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…

In Chicago, despite an increase in high school graduates and college enrollment, only one in four community college students graduate within three years. COVID-19 exacerbated longstanding barriers to college success faced by students from low-income backgrounds, as well as for Black, Latino, and Indigenous students. Without proactive interventions…

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…

Certain student populations including youth formerly in foster care, first-generation college students, those with mental illness and substance abuse issues, and racial and ethnic minority students, face persistent challenges to their pursuit of college education, contributing to low graduation rates compared to their peers. This article details…

Low-income students in college face many challenges, including the cost of postsecondary education and competing demands on their time from work or family obligations. They may not be prepared for college academically. They may also lack the skills and experiences other students rely on to help them navigate college, or the social support that can…

"Continuous Improvement in High Schools" gives educators and policymakers an accessible, actionable framework to address one of the nation's most important educational priorities: improving high school graduation and postsecondary preparedness rates. Martha Abele Mac Iver and Robert Balfanz, national experts in dropout prevention, apply…

There are close to 200,000 students in Houston Independent School District (ISD), and many of them are recent immigrants who have been in the United States for three years or less. In recent years, the number of immigrant students in the district has increased dramatically, with over 11,000 enrolled in each of the past eight years. In fact, nearly…

Building Bridges is charged with creating a statewide program for comprehensive dropout prevention, intervention, and retrieval (DPIR) programming, and to make annual recommendations to the legislature and the governor on DPIR best practices and system needs. Washington's graduation rate has steadily been increasing since 2021 with 83% of the…

Many state and institution leaders have focused a considerable amount of energy on the development of data-driven student support tools that can be used for a variety of purposes. But tools aren't enough to drive progress -- policymakers must also consider the human component of the equation and explore best practices of how such tools, and the…

Higher education today faces a host of challenges, from quality to cost. But too little attention gets paid to a startling fact: four out of ten students -- that's more than ten percent of the entire population -- who start college drop out. The situation is particularly dire for black and Latino students, those from poor families, and those who…

Since social connectedness is critical to student retention, colleges and universities have vested interest in identifying and providing assistance as early as possible. When students are struggling to fit in, a great deal of campus energy is invested in welcoming each new cohort of students and planning events to facilitate a sense of belonging.…

Research suggests that ninth grade is a critical year for setting the course to high school graduation. The transition to high school is a period of special threat to the academic achievement of many students. On average, students' grades, attendance, and attitudes toward school decline, while their behavioral troubles increase. Urban students and…

This article describes the challenges associated with shepherding accounting students in a small private urban University, many of whom are first-generation, through graduation into their first accounting jobs. These include student support programs that have been successfully implemented to support student needs and the process of leveraging the…

Harry S Truman College (Truman), one of the seven City Colleges of Chicago, has participated in Pathways to Results (PTR) for the last three years. In each of its projects Truman has successfully improved institutional processes and academic pathway practices, resulting in improved outcomes for its students. Truman has truly been a leader, under…

Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, states and districts are responsible for supporting and improving the quality of low-performing high schools. This brief primer describes how ESSA impacts high school graduation rate goals, low-graduation-rate high schools, funding for high schools, school improvement funding, the High School…