The Predictive Power of Ninth-Grade GPA - Softcover

Easton, John Q.; Johnson, Esperanza; Sartain, Lauren

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0997507330 ISBN 13: 9780997507331

Publisher: Consortium on Chicago School Research, 2017

Synopsis

As parents and teachers know, and research has demonstrated, ninth grade is a critical year for students. It is when students’ high school habits and mindsets are formed and their ninth- through twelfth-grade trajectory begins to take shape. This study provides evidence that students' course performance in ninth grade is strongly related to grades later in high school, as well as the likelihood that they graduate from high school and pursue post-secondary education. The report shows that grades are a better predictor of future academic success than test scores. This suggests that students who have strong freshman grades are likely to do well academically in the future. These findings indicate that policymakers and practitioners can generally trust grades as a good indicator of skill and knowledge acquisition and academic success. The report also shows trends and patterns in freshman grades. Ninth-grade GPA in CPS has been increasing over the last ten years, with far fewer students earning Fs. However, significant gaps remain by gender and race. For example, male students have lower GPAs than female students, and Black students have lower GPAs than students of other races. These gaps are consequential and point to opportunities for policy and practice to deliberately address them, similar to the recent focus on reducing "achievement gaps" in test scores.

About this title

About the Author

JOHN Q. EASTON is Vice President of Programs at the Spencer Foundation in Chicago. At Spencer, he developed and leads a new grant program for research-practitioner partnerships. From June 2009 through August 2014, he was Director of the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to his government service, Easton was Executive Director of the UChicago Consortium. ESPERANZA JOHNSON is a Program Associate at the Spencer Foundation in Chicago. She joined the Spencer Foundation after earning a master’s of public policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. LAUREN SARTAIN is a research analyst at the UChicago Consortium. She has a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and a MPP and PhD from the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Created in 1990, UChicago Consortium conducts research of high technical quality that can inform and assess policy and practice in the Chicago Public Schools. UChicago Consortium studies also have informed broader national movements in public education. UChicago Consortium encourages the use of research in policy action and improvement of practice but does not argue for particular policies or programs. Rather, UChicago Consortium helps to build capacity for school reform by identifying what matters for student success and school improvement, creating critical indicators to chart progress, and conducting theory-driven evaluation to identify how programs and policies are working.

Edition details

• Publisher: Consortium on Chicago School Research
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0997507330
• ISBN 13: 9780997507331
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 28