Admission Control

A while ago during one of the many discussions about Charter Schools and, more specifically, Alameda Community Learning Center (ACLC) someone asked about the graduation rates for students that enter in at 6th or 7th grade.   I thought that data would be valuable in assessing whether or not ACLC was really doing what they claimed they were doing which was teaching students how to Learn to Learn, so for weeks now I have been trying to find that information.   Luckily, a site I read SFSchools, which I have referenced here before, was touching on the subject of KIPP charter schools which can be found across the US, she mentioned that she had done an analysis of the attrition rates of KIPP charter school students and noted that the information was readily available and then provided instructions on how to get it.  So many thanks to Caroline for the how-to.  

I went to the State website and downloaded the information to a spreadsheet and then I used the data that I had to sort out basically a timeline for kids who “entered” ACLC during certain school years and then tracked that until graduation or as far as the available data would go.   The most interesting ones are the two that I have as complete data from 7th to 12th grade as I could get.  Those are the 2000-2001 7th grade entry and 2001-2002 7th grade entry.

Let me start out by saying that one could argue, and by one I mean me, that students that have reached 12th grade and I would even say 11th grade, have probably already developed pretty good studying habits.   If they are a good student they will continue to be a good student no matter where they are.  Which is why it is interesting that a pattern emerges among ACLC students that there is a spike of students around 8th and 9th grade, as there should be, but then ACLC slowly bleeds students in the next few years until graduation.   Then there is the strange, 12th grade enrollment or even 11th grade enrollment, for which some other school had been largely responsible for the schooling of that student over the years, but then ACLC gets to take the credit for that students graduation, final test scores, and college placement.   Seems a bit inequitable to me.

So with tha set aside, let’s get on to the data. Starting with 2001-2002 7th grade entry, in 2001 here is the population ACLC started with:

• One Asian female
• One Latino female
• Five African American females
• Six White females
• One American Indian male
• Three Asian males
• One Filipino males
• One Latino male
• One African American male
• Six White males

When the students move to 8th grade, this is how 8th looks, everything has stayed the same except for these changes:

• Less one African American female
• Less one White female
• Add one African American male
• Add five White males

In grade 9, this is the largest population of kids for this year of students with 32 students in this class, the changes that have now been made are:

• Add one African American female
• Add one Latino female
• Less one White female
• Less one American Indian male, no American Indian male left in population
• Add one Filipino male
• Add one Latino male
• Less two White males

In grade 10, here is where students start “opting out” of the program, the changes are:

• Less one Asian female, no more Asian females left in the population
• Less one Filipino female, no moe Filipino females left in the population
• Less two African American females
• Less one White female
• Add one Filipino male
• Less one African American male
• Less one White male

In grade 11, the changes are:

• Less one Latino female
• Less one African American female
• Add three White females
• Less one Asian male
• Add one Filipino male
• Less one White male

And finally in grade 12, the final tally ends up being tracking from 7th to 12th:

• Asian female:                         1 -> 1 -> 1 -> 0 -> 0 -> 0
• Filipino female:                      0 -> 0 -> 1-> 0 -> 0 -> 0
• Latino female:                        1 -> 1 -> 2-> 2 -> 1 -> 1
• African American female:     5 -> 4 -> 5-> 3 -> 2 ->1
• White female:                        6 -> 5 -> 4-> 3 -> 6 -> 6
• American Indian male:        1 -> 1 -> 0-> 0 -> 0 -> 0
• Asian male:                            3 -> 3 -> 3-> 3 -> 2 -> 2
• Filipino male:                         1 -> 1 -> 2-> 3 -> 4 -> 4
• Latino male:                          1 -> 1 -> 2-> 2 -> 2 -> 2
• African American male:       1 -> 2 -> 2-> 1 -> 1 -> 1
• White male:                           6 -> 11 -> 9-> 8 -> 7 -> 7

In 12th grade there is only 24 students, so at its peak at 32 ACLC lost almost 25% of its population.  It is really puzzling how many students get enrolled into ACLC at the very tail end of the public school education, either 11th or 12th grade.