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This brief highlights five key findings from Looking Forward To High School and College, using Chicago Public Schools data to show how middle grade attendance and GPA outperform test scores and background traits, which students need early intervention, and how improving grades and attendance generates measurable gains.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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scores.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},587405,1792063534,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & 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Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":108,"preview_page_count":4},2336475104736,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/22000c4c5e0e5b17e70?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1786591360781797222","| \u003Cbr>;\u003Cbr>\u003Cbr>5 Key Findings for Middle Grades\u003Cbr>from Looking Forward To High School and College |\n| --- |\n| We often hear that preparation for college and careers begins when students are young.\u003Cbr>Yet, it can be difficult for middle grade educators to know how best to prepare these students for future success. Middle grade practitioners need to know what to pay attention to and who needs additional support. Without knowing how to identify students who are on-track for high school or college graduation in the middle grades, it can be difficult to set appropriate performance goals, or intervene when students struggle.\u003Cbr>The study Looking Forward to High School and College: Middle Grade Indicators of Readiness in Chicago Public Schools shows how students’ middle grade (grades five through eight) performance can be used to determine students’ likelihood of graduating from highschool and leaving high school with a strong probability of success in college. This brief summarizes a few key findings relevant for schools serving students in the middle grades.\u003Cbr>THE 5 KEY FINDINGS |\n| \u003Cbr>1. Middle grade attendance and GPA provide the best indication of how students will perform in high school classes. These are better indicators than test scores or background characteristics, such as race and neighborhood poverty level, for identifying which students are at risk of failing ninth-grade classes or earning low grades in high school.\u003Cbr>2. Students who are chronically absent or receiving Fs in the middle grades are at very high risk of being offtrack for graduation in ninth grade, and eventually dropping out of school. These students are already in need of intervention during the middle grades, before they end up failing in high school. Many other students end up off-track in high school, but\u003Cbr>cannot be identified as at high risk until after they make the transition to high school.\u003Cbr>3. College readiness depends on very strong grades in middle school, as well as high school. Students need to earn all As and Bs during the middle grades to have at least a modest chance at college readiness by the end of high school.\u003Cbr>4. Improving grades and attendance in the middle grades can have a large pay-off for high school success; even more so than improving test scores. Students who improve their attendance or grades from fifth through eighth grade have better on-track rates, higher grades, and higher test scores in high school than\u003Cbr>students who start out with the same achievement in fifth grade but do not improve during the middle grades. Modest improvements in attendance or grades from fifth through eighth grade are associated with substantial differences in high school outcomes.\u003Cbr>5. High school selection matters for\u003Cbr>whether students graduate and earn the credentials needed for college.\u003Cbr>Students with the same eighth-grade GPAs, attendance, and test scores have much different probabilities of being on-track and earning high grades in high school, depending on which high school they attend. The high schools where students have the best pass rates and highest grades are not necessarily the schools with the highest test scores.\u003Cbr>[ccsr. uchicago.edu](ccsr. uchicago.edu) |\n\nACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  \nThe authors would like to acknowledge the many people who contributed to this work. We thank Robert Balfanzand Julian Betts for providing us with very thoughtful review and feedback which were used to revise the full report. We also thank Mary Ann Pitcher and Sarah Duncan, at the Network for College Success, and members of our Steering Committee, especially Karen Lewis, for their valuable feedback on the full report. Our colleagues at UChicago CCSR and UChicago UEI, including Shayne Evans, David Johnson, Thomas Kelley-Kemple, and Jenny Nagaoka, were instrumental in helping us think about the ways in which this research would be most useful to practitioners and policy makers. We thank Matthew Holsapple for his thorough and insightful technical ","cbCaiuaoqJi7zQt7","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuaoqJi7zQt7","pdf",2113968,16,"English","# THE 5 KEY FINDINGS\n## Middle grade attendance and GPA\n## Chronic absence and Fs in middle grades\n## College readiness and grades\n## Pay-off from improving grades and attendance\n## High school selection and outcomes\n# Acknowledgements","[{\"question\":\"Which middle grade indicators best predict high school performance?\",\"answer\":\"Middle grade attendance and overall GPA provide the best indication of how students will perform in high school, outperforming test scores and background characteristics.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are chronically absent students or those receiving Fs at high risk?\",\"answer\":\"They face very high risk of being off track for ninth-grade graduation and eventually dropping out, requiring intervention during the middle grades.\"},{\"question\":\"How does improving attendance or grades in grades five through eight affect outcomes?\",\"answer\":\"Even modest improvements are associated with substantial differences in high school outcomes, including better on-track rates, higher grades, and higher test scores.\"}]","5 Key Findings for Middle Grades - from Looking Forward To High School and College - read online free | PDF",1792061804]