Graduation

This guide from MDRC is intended for counselors, teachers, and advisers. It offers strategies for helping low-income families and students identify colleges that are a good fit for their academic profiles and financial needs. Most of the suggestions in this guide come from insights through the College Match Program, a pilot program implemented in Chicago and New York City to address the problem of high school students enrolling in colleges they are academically overqualified for and for students who do not apply to college at all.

High school diploma options vary across states with regard to: (1) the number offered, (2) their alignment to college- and career-ready expectations in English language arts/literacy and mathematics course requirements, (3) the types of assessment requirements associated with degree conferral, and (4) whether or how they report student outcomes. Achieve’s analysis provides detailed descriptions of these four characteristics for the 93 diploma options available across all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the class of 2014.