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In December 2004, James Kadamus presented a report to the Board of Regents
providing Regents examination performance and student outcomes, such as
graduation rate, for students who first enrolled in grade 9 during the 2000-01
school year. (http://www.regents.nysed.gov/2004Meetings/December2004/1204emscvesidd3.htm).
The study of these students’ records represented the most thorough and complete
analysis of a cohort of New York State students ever presented. The study was
possible because the Department’s System for Tracking Education Performance
(STEP) has collected individual student records for all students in grades 9-12
and younger students who take Regents examinations since the fall of 2002. These
data allowed us to follow the progress of virtually all students who first
entered grade 9 in the 2000-01 school year.
The analyses in the report to the Regents were based on statewide aggregations
of data; no district data were provided except for New York City. We have now
aggregated the Regents examination performance and student outcome to the
district level. The results of this analysis are posted in the accompanying
tables.
This study included students who first enrolled in grade 9 during the 2000-01
school year (or were ungraded and reached their seventeenth birthday during that
school year) and who were enrolled in a public school in New York State in at
least part of the 2001-02, 2002-03, or 2003-04 school years and for whom a
district submitted a STEP record in August 2004. This group of students was
significantly larger (199,312) than the group of students included in the 2000
district accountability cohorts for English and mathematics (173,059 statewide),
because it included students who were not continuously enrolled in the district
beginning on BEDS day 2002. That is, it included students a) who moved between
districts between October 2002 and June 30, 2004 and b) students who dropped out
of school before October 2002.
Records for the statewide study were selected from the 2004 STEP files submitted
by districts. All students reported on a district STEP file who met the criteria
for inclusion in this study are included in that district’s summary data. These
district files included records for 222,720 students reported to have first
entered grade 9 in 2000-01. Of those records, 199,312 reported students who had
graduated, dropped out, entered a GED program, or were still enrolled in the
district as of June 30, 2004.
Records for 23,408 students reported that the student had transferred to another
district at some time between first entering grade 9 in the 2000-01 school year
and June 30, 2004. These records were assumed to be duplicates of records
reported by the district to which the student transferred. Therefore, records
ending in transfers to another district were not included in the study.
Note that STEP files submitted between 2002 and 2004 were cumulative; that is,
districts were instructed to resubmit records for all students who were reported
the previous year even if the student was no longer enrolled in the district.
Districts with transfer students were instructed to report scores for these
students taken before the student entered the district. The reporting of
cumulative scores is necessary to correctly determine the accountability status
of schools and districts. For example, if a student transferred to a new
district between 10th and 11th grade, the student would be a member of the
accountability cohort of the new school and that school must report his grade 10
Regents mathematics score to receive credit for his performance and
participation in mathematics. This requirement leads to duplicate reporting of
examination scores for transfer students and the necessity to eliminate these
scores from the study.
The following statistics are based on the outcomes as of June 30, 2004 of all students who first entered grade 9 in 2000-01, who were reported on the 2003-04 STEP file.