Motivation

Success can be defined and measured in many ways. For students, success is most likely viewed in an academic context. Individual students can be judged on their academic performances through a variety of metrics: grade point average, standardized test scores, and even the acceptance rate of the colleges that they are admitted to. But what should success truly be determined by, and how might it be relative? Our research project examines how perceptions of success may be flawed, and makes conclusions on what factors should be heavily considered in evaluating success. We accomplished this by examining datasets on several metrics that are commonly viewed as indicators of success in California high schools, such as graduation and dropout rate. These datasets were sourced from the California Department of Education’s public data system, and taken from the school year 2017-2018 to minimize the effect of COVID-19 on the metrics. We combined these datasets with available data on demographic and socioeconomic factors, both at the school and county level, from California’s open data portal and other public sources. We used visualizations to analyze correlations between these factors and the success outcomes that they may affect.

Previous Literature

School success has already been judged in a variety of ways, and many factors have been researched as potential effectors of academic success. Much of the previous literature on this topic measures success through high school performance (i.e. GPA), test scores and graduation rates. For example, the U.S. News publishes an annual report on high school rankings, which uses a complicated weighted set of factors. Among these are metrics for college readiness, standardized test scores and graduation rates, with adjustments based on U.S. News predictions for schools based on demographics (Morse, 2023). This assessment of success focuses heavily on some expected student outcome metrics, but interestingly does factor in demographics and underserved student success. Many researchers have studied the challenges that underrepresented students face toward achieving success, such as those who are low-income (Wodtke, 2011), ESL (Kanno, 2014), or minorities (Hanselman, 2016). These limiting factors are not usually the fault of the students or the schools they attend, and warrant consideration of not just the outcome but progress made from varying starting points. Some authors have also challenged previous notions of success in their research. For example, Allensworth and Clark argue that high school GPA is a much better indicator of college readiness compared to standardized test scores (2020). Meanwhile, statistics on the waning reliance on the higher education pipeline and increasing dropout rates have contributed to the sentiment that college is not necessarily the sole path to success (Ponnuru, 2019). Most school structures are designed to make it to the next grade or level until graduation, but don’t examine how they facilitate students’ maturity and preparedness for the real world. These reports also force us to consider broader notions of success and search out better standards to hold education systems by.

Significance

As our country continues to have broader conversations about education, it’s important to recognize that times can change very quickly. Trends in educational attainment levels have varied greatly over time and will continue to change. Current metrics of success can too heavily focus on 4-year college attendance rates, which may create inaccurate perceptions of what defines a “good high school.” These factors can fail to recognize the nuanced differences between certain high schools that have differing levels of student resources/economic prosperity. Similarly, college graduation rates are impactful measures of success, but should not influence colleges to provide less stimulating and challenging curriculum to help more students pass. Our project aims to re-frame the metrics of school success in a more equitable and future-forward manner. We hope to initiate broader discussions about pedagogy and re-understand the purposes of these institutions. At its very core, is the purpose of our schooling system to prepare students for the workforce? Is it to teach them tangible life skills meant to produce “productive” members of society? Is it for them to develop critical thinking skills necessary for engaging in intelligent conversation? It’s a question that all societies have wrestled with for the entirety of mankind. While we’re not aiming to answer this question, we are attempting to challenge current notions of what a successful American education looks like.