IN THE decade since the start of school reform in the District, a variety of metrics have been used to gauge progress. Test scores, graduation rates and student enrollment have all pointed to steady improvement in the public school system. But perhaps nothing has been as encouraging — or inspiring — as the news that the entire graduating class at Ballou High School has applied to college this year. Ballou was long seen as the epitome of D.C. school dysfunction, a place that dead-ended its students by not giving them challenges. So the fact that all 190 seniors want to go on to higher education is an important achievement that should be applauded.

“There are some schools and communities where college is an automatic next step. There is no celebration. Our kids don’t get that same message,” said Ballou Principal Yetunde Reeves of the struggling Ward 8 school, where all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Changing that message, The Post’s Alejandra Matos reported, by raising expectations for students has been the aim of Ms. Reeves and her team. That it was the Class of 2017 that last spring set the goal that all seniors would apply to college speaks to the principal’s success in starting to reshape the school culture.

Ballou is one of the city’s lowest-performing schools. For its students, applying to college, or even being accepted, is not enough, and school officials acknowledge that. But getting students — many of whom are from families where graduation from high school has been a struggle — to see college as an attainable goal is a critical first step. It is progress. “Now they have choice. That is the beauty of this entire thing — you get to pick,” said Assistant Principal Shamele Straughter.

Key to the effort — which D.C. Schools Chancellor Antwan Wilson hopes to expand to other high schools — has been the work of a college and career coordinator who has worked individually with students in setting goals. Assistance is also given in preparing and taking college entrance tests and filling out college and financial assistance applications.

Providing support to students once they are in college is also critical. The system is in the beginning stages of setting up what officials hope will be a muscular outreach program. Ballou trumpeted this year’s 100 percent application rate as a first; we trust it won’t be the last time it happens.