THE PERSISTENT GENDER GAP AMONG IDAHO
(AND BOISE) COLLEGE STUDENTS

In December, 2015, Dr. Cathleen McHugh, Principal Research Analyst for the Idaho Board of Education, published a fascinating  paper entitled "Idaho's Gender Gap in Go-on Rates". In the paper, Dr. McHugh examined the gap between females and males in college attendance at various time lapse periods (1 year, 2 years, and 3 years) after high school graduation. She found a persistent gap between genders, and also found that the gap widened in particular regions of the state after the change in age eligibility for LDS missions with the high school class of 2013.

This study was interesting because of some related research we have been doing about the college graduates from the high school classes of 2008-11. In short, we found a gender gap between females and males in the percentage that have graduated from college.

We also examined majors of the 4-year college graduates from the 2008-11 high school classes, and found some interesting information. For example, though many more females graduated than males overall, that was not the case with Engineering graduates:

More and more females are entering into medical fields, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. In 1965, the percentage of females graduating from medical school was 

6.5. In 1995 it was 39.2%, and in 2013-14 females made up 47.5% of medical school graduates.

In particular fields, women now represent the majority of medical residents. For example, 54.9% of 2013-14 residents in Family Medicine and 70.6% of residents in Pediatrics were female,

In most pre-medical and medical fields, the landscape of Boise Schools majors is dominated by females. The vast majority of nursing majors (95%) are females, and three-quarters of Exercise Science grads are women. The same pattern emerges,in the fields of Biology and Psychology:

Finally, in the Business field, just over half of the graduates are male.

COLLEGE MAJORS OF BOISE DISTRICT GRADUATES

BOISE STATE AND THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO

In studying the college majors of Boise District college grads for the high school classes of 2008-11, we came across some interesting information about patterns of majors at the institutions a majority of District students attend - Boise State University and the University of Idaho.

About 46% of 2008-11 District grads in those classes graduated with BA/BS degrees from the two institutions - 27 percent from BSU and 18% from the University of Idaho.

Boise State University

It's not surprising that so many BSU graduates major in the Health and Wellness field, what with two large hospital systems within the city limits. In fact, one can see that focus in the list of top majors from BSU.

Health Science was the single most popular major among Boise grads from BSU, with Biology the second most popular choice. Though Nursing did not make the top ten list, it wasn't far off - 14 bachelor degrees in Nursing were earned by District students.

University of Idaho

For the University of Idaho, we see a considerably different picture:

Over a third of Idaho's grads major in STEM fields, a percentage far higher than that of the graduated population as a whole (27%).  Very few Idaho grads have majored in a Communications area, especially as compared with BSU.

Here's the list of top majors among Boise District grads of the University of Idaho.

Note that Mechanical Engineering was the second most popular major among the UI grads. That was a bit of a shocker to us, but considering that Idaho's Engineering program is well-established and that the STEM promotion programs have been in place for some years now, perhaps it should not be so surprising. 

STEM FIELD POPULARITY CONTINUES 

COLLEGE GRADUATE DATA, CLASSES OF 2008-11

In December 2014 we posted an article detailing the college majors of Boise District students from the high school graduating classes of 2007-10.  In this post, we've updated the data, dropping off the class of 2007, adding the class of 2011, and considering additional degrees and certificates earned by students in the classes of 2008, 2009, and 2010.

Of the District students who earned degrees and certificates, 89% attained Bachelor's degrees, 8% received Associate degrees, and 4% earned certificates, as reported by the National Student Clearinghouse. We believe that certificates are under-reported, since a number of the for-profit colleges in the Treasure Valley and beyond are not included in the Clearinghouse reports.  Notably, the majority of the reported certificates in our database were from Carrington College in Boise.

Majors By Field

The largest percentage of Boise Schools' college graduates' majors continues to be in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), with 26.7% of students majoring in one of these fields. The percentage of students majoring in STEM is up .5% since we last did the analysis.

The Major Area with the largest growth is Health and Wellness, which was at 12.2% of majors for the classes of 2007-10 and now stands at 15.5%. Social Science majors are down about 3%, falling 

from 25.6% of the total to 22.4%. Other major areas are relatively static.

Individual Majors

Next we looked at the top 30 majors of Boise District college graduates. There were some interesting changes in the data.

Among the ten most popular majors, Health Science (+16)  and Nursing (+13) showed considerable growth, as did Psychology (+28),  Mechanical Engineering (+15), and Biology (+34). In light of the fact that the Idaho Department of Labor predicts that Health care and Social Assistance jobs will see the highest net growth in Idaho through the year 2022, the increases in majors in Health Science, Nursing, and Biology make some sense.

