According to the California Department of Education (CDE) Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) is described as “modified methods of measurement for indicators that are aligned with the evaluation rubrics of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) to evaluate the success or progress of schools that serve high-risk students.”
The California Advisory Task Force on Alternative Schools (Task Force) works alongside the CDE and the Gardner center to help better support all students on their education journey. “Task Force members advise the CDE on the development of a robust state school accountability system that will incentivize school improvement and promote better outcomes for youth in alternative school settings.”
In the Fall of 2020 the California Advisory Task Force on Alternative Schools suggested the idea of finding a more “positive transition rate” for DASS schools that would depict a more accurate image of the exiting student population.
Support for this idea is shown in a data brief from John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities at Stanford University. The data reveals that some alternative schools are excelling when it comes to re-engaging students in academics and creating positive outcomes.
The data was collected to depict whether students enrolled in a DASS school had a positive or negative exit rate. A positive transition rate included but are not limited to high school completion by earning a high school diploma or GED and enrolling in college. A negative transition rate consisted of “truancy, expulsion, no-shows, dropout, or aging out without a diploma.”
The data was taken over the course of seven school years between 2015-2022. All students enrolled in a DASS school for at least 45 days were considered. Some key takeaways are that there was a high and consistent percentage of students that had a positive transition rate of approximately 82% over the course of seven years. In addition, in the year of 2022, “28% of students enrolled in DASS schools for less than 45 days exited those schools with a diploma or other completion certificate.” This data is crucial for accurately and appropriately examining the ability that DASS schools have for re-engaging students. Lastly, the data revealed, “less than 1 in 5 DASS students drop or age out of high school without a diploma or certificate of completion in a given school year.”
Overall the data reveal the value of considering positive transition outcomes for students that enroll in DASS schools. The schools’ ability to re-engage students in academics aids in the process of setting them up for successful futures and thus resulting in a positive transition rate. You can read the full data brief here.