The Relationship between Select Reporting and Operational Practices and Increasing High School Graduation Rates in Georgia

This two-phase study was designed to measure the prevalence of certain strategic operational and data reporting practices used by Georgia's public schools to improve high school graduation rates, with an intentional focus on ethically questionable practices, referred to as gaming behaviors . During the first research phase, a survey instrument was developed and administered to collect levels of staff engagement in selected practices and perceptions concerning various aspects of graduation rate accountability measures and calculations. During the second research phase, chi-square statistical tests and correlational analyses were performed to determine if the prevalence of certain practices were statistically significant and whether changes in the prevalence of certain practices were associated with changes in graduation rates between the years 2010--2011 and 2013--2014.;Survey results provided evidence that many schools engage in practices that could be construed as gaming behaviors, strategically employed to improve high school graduation rates. Results further indicate that engagement in such such practices may arise from performance pressures felt by schools to improve graduation rates. Within-year analysis of Georgia Department of Education data sets yielded evidence of schools and school districts that reported unusually high rates of home school withdrawals, middle school dropouts, and overage middle school students in one or both of the 2010--2011 and 2013--2014 school years, which is discussed as possible evidence of gaming behaviors. Changes in rates of reported home school withdrawals, middle school dropouts, and overage middle school students between 2010--2011 and 2013--2014, however, was not found to correlate to changes in graduation rates between those same two years. A significant negative linear relationship was found to exist when comparing school changes in rates of short-term enrollments ending in drop-out status between 2010--2011 and 2013--2014 to changes in graduation rates between the same two years.