Although only 31% of students in Delaware are proficient in mathematics and 41% are proficient in English language arts, the graduation rate at First State high schools is 88%.
“While Delaware’s graduation rate is encouraging, understanding achievement requires a deeper look at student growth throughout their K-12 experience,” said Julia Keleher, director of strategy and operations at First State Educate, a state education advocacy group.
Other factors to consider besides state test scores, he says, include:
- Different types of evaluation data
- Alternative Graduation Paths
- Possible variations in standards.
- Limited High School Data
- Graduation rates reflect completion
The state’s proficiency rates are based on the Smarter Balanced assessments administered annually to students in grades three through eight, and then the SAT administered to all students in grade 11.
“Since there are different metrics and standards for graduation and proficiency rates, this is like comparing apples and oranges,” said Kendall Massett, executive director of the Delaware Charter School Network.
Under the Delaware Code, there is no graduation requirement related to mastery of standardized tests.
“Like the vast majority of states in the country, Delaware’s state assessment is not tied to high school graduation,” the Department of Education stated. Only a handful of states in the country have graduation exit exams.
Rather, requirements are tied to the number of credits completed, with requirements in different subjects.
Students must pass a class to receive credit, so the graduation rate is indirectly tied to grade point average, because if a student has a very low GPA, they will likely not pass their classes or receive credit.
“Graduation rates measure the percentage of students who complete high school in four years,” Massett said. “Requirements may vary, but must meet a minimum of 24 credits as set by the state.”
Massett said both districts and charter schools can, and in many cases do, set higher requirements than the state.
“Proficiency rates measure the percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards set by state assessments, which for Delaware high school students is the SAT,” Massett said.
Britney Mumford, executive director of DelawareCAN, another state education advocacy group, believes there could be a hint of grade inflation.
“Nationally, we’re seeing a lot of reports about grade inflation, but that doesn’t mean teachers are intentionally inflating grades,” he said, adding that he definitely doesn’t blame teachers.
There are policies within some districts, for example, where students are not allowed to receive less than 50% on any assignment as long as it is turned in, or situations where they no longer have deadlines, Mumford said.
“The district might say that teachers have to accept all late work and grade it appropriately,” he said, “and that seems to lead to higher GPAs when in reality content mastery may not be there.”
Mumford also noted comments made several times by University of Delaware President Dennis Assanis.
He has stated that many Delaware students entering college made up the majority of remedial classes.
“There was a situation where they didn’t know if they could trust the GPAs coming out of Delaware, because they don’t reflect the actual content that students know,” Mumford said.
And this has happened at the national level, he said.
“A lot of colleges that have moved away from SAT and ACT requirements in recent years are coming back to that because they say they literally can’t trust GPAs because high schools are graduating students who shouldn’t be,” Mumford. saying.
Mumford said he doesn’t want to argue that Delaware needs a super-strict standardized test.
“But the fact that we use the SAT would make it very difficult because not all students are studying SAT prep courses,” he said. “We have a lot of students who go into trades and don’t find as much value in certain subjects, so I don’t think it’s a fair assessment.”
Delaware is one of eight states that require all students to take the SAT in high school.
Regardless of how much standardized test scores are valued, Mumford argued that there needs to be some measure of what students have learned.
“You need some standardized barometer, because at the end of the day I know that standardized testing is, you know, a dirty phrase, but we have to know how students are doing,” he said.
Here’s a look at graduation rates versus proficiency rates for the state, the 19 school districts, and the 10 charter schools that have high school students:
State
Graduation: 87.79%
ALS: 40.76%
Mathematics: 30.91%
Districts
apoquinimink
Graduation: 94.83%
ALS: 48.66%
Mathematics: 40.5%
brandywine
Graduation: 89.23%
ALS: 40.9%
Mathematics: 32.41%
Caesar Rodney
Graduation: 86.54%
ALS: 43.61%
Mathematics: 32.37%
Cape Henlopen
Graduation: 90.11%
ALS: 55.27%
Mathematics: 49.36%
Capital
Graduation: 83.99%
ALS: 29.31%
Mathematics: 16.59%
christina
Graduation: 67.24%
ALS: 32.58%
Mathematics: 25.84%
Colonial
Graduation: 85.14%
ALS: 26.58%
Mathematics: 15.62%
from sea
Graduation: 91.14%
ALS: 40.14%
Mathematics: 26.01%
indian river
Graduation: 81.52%
ALS: 43.55%
Mathematics: 35.43%
forest lake
Graduation: 92.06%
ALS: 43.14%
Mathematics: 31.77%
Laurel
Graduation: 88.14%
ALS: 29.99%
Mathematics: 18.5%
milford
Graduation: 80.49%
ALS: 34.91%
Mathematics: 23.4%
New Castle County Vo-Tech
Graduation: 96.89%
ALS: 28%
Mathematics: 9.42%
Polytechnic
Graduation: 98.8%
ALS: 49.3%
Mathematics: 21.87%
Red clay
Graduation: 89.57%
ALS: 42.52%
Mathematics: 32.71%
seaford
Graduation: 70.81%
ALS: 39.92%
Mathematics: 28.94%
Izmir
Graduation: 88.22%
ALS: 39.68%
Mathematics: 31.64%
Sussex Technology
Graduation: 96.11%
ALS: 37.32%
Mathematics: 14.73%
wooden bridge
Graduation: 86.96%
ALS: 35.83%
Mathematics: 27.27%
Cards
Wilmington Charter School
Graduation: 98.74%
ALS: 93.36%
Mathematics: 87.14%
Early college school at Del. State
Graduation: 95.29%
ALS: 40.78%
Mathematics: 11.16%
MOT Charter School
Graduation: 93.13%
ALS: 64.87%
Mathematics: 60.31%
Odyssey Charter School
Graduation: 100%
ALS: 52.84%
Mathematics: 43.56%
Delaware Military Academy
Graduation: 99.3%
ALS: 55.3%
Mathematics: 23.48%
First State Military Academy
Graduation: 89.32%
ALS: 42.65%
Mathematics: 10.29%
Great Oaks Charter School
Graduation: 65.12%
ALS: 19.23%
Mathematics: N/A
Newark Charter School
Graduation: 98.3%
ALS: 74.66%
Mathematics: 66.57%
Charter school with positive results
Graduation: 72.22%
ALS: 13.63%
Mathematics: N/A
Sussex Academy
Graduation: 95.04%
ALS: 76.01%
Mathematics: 56.52%
Raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Jarek earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Temple University in 2021. After running KeynoteUSA’s Michael Smerconish’s YouTube channel, Jarek became a reporter for the Bucks County Herald before join Delaware LIVE News.
You can contact Jarek by email at (email protected) or by phone at (215) 450-9982. Follow him on Twitter @jarekrutz
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