Measuring high school success by the four-year graduation rate is unfair to schools with high-need students, argues Julie Kessler on the Learning Policy Institute blog. Give students five years to earn a diploma, she writes.
Welcome signs are posted inside the main doors of San Francisco International High School in 2017. Photo: Jessica Christian/SF Examiner
For seven years, Kessler was principal of San Francisco International High School, which serves newly arrived immigrants. Many of her students had missed years of school, spoke little English, worked to support their families and cared for younger siblings.
With “credit recovery, a modified schedule, and extended learning supports,” students can be persuaded to stay for a fifth year to graduate, writes Kessler. If only four-year graduates count, the school will be penalized for giving students more time to truly earn a diploma.
Some urban charter schools have low four-year graduation rates because they give unprepared ninth graders five years to complete college-prep classes. Those students earn a more valuable diploma than they could complete in four years.