indicator systems

San Francisco’s Bridge to Success initiative joins the City of San Francisco, the San Francisco Unified School District, the City College of San Francisco, and community organizations to promote high school and postsecondary success for underrepresented students. Discussions between SFUSD staff and researchers from the Gardner Center led to the development of an Early Warning System to enable high schools to identify incoming ninth grade students in need of extra supports to be on track to graduate.

The goals of this brief are two-fold. One is to contribute to efforts to reach some agreement about tools and constructs focused on social and emotional assets. Although different institutions and organizations gather some information about positive social and emotional development, the youth development field does not have an agreed upon set of positive indicators that span research, policy, and practice. The review of literature on youth development practices and tools to measure assets suggests several indicator themes.

School communities across the country are working hard to comply with state and federal policies requiring that all students be prepared for success in college. Technological advances and new reporting requirements make data on students and schools more accessible than ever—but more and better data alone are not enough to meet the challenges posed by the troubling opportunity and achievement gaps that keep many students from reaching their goals after high school.

Research draws a distinction between college eligibility and college readiness. For example, a student may graduate high school with sufficient credits to enroll in a postsecondary institution, but still lack the academic skills, study habits, and college knowledge to succeed. Previous reviews of research on college readiness systems highlight individual-level indicators of whether a student is on track to be ready for college.