The California community college system is the largest provider of publicly funded career education in the state. Community colleges are therefore critical for effective and equitable workforce training, even as the system has a governance and financing structure that creates challenges to connecting college programs to careers. Furthermore, there…

The 2012/17 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/17), conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education, is the second follow-up of students who began postsecondary education in the 2011-12 academic year. BPS:12/17 draws from the 2011-12 National Postsecondary Student Aid…

To examine the relationships between beginning public 2-year students' academic progress and labor market participation, this report uses data from the 2012/14 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/14). The report explores the demographics, enrollment intensity, and 3-year attainment and persistence of students who started in…

Youth whose First Language is Not English (FLNE)--an umbrella term that includes English Learners (ELs), youth who have reached English proficiency, and other nonnative English speakers who have never been enrolled in a formal EL program (see Figure 1)--represent the fastest growing segment of the United States public school population. Despite…

Oregon's postsecondary attainment goal for 2025, adopted in 2011, calls for 40 percent of Oregon adults to have a bachelor's degree or higher, 40 percent to have an associate's degree or postsecondary certificate, and the remaining 20 percent to have a high school diploma or equivalent (S. 253, Or. 2011). As in other states a central strategy for…

"The Expanded Success Initiative: Challenges and Progress in the Pursuit of College and Career Readiness for Black and Latino Young Men" synthesizes findings from the Research Alliance's four-year evaluation of Expanded Success Initiative (ESI). This report, draws on hundreds of interviews and focus groups with ESI school leaders,…

"How America Pays for College", introduced in 2008, is a Sallie Mae national study conducted by Ipsos that annually surveys undergraduate students and parents of undergraduates about how much they pay for college and the resources they use to fund the expense. Now in its tenth year, this study also asks families about their attitudes…

This First Look report presents selected findings about student financial aid during the 2015-16 academic year. These findings are based on data from the 2015-16 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:16), a nationally representative sample survey of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled any time between July 1, 2015, and June 30,…

When an effective principal is at the helm of a school, students benefit. Principals play a critical role in establishing a school's climate and culture and in selecting and developing teachers, among other roles. Indeed, school leadership is second only to direct classroom teaching among school-level influences on achievement. Although there may…

High school students who complete technical coursework in a given field should be able to demonstrate their skill mastery by passing a technical skill assessment that is recognized in that field. States are using a variety of approaches to assess students' skill attainment, with some adopting industry-recognized assessments linked to national…

This report provides a "first look" at selected findings from the 2012/14 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/14). It is based on final data describing a nationally representative sample of undergraduates who entered postsecondary education for the first time during the 2011-12 academic year. BPS:12/14 covers the…

The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) helps fulfill the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) mandate to collect, analyze, and publish statistics related to education. The purpose of NPSAS is to compile a comprehensive research dataset, based on student-level records, on financial aid…

The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) helps fulfill the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) mandate to collect, analyze, and publish statistics related to education. The purpose of NPSAS is to compile a comprehensive research dataset, based on student-level records, on financial aid…

This report describes the methods and results for the 2011-12 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:12), conducted for the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Washington, DC. The following legislation authorizes this and previous cycles of NPSAS, as well as two longitudinal studies deriving…

In recent decades, magnet schools have become a way for districts to provide school choice. Magnet schools are one of the many options provided to parents so that they can select a school to meet their children's educational needs and interests. After a short gap in federal grants for magnet school implementation, Congress established the current…