This brief examines the experiences of California high school seniors from the graduating class of 2023, offering insights into their preparation, plans, and concerns for college prior to enrollment. Drawing on results from a large-scale survey of seniors, the findings reveal important variation in students' secondary school experiences and their…

School climate describes the quality of the school environment. School climate is a construct that refers to the perceived structural, interpersonal, and learning aspects of a school; a positive school climate is associated with school success and academic achievement (Hoy & Hannum, 1997), prosocial development (Koth et al., 2008), and…

In an era of escalating higher education costs, students and families need to be aware of all of their options for financing college and how those financing options work. Financing remains one the top factors for choosing a college, especially for students with greater financial need. Those who do not receive the award packages and financial…

This poll was conducted between August 18-August 27, 2023 among a national sample of 1,000 Teens. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of Teens based on gender, age, race, and region. Results from the full survey have a measure of precision of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. Among the…

This poll was conducted between August 22-August 26, 2024 among a national sample of 1,002 Teens. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of Teens based on gender, age, race, and region. Results from the full survey have a measure of precision of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. This…

We present results from the first year of a three-year extramurally funded project involving a partnership between an ethnically diverse urban high school and professional research botanists. The goals are to provide students exposure to real-world science, broaden interest in scientific fields of study, and increase floristic data and herbarium…

These are the appendixes for the full report, "Changes in School Climate during COVID-19 in a Sample of Pennsylvania Schools." The REL study analyzed changes in scores from a pre-pandemic year (2018/19) to the 2020/21 and 2021/22 school years, both of which were affected by COVID-19 and related policy changes. These technical appendixes…

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is a long-term study of substance use and related factors among U.S. adolescents, college students, and adult high school graduates through age 60. It is conducted annually and supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. MTF findings identify emerging substance use problems, track substance use trends, and inform…

To better understand the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation, this report presents data drawn from the California Healthy Kids Survey (2017-2019) regarding high school students' social and emotional well-being, school experiences, engagement, and their perceptions of the supports they received at school. With…

COVID-19 changed the experiences of K-12 students and teachers in ways that are not yet well-documented. This report provides initial insights into teaching and learning during the pandemic from the perspectives of teachers and students at 31 public schools in three states. The analyses indicate that about two thirds of the teachers surveyed…

This report captures motivational data from students at the end of 2020--students who were in the thick of the pandemic and the pivot to online and hybrid learning, along with historic levels of social and economic upheaval. Starting strong is crucial to student retention. When entering students get off to a strong start, they are more likely to…

The tables in this report include data from the 2019 School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). These tables show the extent to which students, ages 12 through 18, with different characteristics report being bullied, including estimates by student sex, race/ethnicity, grade, and household income. The U.S.…

Since 2007, the Cowen Institute has conducted annual polls on perceptions of public education in New Orleans. These polls have served to provide insight on how parents, guardians, and the general public feel about the most relevant issues related to New Orleans' highly decentralized K-12 public education system. In previous editions of the poll,…

Monitoring the Future (MTF) is designed to give such attention to substance use among the nation's youth and adults. It is an investigator-initiated study that originated with, and is conducted by, a team of research professors at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Since its onset in 1975, MTF has been funded continuously…

This report presents the results of a poll focusing on teens and their schooling perspectives. This poll was conducted between September 21-October 3, 2022 among a national sample of 1,000 Teens. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of Teens based on gender, age, race, and region. The poll…