following year, i.e., freshman status is determined from data taken in the beginning of sophomore year. On track students had enough credits to advance to the next grade on time and received no more than one F in a core course.

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