It's interesting that many sources indicate that, at least for fields like medicine, the student's undergraduate major makes less difference than does the grades a student achieves in his/her undergrad program. Here is an article about medical school admission that makes this point, and another in which a different approach to recruiting medical school students is described.

Graduate Degrees

We had not realized that the National Student Clearinghouse would provide for us bonus material - the higher level degrees earned by students who have already graduated from college. Though this data comes from the high school graduating classes of 2008-11, most of the graduate degrees have been earned by students in the class of 2008.

The graduate degrees earned by these students include:

• Juris Doctor (law) degrees: 9

• Master's Degrees: 73
• Accounting - 9
• Engineering - 11
• Architecture - 3
• Education - 6
• Social Work - 2
• Business - 4

Still Enrolled After All These Years

According to the National Students Clearinghouse, among the members of the Class of 2008 who attended college, 229 (12.2% of the graduating class) are still enrolled in college, at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, their eighth year after high school graduation.

One hundred seventy-nine were "retained" after year seven, meaning they continued their enrollment, while 47 returned after a "stop out", and 9 were new to college. 

In the research we did about the returning students, we found these characteristics:

• 60% had attended more than one college.
• 20% had attended three or more colleges.
• Most had taken time off during college at some point.
• Most had several semesters when they were not full-time students.

Forty percent of the returning college students are enrolled at Boise State University. For those BSU students, half had attended multiple colleges, and most had been part-time for multiple semesters.

In the next Data Points post, an analysis of the majors at the two institutions from which most Boise District students graduate - Boise State University and the University of Idaho.

FROM BOISE TO...ANYWHERE THEY WANT

COLLEGES ATTENDED

Sometimes, people make claims about the quality of this program or that in preparing students for college, as if the unique program (International Baccalaureate, for example) does a better job of preparing students to access "elite" colleges than the opportunities offered in the Boise District.

The fact is that Boise District students who have achieved excellent grades and taken their share of music, art, and Advanced Placement coursework can attend college anywhere they choose. Many are restricted, obviously, by cost and perhaps by proximity.

Most students from the Boise School District who have earned a Bachelor's degree attended Boise State University or the University of Idaho. Here's a compilation of the 30 colleges from which Boise District students in the classes of 2008-11 received 10 or more Bachelor's degrees.

As you can see, each of the 30 colleges is in the west, and 2/3 are public colleges and universities. It's interesting to note the popularity of the University of Utah and the University of Oregon, and of Gonzaga University in Spokane. 

However, over 350 Boise students have attended and graduated from some of the other most respected out-of-state colleges and universities in the country. Here's a sampling of those colleges.

California - Santa Clara University, University of San Francisco, University of San Diego, Pepperdine University, Stanford University, USC, UCLA, Harvey Mudd College, Pomona College

Colorado - Colorado College, Colorado School of Mines, University of Denver

Connecticut - Wesleyan University, Yale University

District of Columbia - Georgetown University, George Washington University

Georgia - Emory University

Illinois - DePaul University, Northwestern University

Indiana - Purdue University

Massachusetts - Tufts University, Brown University, Harvard University, Amherst College, Boston University, Bowdoin College, Wellesley College

Maryland - Johns Hopkins University

Maine - Colby College

Missouri - Washington University, St Louis University

North Carolina - Duke University, Wake Forest University

New Jersey - Princeton University

New York - Cornell University, Vassar College, New York University, Rochester Institute of Technology

Ohio - Case Western Reserve University, Denison University

Oregon - Reed College, Lewis and Clark College, Pacific University, Linfield College

Pennsylvania - University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University, Swarthmore College, Villanova University

South Carolina - Clemson University

Texas - Rice University, Baylor University

Virginia - Washington and Lee University, College of William and Mary

Washington - Pacific Lutheran University, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University

Wow! That's quite a list of colleges, each in its own way requiring strong preparation for attendance and graduation.

Next, a look at the undergraduate degrees earned by students in the classes of 2008-11, and at the students from the class of 2008 who are still enrolled in a degree program, 7 years after high school graduation.

BOISE DISTRICT COLLEGE-GOING TRENDS

Happy New Year! Hopefully, your Christmas and New Year's holidays were enjoyable and restful.

The National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) provides excellent data for us about college-going and college graduation trends among our high school graduates.We have been using the Clearinghouse, which supplies data from about 94% of colleges nationwide, since the class of 2007. So we have 9 graduating classes which are now in the database.

NSC provides information about each class for the first 8 years after high school. So we have complete data for the class of 2007, 7 years for the class of 2008, 6 years for the class of 2009, and so on.

