Strategic StudentFreshman On-Track Check
Is this 9th grader on track to finish freshman year ready for 10th grade?
Pick when you are checking, then enter credits and core Fs
The read shows up here as you go.
Enough credits
One core F at most
Next step
On-time graduation in the original Chicago study
Chicago students who started 9th grade in 1999, graduating in four years. A pattern across many students; it does not predict one student.
How this works
A freshman is on track at the end of 9th grade when they have earned enough credits to move up to 10th grade and have no more than one semester F in a core course (English, math, science, or social studies). This is the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research definition.
- On track: enough credits and no core Fs.
- On track, one F to watch: enough credits and exactly one core F. It still meets the definition, but one more F flips it.
- Off track: short on credits, or two or more core Fs.
The definition is an end-of-year measure. The mid-year read is an early check: the credit target is half your promotion number, and the same one-F line applies.
Whether credit recovery removes an F from the transcript depends on your district's grade replacement policy. Often the credit is restored and the F stays.
On track is a strong signal, not a promise. In the original Chicago study, on-track freshmen were about three and a half times as likely to graduate in four years as off-track freshmen. Source: Allensworth and Easton, The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation, University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, 2005.