Sample High School Data Profile

Below is a sample high school data profile. The data was retrieved from the report card for a high school, available on the Virginia Department of Education's website. Some information could not be entered due to unavailability. I used a America School Counseling Association's National Model provided template to organize the data. I made a few alterations to the template under the performance sections in order to display some additional data.

Sample High School Data Analysis

School Strengths

One strength exhibited by this high school is their consistently high attendance rates. Since 2011, the attendance have reamined above 96%. No one group has drastically higher or lower attendance rates. Additionally, there has been an increase in enrollment since 2011. The school had an increase in enrollment between the 2011-2012 school year and the 2012-2013 school year. Then the school experienced another enrollment increase between the 2012-2013 school year and the 2013 - 2014 school year. Additionally, students are staying in high school and graduating within four years. The dropout rate for the 2013-2014 school year is low, at 2%. The four year on-time graduation rate for the 2013-2014 school year is a respectable 94.1%. Finally, the percentage of students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses has been increasing since 2011.

Concerns

One concern comes from the increased numbers in the school safety portion of profile. Specifically, the number of alcohol, tobacco, and drug offenses were cut in half between 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, then jumped higher than the 2011-2012 school year in the 2013-2014 school year. Additionally, the amount of disorderly or dispruptive behavior occurances also drastically increased in the 2013-2014 school year.

Another area of concern is the overall decrease in passing rates for tests. There has been a decrease in the test passing rates for all students in English, math, writing, history, and science. The most dramatic changes being in writing and science performance.

Achievement Gaps

Multiple achievement gaps, racial or ethic background and otherwise, were identified after examining test passing rates. The passing rates of Black students in the 2013-2014 school year ranged from 6% to 27% lower than the school average. The passing rates for hispanics ranged from 6% - 15% lower than the school average. Students with disabilities had passing rates 19% - 28% lower than the school average. Students with disabilities also have a 10.5% drop out rate compared to the school average of 2%. Students who were identified as disadvantaged, by meeting the criteria for free/reduced lunches, had passing rates 11% - 24% lower than the school average. Finally, students with limited English proficiency had passing rates 23-28% lower than the school average. However, students with limited English proficiency had a passing rate of 90% for mathematics, which was 12% higher than the school average.

Further Inquiry

Multiple areas need to be explored further before appropriate or necessary interventions can be implemented. I would like most of the data that was not provided on the school report card. This data includes the enrollment breakdown into gifted, ESOL, and special education services students, previous years dropout and graduation rates, racial and/or ethic background breakdown of students with disabilites, and engagement data.

I would also want to know how the recent increase in enrollment is impacting the school and performance. Areas I'd be most interested about the impact include school safety and passing rates. Some groups saw a drop in passing rates in the 2013-2014 school year when there was an increase for that group between 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. Additionally, I would want to compare the school's decrease in passing rates to the district and state levels to determine if the issue is a trend occuring at a higher level.

Additionally, the descripancy between the passing rates for limited English proficieny students should be examined. I would like to know why these students have passing rates 23-28% lower than the school average for 4 out of 5 of the test areas and then have a rate 12% higher than the average for mathematics. Knowing why those students performed higher than the school average could potentially help raise the scores of other students or raise the scores of students with limited English proficiency in other areas.

The population that stands out the most if the students with disabilites. These students have test passing rates 19% - 28% lower than the school average in addition to the highest drop out rate for this school at 10.5%. What resources these students are (or are not) receivng would be cruicial to discover. In addition to, as mentioned previously, what the racial and/or ethic background breakdown of this population is.