NSC does not provide information about students who join the military or go on church missions. However, we presume that many students in each category enter some form of post-secondary education after their service to the country or to their church. It's one reason why, especially in Idaho, the percentage of students who graduate from  post-secondary training opportunities grows after year 6, or even after year 7 or 8. We wrote about this phenomenon in an earlier post.

Here is an update of Boise District college-going trends.

Direct to College

As indicated, many Idaho students serve missions or join the military after high school. From research our counselors have done, we think that this affects Boise's college-going rate by about 3-4 percent each year. It appears that the percentage is higher in other parts of the state, and especially in eastern Idaho.

You can see that the District percentage has steadily increased since we started tracking data. Idaho's percentage dropped from the class of 2008 to the class of 2010. but we don't yet have any national data after the class of 2010. That 45% Direct Enrollment rate for the class of 2010 was the lowest in the nation.

Here are the trends for the 4 comprehensive Boise high schools. Note that relative income levels of the student population also play a role in the college-going rates. Timberline and Boise have higher go-on rates than do Borah and Capital, and lower rates of free/reduced lunch among the student population. Each of the high schools has seen an increase in the Direct to College rates since the class of 2007.

College-Going Rates Within 1 year of Graduation

NSC also tracks this data, which allows us to see how the trends develop one year after high school graduation.

The district and school trends pretty much follow those of direct entry, with percentages increasing a bit as more students try college for the first time.

College Going Rates Within 2 Years of Graduation

Though the patterns look similar, it's important to note that the percentage of students who enroll in college within two years of high school graduation is almost 10% higher than that of Direct Entry. For example,  60% of the class of 2013 enrolled in college directly out of high school. In 2015, the percentage is 70.  Since 1,754 students graduated in the class, about 175 additional students enrolled after the fall of 2013. Note also that the percentage enrolling has increased by 7 from the class of 2007 to the class of 2015.

For the high schools, it's interesting to note that Capital's 2 year enrollment has gone from 60% for the class of 2007 to 73% for the class of 2015.  Though the 2 year enrollment trend has increased at all 4 high schools, Capital's improvement is especially impressive. Also, Boise High's 2 year enrollment percentage has been above 80% for the last two high school graduating classes.

So the improvements in college enrollment are consistent for Direct Enrollment and 1 and 2 years after college. But how does that play out in terms of college graduation? That will be the subject of the next post on Data Points.

CHECKING THE DATA

Last week the Idaho Statesman and Idaho Education News reported on a poll conducted by the Albertson's Foundation. Among other things, the survey results indicated that "58% of Idahoans with charter schools in their area believe charters offer a better education than regular public schools." Curiously, the majority of the survey questions have not been released to the public.

Foundation Executive Director Roger Quarles, said: “I don’t think it is just a perception problem,  I think it is a realistic, operational, performance problem."

But what do the data indicate? Do charters outperform "regular" public schools? Is it a "performance problem" as Quarles indicated? 

We took a look at the data for two charter schools in the Boise area - SAGE and the Village, comparing their performance on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium test and Idaho Reading Indicator with that of demographically comparable Boise District elementary schools. Here are the results.

SAGE

SAGE International School is located in southeast Boise on Parkcenter Boulevard. SAGE serves students in grades k-11, and will add 12th grade next year.. According to the most recent data from the State Department of Education, the percentage of Free/Reduced Lunch students at SAGE is 16.7% The most demographically similar elementary schools are Roosevelt (15.3%), Adams (14.7%), Longfellow(16.7%), and Collister (18.5%).

Here is more data about the demographics of the schools:

Then we looked at two measures of achievement among these schools - SBAC Achievement and IRI performance.

For the SBAC, we reviewed Math and English Language Arts at grades 3-6, since data were available to make grade by grade comparisons. First, SBAC math:

These data represent the percentage of students at each grade level scoring Proficient or Advanced on the SBAC Math test. The data for SAGE were taken directly from the State Department of Education's Assessment web page; for Boise District schools, they were either taken from the web page, or, when incomplete data were available there, from the District's SBAC database.

In this "apples to apples" comparison, we can see that there is not a "performance problem" in math.

How about in English Language Arts?

SAGE students did very well in Math and ELA on the SBAC, scoring well  above the state average in both. However, their performance is not better than demographically comparable Boise schools. No sign of the "performance problem" here.

And, finally, on the Idaho Reading Indicator, we examined Fall Kindergarten and Spring 3rd grade performance for the schools in the comparison. You'll see that, in each of the schools, the vast majority of students are prepared to read entering kindergarten, and that every school maintains or improves upon that high percentage through the Spring of 3rd grade.

