In 2016, the GED® introduced college readiness benchmarks designed to identify testers who are academically prepared for credit-bearing college coursework. The benchmarks are promoted as awarding college credits or exempting "college-ready" GED® graduates from remedial coursework. I show descriptive evidence that those identified as…

In this qualitative study, adult students placed in an eight-week, closed-cohort GED preparation program were introduced to blended learning while attending in-person instruction five days a week during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants had the opportunity to receive their curriculum in a blended format, which provided some convenience for the…

Nebraska is committed to measuring its progress toward achieving the major statewide goals through national comparisons and institutional peer comparisons. It is the aim of the Comprehensive Plan that, when rank order is appropriate, Nebraska will rank among the ten best states in national comparisons, and individual public institutions will rank…

The constitution and statutes of Nebraska assign the Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education the responsibility for comprehensive planning for postsecondary education in Nebraska. The purpose of the "Comprehensive Statewide Plan for Postsecondary Education" is to provide direction for the future of postsecondary education in…

Young people have been hit especially hard by changes in the labor market over the past decades. Unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds increased the most of any age group during the recent recession, and remains more than double that among older adults. The unemployment rate is especially high for young people without high school diplomas.…

Previous studies have shown the impact of parental involvement on a number of student achievement, motivation, and engagement outcomes, but the extent to which parental involvement influences high school completion and postsecondary attendance has received less attention in the literature. Filling that gap, this study replicates and extends…

This report provides guidance and documentation for users of the combined base-year to third follow-up data of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). ELS:2002 is sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. The base-year and follow-up studies…

The Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) tracks the educational and developmental experiences of a nationally representative sample of high school sophomores in the United States. This First Look report provides a descriptive portrait of these 2002 tenth-graders a decade later, when most were about 26 years old and had been out of high…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) To Be Continued: Congress Passes Continuing Resolution to Keep Government Running, Buys Time to Pass Appropriations…

Denver Public Schools (DPS), the Denver Scholarship Foundation, The Piton Foundation, and the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education undertook a study to learn how DPS graduates perform in college. The report describes who enrolls in college, and who persists and earns a college certificate or degree. In addition, the…