How will all stakeholders know if students are making adequate progress toward graduation, prepared for college and careers?
Graduation and related data are available by school and by student group within each school in graph, table, and raw data formats. Tools, such as WISEdash, allow you to study trends over time, find out what is typical districtwide or statewide, and see how other schools like or near your school are doing. Data are also available from other sources. Links to a variety of resources and information about the data are provided below.
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- Graduation Rates
- Progress Towards Graduation
- College or Work-Readiness and Postgraduation Success
- District and School Performance Reports and Profiles
Graduation Rates
Graduation Rates
This section can help look at questions like:
- Are students graduating within the 4-year or extended-year timeframe?
- How does the answer to this question vary by school, student group, and over time?
- What do these data tell us about areas of strength or need?
View WISEdash graphs displaying 4-year and extended-year adjusted cohort graduation (regular diploma) rates. Completion rates (counts HSEDs and student who receive completion certificates) are also provided supplemented by information about students who did not complete high school within the timeframe (e.g. are they continuing towards graduation or did they discontinue schooling). .Graduation rates are also reported in the District and School Report Cards and the Special Education District Profile.
Download a single adjusted cohort data file for all districts and schools in the state for any school year you choose. Legacy high school completion rates for 1996-97 through 2011-12, previously published on WINSS, can also be downloaded.
About the Data - High School Completion
Read about DPI tools and reports containing graduation data, how high school completion and graduation are defined, how rates are calculated, sources of data, federal and state requirements and more.
Progress Towards Graduation
This section can help look at questions like:
- Are students on-track to timely graduation?
- Are students in need of more intensive/different interventions or extra help to stay or get back on track?
- Are some high schools more successful than others in keeping students with similar backgrounds and academic histories in school and on track? Do they have ideas to try?
- Do students who enter certain high schools exhibit unusually positive or negative changes in test scores, retention rates, coursework success, attendance, etc?
Statewide Test Results
Performance on statewide tests provides some information about student progress towards meeting Wisconsin academic standards in assessed subject areas. Graduation requirements are aligned with the same standards. See also the WISEdash Public Portal for assessment results.
Retention rates provide information about the accumulation of credits towards graduation. Retention is primarily based on changes in Grade Level Placement submitted by districts.
The coursework completion system will provide information about successful completion of college and career ready coursework and a lot more. Course-taking data are available on WISEdash.
Attendance and Truancy
Missing too many days of school and having trouble catching up are often reported by students as reasons for dropping out. Students who attend school regularly are more likely to succeed in high school coursework, college, and careers.
Disciplinary problems suggest that students are not engaged in their educational progress or don't see graduation as important. Disruptive or violent behavior of students impacts the progress of other students.
Dropout events indicate that students have discontinued schooling for all or part of a school year. Such events delay or stop progress, whether or not dropouts return to high school. The graduation timeframe is not adjusted by these events.
Download a single file for all districts and schools in the state for any data topic that appears in WISEdash.
For each of the above topics, read about DPI tools and reports containing data about that topic, how key terms are defined, how rates are calculated, sources of data, and more.
College or Work-Readiness and Postgraduation Success
This section can help look at questions like:
What do participation rates and scores on college entrance and placement exams tell us about the college-readiness of our students in each of the tested subject areas?
How does the answer to this question vary by school, student group, and over time?
What do we know about the college outcomes of students after they leave the PK-12 educational system? What are their plans? Do they enroll? Do they need remediation? Do they earn a degree?
How do measures of progress towards graduation line up with measures of college or work-readiness and postgraduation success? Do students with high statewide test scores or who get high grades in relevant coursework perform well on college entrance and placement exams? Do they successfully complete college?
ACT assesses high school students' general educational development and their ability to complete college-level work.
Advanced Placement Program ® (AP) Exams
Through AP exams, high school students earn college credit and advanced placement.
Postsecondary enrollment of high school completers is one indicator of college readiness.
Wisconsin 12th graders provide data about postgraduation plans. Options include 4-year college, vocational/technical college, military, employment, job training, and more.
Advanced Postsecondary Infrastructure Project
A goal of this project is to provide data about the extent to which high school students transition successfully to postsecondary education, including whether students enroll in remedial coursework. In addition, other information determined necessary to address alignment and adequate preparation for success in postsecondary education will become available.
Download a single file for all districts and schools in the state for any data topic that appears in WISEdash.
About the Data - Home
For each of the above topics, read about DPI tools and reports containing data about that topic, how key terms are defined, how rates are calculated, sources of data, and more.
District and School Performance Reports and Profiles
This section provides links to district and school reports that include graduation and other data.
District and School Report Cards
As part of the state accountability system, the DPI produces produces report cards for every district and school in Wisconsin.
WISEdash - Wisconsin Information System for Education Data Dashboard
WISEdash is DPI's primary data analysis portal.
Special Education District Profiles
DPI reports annually to the public on the performance of each district on indicators in the State Performance Plan.
School District Performance Reports
The School District Performance Reports encompass a wealth of information on school and district performance and student achievement data for the State of Wisconsin. It serves as a district’s annual public school report card and allows for comparisons to other districts in the same athletic conference as well as to the ten largest districts in the state.
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