Purpose: In an era of unprecedented student measurement and emphasis on data-driven educational decision making, the full potential for using data to target resources to students has yet to be realized. This study explores the utility of machine-learning techniques with large-scale administrative data to identify student dropout risk. Research…

Institutions--even entire sectors of the education system--too often operate independently of each other, maintaining discrete student-record systems. This makes it difficult to trace a student's progress through higher education and into the workforce--and that disconnection hampers efforts to improve the system. Only by systematically collecting…

This paper discusses the implementation of the Tri-Squared Test as one of many advanced statistical measures used to verify and validate the outcomes of an initial study on academic professional's perspectives on the use, success, and viability of 9th Grade Freshman Academies, Centers, and Center Models. The initial research investigation…

The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) four-year cohort graduation rate declined slightly to 80.6% in 2011-12 from 80.9% in the previous year. Disaggregated graduation rates for most racial and ethnic groups stayed nearly the same or declined slightly in 2011-12, but the rate for African-American students rose from 67.9% to 69.6%. The other…

This report provides statistical information on the characteristics of students who dropped out of North Carolina public schools during the 1992-93 academic year. Statistical data are provided for each of the state's local education agencies in the areas of number of dropouts and dropout rates, as well as demographic data and dropout comparisons…

Graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of whether or not the nation's public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society. Since almost 90 percent of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs require some postsecondary education, having a high school diploma and the…

Having data available is so important because it can improve upon our personal perceptions. Admittedly, statistics can sometimes be skewed to tell whatever story their handlers want them to tell, but by and large, high-quality data allow us to step back from personal perceptions and embark on an analysis with an eye toward identifying the root…

Eighty-one tables were included in this study which examined teenage unemployment in a two-county rural area of North Carolina. Specifically, this report considered labor market experience of Negroes and Caucasians, personality variables, social and family characteristics, community factors, and educational and training opportunities. A structured…

A follow-up study was conducted by the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges in summer 1981 to obtain employer evaluations of the performance of occupational curriculum students who were enrolled in college in the 1979-80 school year, but did not return in 1980-81. Drawing from employment information obtained during the first statewide…

Tables in this publication provide statistical information about North Carolina's public schools from 1986-87 through 1995-96, although not all data are provided for the earlier years. Trend data are presented in graph form and summarized in table form in most instances. In 1986-87, the state had 1,963 public schools to serve its school age…

Tables present dropout data for North Carolina public schools for grades 7 through 12 for local education agencies and technical assistance areas in 1991-92. This was the first year of implementation of the federal dropout data guidelines, which require that a student be counted as a dropout each year that he or she drops out of school. The state,…