How Big Is Your State’s “Graduation Gap?”

In the Boston Globe last week, I had an op-ed about what I call the “graduation gap” in Massachusetts. Nearly nine out of ten students earn a high school diploma, while less than half of the state’s 10^th graders are proficient in math.

In recent months, the media has highlighted some of the consequences of this type of disconnect. In California, a growing number of students at public universities are unable to do simple math problems. Even Harvard has been expanding its remedial math program for students who aren’t prepared for college-level mathematics.

But Massachusetts is far from the only state suffering from a graduation gap problem. Across the country, high school graduation rates have been rising while achievement rates have been falling. At the state level, many of the results are stark:

• In California, 86% of high school students graduate within four years, and yet just 30% of the state’s 11^th graders pass the state math test;
• In Illinois, 88% of students graduate, and yet just 39% of 11^th graders earn a passing score on the state math test.
• Tennessee boasts a 92% graduation rate while just 29% of high school students meet the state’s expectations in Algebra and Geometry.

The Collaborative for Student Success is working to complete a 50-state scan to document the graduation gap in every state. Not all states show such dramatic gaps in their published test scores, but that’s likely because they have set the bar too low, not that their math achievement is dramatically higher. Meanwhile, we’re finding that the disconnect between graduation rates and test results is worse in math than it is in English Language Arts, and it’s worse for disadvantaged students than it is overall.

On one hand, it’s a good thing for more kids to graduate from high school. But it’s disingenuous for states to continue to grant high school diplomas and send students off into the world as if they’re fully prepared for college or a career.

In the coming months, the Collaborative for Student Success will share the results across all 50 states, highlight some of the worst offenders, and offer solutions about how states can be more honest about their results without prohibiting large numbers of students from graduating.