At-a-glance: Better late than never?
Source: Center for Public Education

For most of us, thinking of high school graduation brings memories of walking across a stage to “Pomp and Circumstance” after four years of hard work.

But for a persistent and overlooked group of students—late graduates—the picture is different. While we admire their staying power, was it worth the extra effort for them and their schools?

The short answer is yes. On-time graduation remains the best prospect for students, and districts should make on-time graduation the first priority for all students. But the extra work late graduates and their schools put toward earning a high school diploma pays off—not only in academic outcomes, but in every aspect of life including work, civic, and health. Late graduates do markedly better in all arenas than GED recipients and dropouts. And, when the data is controlled to compare students of equivalent socioeconomic status and achievement level, late graduates come close to on-time graduates’ achievement.

+ At a Glance
+ Full Report
+ References
+ Technical Appendix (PDF; 111 KB)

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 10:30 am and is filed under Education, K-12, Social and cultural issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.