District reports 63.3% of ninth-graders on track; chiefs, assessment lead outline credit-recovery and instruction steps

At the March 11 Equity and Student Achievement Committee meeting, secondary chiefs and the district assessment lead presented midyear data showing districtwide progress toward the board goal to increase the share of ninth-graders earning five or more credits. Donna Lucy Linder, a secondary chief, told the board the district total for ninth-graders on track stood at 63.3 percent for the cohort cited, representing 1,540 students.

Linder said the district has set a board goal (Goal 1D) to increase the proportion of ninth-graders earning five or more credits from 70 percent to 90 percent by June 2028 and described layered supports intended to raise on-track rates: early monitoring and cohort tracking, marking-period and online credit recovery, extended-day and Saturday programming, labs attached to algebra courses, and targeted schedule adjustments at the school level. She said elementary and middle-grade expansion of for-credit coursework in eighth grade is also being considered to give students an earlier start on high-school credits.

Linder reviewed credit requirements for a New York State Regents diploma: 22 credits overall (4 English; 4 social studies; 3 science; 3 mathematics; 1 world language; 1 visual/performing arts; 2 physical education; 0.5 health; 3.5 electives) and five Regents exams. She gave school-level on-track rates (select examples): East High School 68.9%; Edison Tech 52.3%; Wilson Magnet 49%; Rochester Early College High School 82.5%; School Without Walls 98.6%; district total 63.3% (1,540 students). Linder said implementation of supports varies by school and that Padilla High School and other schools with lower on‑track percentages have been the focus of additional interventions.

Dr. Vicky Ramos, presenting district iReady diagnostic results, said the midyear diagnostics test to the full-year standard and are intended to measure the "stretch growth" needed to close learning gaps. Ramos said the district is tracking stretch growth and program impact and reported that students attending at least 80% of the time show notably better performance: "When the kids come, we can impact them," she said. Ramos described reading work driven by the science of reading (including expanded grade-3 expectations under 100.3 regulation), monthly meetings with reading teachers, tiered intervention, and elementary manipulatives purchases for math instruction. She said algebra implementation this year pairs the classroom algebra teacher with an attached lab and that algebra will be double period in future scheduling so every algebra student has a lab.

Commissioners asked about Regents results and participation in targeted boot camps and recovery programs. The presenters said January Regents data were still being processed by the state and would be supplied to the board when available; they identified Thurgood Marshall as a school that ran a successful February boot camp and said participation lists and outcome data would be provided on request. Board members pressed for more disaggregated metrics: how many ninth-graders earned credits in eighth grade, school-by-school recovery participation, and measures of lab effectiveness. Officials agreed to add those specifics to the meeting question log and follow up with data reports.

Why it matters: Ninth-grade credit accumulation is a predictor of graduation; the district tied this work to a multi-year board target and laid out both classroom and recovery strategies to increase credits. Presenters emphasized attendance and targeted, standards-based instruction as key levers and noted that implementation differs among schools.