Researchers, policymakers and educators are increasingly focused on the accurate identification, assessment, and referral of English learners (ELs) with disabilities, stemming in part from both the under- and over-identification of ELs for special education services, as compared to non-ELs identified for these services. Appropriate decision making…

The purpose of Diploma On! is to re-engage students who have dropped out of school within member districts and ultimately increase the graduation rate in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Program staff obtain student contact information from identified referral sources within each district, normally after a 15-day drop. Next, they contact the student…

Nationwide, many students who enroll in community college programs fail to persist in postsecondary education or complete a credential. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) Two-Year Occupational Grant Pilot Program (the Occupational Grant) was a financial aid program designed to increase persistence and completion rates through…

Performance funding policies for higher education allocate appropriations to public institutions based on student outcomes such as degree completions. This study investigates whether a special science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) incentive in 13 state performance funding policies leads to greater undergraduate degree…

This report presents an approach to evaluating networked improvement communities (NICs) and describes the tools used to apply the approach to a formative evaluation of the Minnesota Alternative Learning Center Networked Improvement Community (Minnesota ALC NIC). In fall 2019 leaders at the Minnesota Department of Education requested support from…

The purpose of Diploma On! is to re-engage students who have dropped out of school within member districts and ultimately increase the graduation rate in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Staff from the program obtains contact information for students from identified referral staff within each district, normally after a 15-day drop. Next, they contact…

Community colleges and broad-access universities (those with minimally selective admissions policies) provide an opportunity for students across the United States to attain postsecondary degrees and economic mobility. However, graduation rates from such colleges are often low and there are many obstacles that can be difficult to overcome,…

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) ensures educational equity for multilingual learners through supporting school districts and charter schools to develop, implement and evaluate research-based language instruction educational programs (LIEPs) so that multilingual learners, including students with English learner (EL) status, attain…

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) ensures educational equity for multilingual learners through supporting school districts and charter schools to develop, implement and evaluate research-based language instruction education programs so that multilingual learners, including students with English learner status, attain academic language…

We examined professional development spending among Minnesota school districts and explored: (1) the level and variation in spending among districts; (2) associations between expenditures on professional development and district characteristics, including ethnic divergence between faculty and students; and (3) associations between professional…

The College Possible program provides intensive coaching by near-peer mentors, peer group support, and opportunities for academic and non-cognitive skill building to low-income students through an intensive two-year curriculum in junior and senior years of high school. The goal of the program is to close the achievement gap between low-income…

This analysis looked at the impact of Student Parent Help Center services on undergraduate student parents' academic outcomes. Results from this analysis suggest that undergraduate student parents who interact with the Student Parent Help Center staff and access its referrals and programs are significantly more likely to graduate, remain enrolled…

This study illustrates a method for evaluating the accuracy of performance metrics and identifies potential institutional and student attributes that may increase the likelihood of classification errors. Longitudinal data were obtained from the Integrated Postsecondary Eduation Data System for public 4-year institutions (N = 558) to evaluate…

In the past year, a number of states have eliminated the requirements for high school exit or graduation examinations and retroactively issued diplomas to students who had completed all other graduation requirements but had not passed the required examinations. On the other hand, some states have begun to require students to pass a civics test as…

There is broad consensus that education and workforce training are closely linked to economic wellbeing. Earning a family-sustaining hourly wage (FSHW) serves as an important indicator of a family's economic well-being. Understanding how individuals achieve a FSHW is key to the work of various stakeholders, including educators, policy makers,…