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closeFollowing up on our graduates
Dr. Jay Reifel / for the Puyallup School District
Student achievement, as measured by test scores, is the most common way that schools and school districts are evaluated or compared to one another by the media and the public. A less common measure of school success, but certainly important information, is student “attainment,” or what students do after they leave the K-12 public school system.
Graduate follow-up data can be very valuable as schools and districts evaluate their effectiveness in preparing students for the next step in their lives, whatever that might be. While there are still numbers of careers in which a person can earn a “living wage” without a two- or four-year college degree, it’s also clear that an increasing number of jobs require at least some education or training beyond the high school diploma.
For years in Puyallup we have believed that we were doing a good job of preparing students for that next step. Until recently, we lacked firm information to confirm or deny the belief. With the assistance of Washington State University researcher Paul Stern, we were able to determine the post-high school activity of the majority of the graduating class of 2004.
Through his access to state and national databases, we were able to determine that 63 percent of the class enrolled in some form of postsecondary education in the year following graduation. This would include public or private two-year and four-year schools in Washington or out-of-state. For other Washington districts, the average postsecondary enrollment was 57 percent.
What we don’t know is what happened to the 37 percent of students who chose different options after high school. Did they take a year off before continuing their education? Did they enter an apprenticeship program, join the military or enter the workforce directly?
We did learn that we need more information to evaluate our preparation of our graduates and have again sought the services of the WSU researchers to gather more complete data from the graduating class of 2008. Seniors will be surveyed as to their plans after graduation and asked for their contact information for the foreseeable future. Through information gathered one, three and five years after graduation, we hope to be able to better assess current programs and make adjustments to do an even better job of preparing each student for the next step in his or her life.