Understanding Extended Year Graduation Rates: Lessons Learned by States

Understanding Extended Year Graduation Rates: Lessons Learned by States
Understanding Extended Year Graduation Rates: Lessons Learned by States

 

 

 

Overview

This webinar focused on how states can effectively calculate and use extended-year graduation rates (5- and 6-year rates) to improve outcomes for all students. In particular, off-track students and out-of-school youth benefit as extended-year graduation rates incent states to create options to serve these students.  Our panelists provided an overview of extended-year graduation rates and share experiences from their own states.  Through this exploration, we described how states are using these rates both for accountability purposes and to increase opportunities for high school students to earn a diploma.

Presenters included:

Ryan Reyna, Senior Policy Analyst, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
Deborah Jonas, Executive Director for Research & Planning, Virginia Department of Education
Michele Corey, Director of Community Advocacy, Voices for Michigan’s Children

 

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES

As the Director of Community Advocacy for Michigan’s Children, a child advocacy organization that acts as a voice for children, Michele Robotham Corey has created numerous opportunities for local advocates to become better informed about children’s issues and communicate effectively with local- and state-level policy-makers.

Most recently, she has been working with the Mott Foundation on a statewide initiative intended to build a system in Michigan that encourages more high school graduation through dropout prevention and recovery efforts.  This work concentrates on producing multiple pathways to graduation by growing better data about young people and the systems that serve them, providing better educational options for young people, and building public support for policy and practice that sustain those options.

 

Dr. Deborah Jonas is the Executive Director for Research and Strategic Planning at the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE).  Dr. Jonas provides support and advice to the superintendent of public instruction, the executive leadership of the department and VDOE staff.   Her work supports state-level policy and program development in K-12 education.  Dr. Jonas coordinates the Virginia College and Career Readiness Initiative, leads the work to develop Virginia’s growth measure, and is a key staff member in the development of new standards and guidelines for teacher performance evaluation in Virginia.  For the past several years, Dr. Jonas’ research has focused on identifying factors that suggest students are at risk of not graduating from high school, and Virginia’s indicators of college readiness.

 

Ryan Reyna is a Senior Policy Analyst in the Education Division at the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center).  Ryan works on a variety of high school and postsecondary reform issues, including college- and career-readiness, turning around low-performing schools, college completion and productivity, and technology in education. He currently leads the NGA Center’s work on dropout prevention and recovery assists in the planning and implementation of the 2010-11 NGA Chair’s Initiative, Complete to Compete, which supports states in their efforts to increase college completion and improve higher education productivity. Ryan serves on Pearson’s Graduation Success Advisory Board and participates in the Associates Program of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.  Ryan previously worked as a Research Associate at the Data Quality Campaign. Ryan holds a B.A. in American Politics from the University of Virginia and an M.P.Aff. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas

The slides from this webinar are available as a PDF here»

Watch this Webinar on YouTube»

Presenters

 

Michele Robotham Corey
Director of Community Advocacy
Voices for Michigan’s Children
428 W. Lenawee Street
Lansing, MI 48933-2240
517-485-3500

 

Deborah Jonas
Executive Director for Research and Planning
Virginia Department of Education
101 N. 14th Street
Richmond, VA 23219
804-225-2067

 

Ryan Reyna
Senior Policy Analyst, Education Division
National Governors Association
Center for Best Practices
444 North Capitol Street, NW
Suite 267
Washington, DC 20001
202-624-7820

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The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization based in Washington, DC, provides learning opportunities for policy leaders, practitioners, and researchers working on youth and education issues at the national, state, and local levels. AYPF events and publications are made possible by contributions from philanthropic foundations. For a complete list, click here.