Massachusetts High School Graduation Initiative (MassGrad) Final Evaluation Report
Prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
June 2016
Exceprts from the Executive Summary:
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) was awarded a federal High School Graduation Initiative (HSGI) grant for the years 2010–2015 to support statewide and local efforts focused on high school dropout prevention, intervention, and recovery. Known locally as MassGrad, the grant targeted the 133 Massachusetts high schools (“the MassGrad cohort”) that exceeded the statewide annual dropout rate of 2.9 percent during the 2008–09 school year. By the end of the grant period, the cohort had been reduced to 120 schools (“the current MassGrad cohort”), due to school closings and mergers.
The MassGrad evaluation was conducted by the UMass Donahue Institute (UMDI). The evaluation began during the fourth quarter of MassGrad’s first year, the 2010–11 school year, which coincided with the first major field activities. The 2011–12 school year was therefore the first full year of substantial evaluation activity, which continued through the 2014–15 school year.
