Report tracking Boston Public Schools students finds high GPA, MassCore curriculum and attendance are predictors of success after graduation.

The latest report, College, Career and Life Readiness: A Look at High School Indicators of Post-Secondary Outcomes in Boston, by Robert Blafanz and Vaughan Byrnes in partnership with the Boston Opportunity Agenda and Boston Public Schools, takes a look at four indicators put forth to determine their effectiveness in predicting post-secondary outcomes specific to the local context of the Boston school district.

The four measures include:

• maintaining an attendance rate of 94 percent or higher;
• achieving a cumulative GPA of 2.7 or higher;
• completion of an internship, job shadowing, or community service, as reported by the Boston Private Industry Council and self-reported on the Senior Exit Survey; and
• completing the Massachusetts Recommended Core Curriculum while also enrolling in at least one AP, IB, dual-enrollment or career and technical education (CTE) course.

This project is driven by the necessity of having a post-secondary degree to achieve career success and life-long opportunities in today’s knowledge economy.

In Boston specifically, half of all job vacancies required at least an associate’s degree, at the time of this project’s undertaking.

In addition, a typical bachelor’s degree holder will earn $1 million more than a high-school dropout over the course of a lifetime. With only 36.5 percent of all Boston Public Schools graduates obtaining a post-secondary credential within six years of graduating high school, there is a stark need in Boston to ensure that more of its youth achieve a post-secondary degree and the life-long opportunities that come with it.

Further, of those high school graduates who do enroll in post-secondary schooling, 36 percent require at least one remedial class and only 51.3 percent obtain a credential within six years of graduating high school.

These statistics suggest that even when students earn a high school diploma, many are still doing so without the skills, knowledge, and attributes necessary to achieve post-secondary success.

By identifying a valid set of indicators for post-secondary success, local practitioners can determine which specific criteria their students must meet prior to completing high school in order to be prepared for post-secondary success and use those indicators to recognize which of their students are currently off-track to achieving those goals.

Follow this link to read the full report.