New Haven Uses New Tool To Track Students' Graduation Prospects

Principal Judy Puglisi has been keeping track of which of her students are slipping behind and could become dropouts. Now New Haven is about to start tracking those kids at all its high schools as part of a new grading system.

MELISSA BAILEY FILE PHOTO Puglisi (pictured) takes special notice of the names that pop out in pink from a color-coded a list of students at her high school. Pink stands for “off-track,” missing school days and slipping behind in class.

As the district prepares to “grade” its high schools for the first time, it has come up with a new tool to monitor whether those kids get back on track by the end of the year.

The new analytic tool, called a “graduation trajectory,” was aired for the first time at a school board meeting last week. The announcement came just one day before the city launched a major initiative to encourage kids to go to college by paying for their tuition.

About 62 percent of New Haven Public School students graduate from high school in four years. The district aims to boost that to 77 percent through a citywide reform effort that’s putting extra accountability on teachers, principals and schools.

Puglisi (in photo above), who took the helm of the Metropolitan Business Academy this year, said she has started to receive reports generated from a new database outlining whether her kids are “on-track,” “at-risk,” or “off-track.” Those designations are based on school attendance and grades in classes, she said. Teachers meet every Friday to discuss how students are doing, and discuss interventions if need be.

The “graduation trajectory” would extend this concept across all schools. It would give the district a yearly update on whether students at the city’s nine high schools are getting the credits they need in order to graduate.

Most recent data show that 27 percent of students drop out from district high schools.

Of the 1,554 students in the Class of 2008, 62 percent graduated high school in four years, according to school officials. A total of 548 students fell off track along the way. They either got held back in school, left to get a GED, discontinued education, or had “unknown whereabouts.”

READ MORE