The Village Charter 

The Village Charter operates in two facilities, one on Roosevelt Street and another on Orchard on the Boise Bench, and serves grades k-8. In the most recent State Department of Education data, The Village has a Free/Reduced lunch percentage of 28.9%. The most demographically comparable Boise schools are Amity, Liberty, and Maple Grove.

Here are the demographic characteristics for the four schools:

Grade-by-grade achievement data for the Village are partially redacted on the SBAC website because fewer than 10 students scored in particular categories on the test. However, the data for grades 3-8 combined are available. We thus have a comparison of the Village data for grades 3-8 and for grades 3-6 for Amity, Maple Grove, and Liberty. Not the greatest analytics, but it should give us an idea of relative achievement status at the schools.

Here's the information for the IRI:

The bottom line here is that we need to compare apples with apples in making achievement comparisons, and that, often, when we do so we find that the comparisons yield different results than we might have expected, considering the statement from Dr. Quarles.

As we go forward with assessment in the state of Idaho, we'll have chance to analyze growth in achievement from year to year as well as the status of school and district performance. Furthermore, we will continue to make appropriate comparisons and share them with our community.

THIS AND THAT FOR DECEMBER

Here are a few noteworthy stories from last month.

Hawthorne and Whitney Pre-K Up and Running!

Pre-kindergarten classes at Whitney and Hawthorne Elementary Schools began in November, with 60 students enrolled in this collaborative pilot project between the Boise School District and the City of Boise.

The teachers for the Pre-k program are Grace Ruddy, who teaches morning and afternoon sessions at Hawthorne, and Shelia Dengler-Shaw, who teaches a section at Whitney.

We are looking forward to seeing the progress our Pre-k students make this year, and into the future, and will monitor their reading readiness at regular intervals. It's exciting to once again have a Pre-k program in the Boise District!

Alphabet practice at Hawthorne

Hawthorne Principal Bright helps at the water table

CREDO Study of Online Charter Schools

CREDO (The Center for Research on Education Outcomes) is a research organization located at Stanford University. CREDO recently released a report of the results of its study of online charter schools. The intent of the report was to "present the findings about impacts of online charter enrollment on the academic progress of students. " Dr. James L. Woodworth was the lead analyst on the project, and Dr. Margaret E. Raymond was the Project Director.

The CREDO study looked at comparative math and reading growth data between online charter and "traditional" schools in 17 states and the District of Columbia. No online schools in Idaho were part of the study. 

 Among the findings in the CREDO study (page 23) "Compared to their VCRs (Virtual Control Records) in the TPS (Traditional Public Schools), online charter students have much weaker growth overall. Across all tested students in online charters, the typical academic gains for math are -0.25 standard deviations (equivalent to 180 fewer days of learning) and -0.10 (equivalent to 72 fewer days) for reading . This means that compared to their twin attending TPS, the sizes of the coefficients leave little doubt attending an online charter school leads to lessened academic growth for the average student. 

ISBA approves Boise Resolution

At the Idaho School Boards Association business meeting in November, the Boise School Board's resolution received a 91% approval vote from ISBA membership. Boise's resolution recommended 3 actions:

• Eliminate the requirement that students pass a high stakes “college readiness” assessment prior to graduating from high school.
• Ensure that students are not required to take NCLB assessments outside the grade levels required by the federal government.
• Prior to the conclusion of the SBAC contract, create criteria for adoption of a test that satisfies federal standards, provides consistent, detailed feedback about academic strengths and weaknesses based on Idaho Core Standards to students, parents, and teachers, and can be administered in a reasonable amount of time.

Pictures of 15 classrooms

Here is a link to an article in the Washington Post which features photographs of classrooms around the world, taken in September, 2015. From Islamabad, Pakistan to Nairobi, Kenya to Boston Latin School, the photos of students, teachers, and classrooms are fascinating.

Students Who Have "Got to Go"

Kate Taylor, a reporter for the New York Times, filed this article about the Success Academy Charter System in New York City. Here's a quote from this interesting article:

"At Success Academy Fort Greene, the same day that Ms. Ogundiran heard from the principal, her daughter’s name was one of 16 placed on a list drawn up at his direction and shared by school leaders.

The heading on the list was “Got to Go.”


Nine of the students on the list later withdrew from the school. Some of their parents said in interviews that while their children attended Success, their lives were upended by repeated suspensions and frequent demands that they pick up their children early or meet with school or network staff members. Four of the parents said that school or network employees told them explicitly that the school, whose oldest students are now in the third grade, was not right for their children and that they should go elsewhere."