Planning course study is critical to facilitate strategic intervention in education. As a significant basis of planning course study, student performance prediction aims to utilize students existing relevant information to predict their future learning performance including course grades, course failure, grade point average, etc. We target course…

Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS), the Propel Schools charter network, and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) want to better identify students at risk for academic problems in the near term. The stakeholders partnered with the Regional Education Laboratory Mid-Atlantic to develop an approach for identifying at-risk students…

What delivery modality is most effective in teaching undergraduate, political science research methods? Using systematically collected data from two academic terms and employing a quasi-experimental design, this paper explores variation in learning outcomes between face-to-face and distance-hybrid course offerings. Variation in the dependent…

A successful freshman year of high school lays the foundation for the path to college: ninth-grade grades are powerful indicators of high school graduation, college access, and college degree attainment. However, the transition from eighth to ninth grade is a time when students' academic performance often declines. This report explores how Chicago…

This study analyzed data on students in three Ohio school districts who had completed grades 8 and 9 to determine which data elements were the most accurate indicators of students' failure to graduate from high school on time. The most accurate indicators varied by district and grade level, which underscores the importance of having school systems…

"Fresh start" or amnesty policies have made their way across American universities and colleges. As the Director of Student Enrollment Services/Registrar at Polk State College, in Winter Haven, Florida, the author, who was not a proponent of amnesty, set aside time for several weeks to research amnesty policies and related best…

The United States high school dropout problem has been called a national crisis, with only 74.9% of public high school students graduating with a diploma in 2008. With states and districts under mounting pressure to raise graduation rates, there is increasing urgency to obtain more accurate and timely data to systematically identify students most…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are widely regarded as critical to the national economy. To provide a nationally representative portrait of undergraduate students' experiences in STEM education, these Web Tables summarize longitudinal data from a cohort of first-time, beginning students who started postsecondary…

The Early Warning System is a tool developed by the National High School Center to collect data on indicators including attendance, grade point average, course failures, and credits earned. These indicators have been found to be highly predictive of a student's likelihood of dropping out of high school in large, urban areas. The Early Warning…

With a solid GPA, numerous extracurricular achievements, and an acceptance letter from an excellent college, it seems that all of your hard work in school has paid off. Now what? What can you expect from college life, and how can you get the most out of it? This book answers these questions to help you excel in college. Deans at America's top…

This article reports that several colleges and universities like Purdue University are mining data they have about students to try to improve retention. The institutions analyze years' worth of data on which students did well and which did poorly, and what variables--whether they be SAT scores, financial-aid status, or attendance at the dining…

A decade-long push by states to make high school students pass an exit exam before getting their diplomas has stalled as politically sensitive student-failure rates contribute to a growing public backlash against high-stakes testing. Though 26 states have adopted such mandates--most of them since 2000--that number has remained static since last…

Researchers target 9th grade as the make or break year for completing high school. During the 9th-grade year, many students for the first time have to earn passing grades in core courses, and these core courses are typically some of the toughest and most rigorous academic classes a student must take in high school. Furthermore, the rising use of…

Describes how, at some colleges, clemency policies are discounting old failures when calculating students' grade point averages. (EV)

At the College of Charleston, analysis of student grades at term's end reveals significant drops in some students' grade averages. Those students are sent letters encouraging them to meet with a dean. About 60 percent respond and the letters create good will. Congratulations can also be sent to students whose grades improve. (MSE)