Report cards are states' most public-facing documents. To support COVID-19 recovery, states and districts must fulfill their responsibility to the public and demonstrate their commitment to transparency by sharing this information in clear, actionable report cards. This resource shares short- and long-term action steps for state leaders to release…

This study examined the long-term impact of a special education residency program in high-need urban schools on the recruitment, program completion, and hiring and retention of graduates. Findings from this study, expanding research to special education teacher preparation, are consistent with a growing body of research that suggests that a…

The purpose of this qualitative study focused on the experiences of first-generation students attending a technical college in rural West Tennessee. The results of this study may identify barriers faced by students from these special populations and may also provide insight into the support systems that motivate these students to persevere.…

Credit momentum policies, or performance-based financial aid policies, have become increasingly popular among policymakers seeking to improve degree completion rates. This paper examines Indiana's 30-credit-hour completion policy on first-time, full-time students who receive the Twenty-First Century Scholars (TFCS) Promise Program. Using…

Over 1.2 million students drop out of high school yearly in the United States. That is one student every 26 seconds or an overwhelming 7,000 a day. About 25% of first-year high school students fail to graduate from high school on time, making this issue a primary concern for educators and stakeholders. The problem addressed in this study was that…

Performance-based funding models for higher education, which tie state support for institutions to performance on student outcomes, have proliferated in recent decades. Some states now tie most of their higher education appropriations to completion outcomes and include bonus payments for historically underrepresented groups to address equity gaps…

A recent increased focus is being placed on college completion agendas, yet there is limited research on senior attrition. Examining why students leave school when they are so close to being done and what motivated them to return when they did, this exploratory case study analyzes several data sets at one public university where a degree…

Following a sample of students who participated in admissions lotteries at eight Early College High Schools (ECs) partnering with 2-year colleges, this study examined the college enrollment and degree completion of students who won admissions lotteries and enrolled in ECs in Grade 9 (i.e., EC students), and assessed the EC impact--in terms of…

The increased visibility of transgender students in higher education institutions highlights the need for institutions to recognize the types of barriers encountered by this student population in order to implement institutional approaches to help retain these students. As such, this study sought to understand the impact of institutional…

Although broadening equal access to higher education has been an objective public policy for decades, little is known about the effectiveness of alternative means for achieving this goal. Moreover, it has raised a need of explaining the heterogeneity in Higher Education attainment across European countries, where high level of graduate population…

Selective college admissions are fundamentally a question of tradeoffs: Given capacity, admitting one student means rejecting another. Research to date has generally estimated average effects of college selectivity, and has been unable to distinguish between the effects on students gaining access and on those losing access under alternative…

This guide presents examples and instructions for data analyses colleges can conduct to better understand student enrollments and completions in particular programs. Such analyses can help colleges scrutinize representation of historically marginalized groups in programs leading to greater opportunity after graduation. There is an equity…

Since 1991, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has mandated academic support services for student-athletes at all Division I institutions. Today, there is a vast difference of athletic academic support units at Power 5 Conferences compared to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The resources at Power 5 Conference…

This study sought to examine the effect of a Black Male college president's previous position (senior-level academic or student affairs vice-president or non-senior academic or student affairs vice president) on his success with the institutional factors of enrollment, retention, graduation, and endowment between 2013 and 2017. This study employed…

Online credit recovery (OCR) allows US students at risk of dropping out of school to retake courses to meet graduation requirements and eventually graduate from high school. The problem addressed in this study is that despite participating in online English II credit recovery (ELA II OCR), students in a rural school district in North Florida still…