Preface
This project was instituted on the basic assumption that it is desirable for high schools to have some evidence in hand about the performance of their graduates, whether that performance be in training, employment, or college. Much of the information that is received about former students is anecdotal and specific to individuals--"Kevin is working at the plant over in Huntington", or "Mary is doing fine in her courses at IU in Bloomington"--and therefore the uses to which that information can be put are quite limited.
Statewide, the Commission for Higher Education estimates that over half of those graduating from Hoosier high school each year enroll the subsequent fall in college. Providing each Indiana high school with aggregate data over a period of years about the academic performance of those first year college students in the state might yield valuable insights about patterns of college attendance and adequacy of preparation, information which would be of interest to those high schools and their communities. The Lilly Endowment has provided funding to the Independent Colleges of Indiana to design and then to implement such a project for several years. It is the hope of the Lilly Endowment that all of the public and independent colleges would soon participate in the project so that the high schools could gain the maximum benefit from the report being as comprehensive as possible.
Purpose
Specifically, each public high school in Indiana will receive a report on how their graduates from the previous year performed in core courses at Indiana colleges and universities. This report will enable high school teachers in the core disciplines most frequently taught in first year programs at Indiana colleges to learn how well their curriculum and learning objectives are matching with the achievement requirements facing freshmen. It is hoped that the document also would serve as a stimulant to increasing contacts between high school teachers and college faculty in the same discipline fields with the object of making the educational process more of a seamless web and less like self contained boxes by age group. Two other objectives are to provide an evidential base to improve the quality of student preparation for college (thus enhancing student satisfaction and graduation prospects), and to provide a valuable tool for school accountability.
How to Read this Report
A unique Grade Report has been produced for each public high school in Indiana that has recent high school graduates enrolled as freshmen in some Indiana public and independent colleges and universities. Each report is unique because it compares the average college grades of those recent graduates from your high school to the average colleges grades of all recent high school graduates enrolling in some Indiana public and most Indiana independent institutions. These comparisons are focused in five content areas.
Average college performance comparisons focus upon courses in four generic curricular areas plus a fifth area representing freshmen remedial courses taken the first year in college. Grade averages are reported only for courses in the four basic content areas. Course descriptions are provided for the four content areas and for remedial courses available to freshmen at each college or university participating in this project. The Grade Report is presented in two sections:
Freshmen College Performance Profiles
The first section of the report provides a set of four pages. Each page depicts two views of performance data across all Indiana colleges and universities participating in this project this year:
- the average grade received by recent graduates from your high school in a particular freshmen curricular area at each Indiana college,
- the average grade received by all recent Indiana high school graduates in that same freshmen curricular area at each Indiana college.
The four generic freshmen curricular areas are:
- English
- Mathematics
- Social Science
- Science
Institution Performance Profiles
The second section of the Grade Report displays (on a single page for each separate college) course descriptions, contact personnel, and grade distributions comparing your high school to the aggregate statewide grade distribution at each college or university. Since at some colleges, grades in many courses are reported for single content area, course descriptions in that area will be generic and less specific. Consequently a "Contact Person" for each content area is provided.
Freshmen College Performance Profiles
In this section of the Grade Report you will find a separate page for each of the four curricular areas. Each page (see example above) displays average freshmen grades in one curriculum area (noted in the box in the upper right of the page) at each participating Indiana college or university. Numeric college grade point averages (GPAs) are displayed in the two columns to the left while a bar chart depicts those same data in the column to the right.
The yellow data column contains both the average college GPA (in this particular curriculum area) and the number (headcount) of your recent high school graduates enrolled as freshmen in various Indiana colleges and universities. At the bottom of the yellow column you will find the overall average GPA (in this particular curriculum area) and headcount aggregated for all your recent high school graduates enrolled as freshmen across all participating Indiana colleges and universities. To protect student confidentiality, no data will be presented when fewer than three of your recent graduates enrolled (as freshmen) at a particular college or university. However, overall averages and totals at the bottom of the page will include those students.
The gray data column contains both the average college GPA (in this particular curriculum area) and the number (headcount) of all recent graduates from all Indiana public high schools who enrolled as freshmen in various Indiana colleges and universities. At the bottom of the gray column you will find the overall average GPA (in this particular curriculum area) and total headcount for recent graduates from all Indiana public high schools who enrolled as freshmen at any of the participating Indiana colleges and universities. These two data columns enable you to compare your recent high school graduates' performance in a curricular area in a particular college (i.e. the GPA in the yellow column) with the analogous performance of all recent Indiana high school graduates who enrolled as freshmen at that same college (i.e. the GPA in the gray column).
The bar chart offered in the column to the far right enables you to statistically judge whether or not any differences (i.e. deviation) between the performance of your recent high school graduates and all students statewide are statistically within what could be called "normal deviation" (i.e. a standard deviation). Small differences in college GPA between your recent graduates and all other freshmen at the same college are normal and to be expected. Average GPA differences larger than one "standard deviation" should be considered "significant". Significant differences in GPA where your recent graduates outperform the average freshmen at that college can be (statistically) interpreted as "above normal performance". Significant differences in GPA where your recent graduates perform substantially below the average freshmen at that college can be (statistically) interpreted as "below normal performance".
The measuring stick to judge these significant differences (i.e. a standard deviation) is incorporated in the bar charts on the far right. The average performance of all freshmen taking courses in each of the 4 freshmen curricular areas is depicted as a diamond situated in the middle of a light gray shaded bar. The light gray shaded bar represents the "normal" expected range of grades received by two-thirds of all freshmen enrolled at that college in that particular curriculum area.
If the average GPA of your recent high school graduates falls within that normal range it will be depicted as a black "X" situated within that light gray bar. If the average GPA of your recent high schools graduates falls outside (and to the left) of that normal range signifying "below normal performance" it will be depicted as a red "X". If the average GPA of your recent high schools graduates falls outside (and to the right) of that normal range, signifying "above normal performance" it will be depicted as a green "X" . Because the measuring stick (i.e. a standard deviation) varies with the particular college or university (due to variability in grading practices as well as student performance), it is possible that your recent graduates performance may be above normal at one college and below normal at another, yet their average GPA might be the same. You must remember that "normal" is always judged in comparison to other freshmen within that particular college.
To judge overall average grade performance of all your recent high school graduates compared to the average grade performance of freshmen attending all colleges and universities, please look at the yellow box on the lower right. Average overall letter grades (across all colleges) provide a quick index of your recent graduates relative to all Hoosier freshmen in each content area.
Institution Performance Profiles
The second section of the Grade Report focuses upon performance of your recent high school graduates in each of the five curriculum areas at a single participating college or university. A separate "Institution Performance Profile" page is included in your Grade Report for each participating college or university that has enrolled at least one of your recent high school graduates. In the left two columns of that page you will find grade distributions for your recent graduates adjacent to grade distributions for all Hoosier freshmen enrolled at that institution. Non letter grades (such as pass/fail) are always reported as "other".
You will also find descriptions of the college courses in each of the five curricular areas upon which those grade distributions were based.
Course descriptions are provided to help you better understand the content of each freshman curricular area at that particular college or university. Some institutions may offer only a single freshman course in a curricular area and consequently the course description will focus upon that specific course. Most institutions offer several freshmen courses in each curricular area and consequently the course description is an amalgamation of content from all the courses so offered. In such instances the reader may wish to contact the individual designated for details about particular aspects of the content offered.
