Communities face powerful challenges that require powerful solutions: a high-school dropout epidemic, youth unemployment, teen pregnancy. In an era of limited resources, those solutions must help communities to achieve more with less. A new kind of community collaborative--an approach that aspires to significant community-wide progress by…

Previous high school research has highlighted the importance of students' freshman year. Limited research has supported the implementation of a smaller learning community, also known as a freshman academy. The theoretical framework of the study was based on stage environment fit, adolescence development and smaller learning community theories. The…

This report describes the universe, methods, and editing procedures used in the 2011-12 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data collection. IPEDS data consist of basic statistics on postsecondary institutions regarding tuition and fees, number and types of degrees and certificates conferred, number of students enrolled, number…

When Valencia College became the first recipient of the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence last month, an unsung sector earned uncommon recognition. Now that the speeches are over and the prize money has been awarded, the Aspen Institute is sharing early lessons from its yearlong effort to determine the top community college in the…

Teachers and administrators have access to large volumes of data but research suggests that they lack the skills to use data effectively for continuous school improvement. This study involved a cross-case analysis of two high school leadership teams' early stages of evidence-based practice development; differing forms of external support were…

The cost of higher education continues to climb, while calls for increased institutional accountability and the value of a "four-year degree" are ever present. This research sought to identify factors by which consumers might predict four-year graduation rates at institutions within the CCCU. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis of data…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of participation in workplace learning among senior secondary students in Australia. Work placements are deemed to be effective if they meet policy objectives of improving student transitions by (a) enhancing Year 12 completion rates and (b) increasing the engagement of…

This study applies a data envelopment analysis model developed for national universities to 93 national liberal arts colleges. Such models can be used by individual institutions for benchmarking purposes or by researchers seeking to compare the practices of highly efficient liberal arts colleges with the practices of relatively inefficient…

Some say that the educators now have a gender-stratified system of higher education, with nearly 60 percent of all undergraduates being women and fewer men attending each year. The battle for gender equity for women in higher education has been a long and contentious one. In the decades since, increasing numbers of women have gone to college, to…

The authors of this discussion identify one of the most pressing issues facing American universities: the number of graduate students who fail to graduate. We review the literature and further analyze the student and institutional factors most significant in predicting the degree completion rates of graduate students in education. Based on the…

In the 1990s, most US states adopted new forms of performance-based accountability, e.g., performance-based budgeting, funding, or reporting. This study analyzed changes in institutional performance following the adoption of these new accountability standards. We measured institutional performance by representative education and research…

This study evaluates 3 drug-testing strategies implemented in 5 different jurisdictions with drug courts in Orange County, California. The purpose of the study was to determine whether the sweat patch acts as a deterrent and under what conditions it can be used to improve outcomes. Results indicated that although the use of the sweat patch did not…

This report fulfills the statutory responsibilities of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission pursuant to T.C.A. (Tennessee Code Annotated) Section 49-7-202(f) to report on the progress made toward full articulation between all public institutions. In order to evaluate articulation among institutions, this report tracks the occurrence of…

The quest for educational equity is a moral imperative for a society in which education is a crucial determinant of life chances. Yet whether there is an economic return to the taxpayer for investing in educational justice is often not considered. It is possible that the economic benefits of reducing inadequate education exceed the costs,…

President Obama is the most prominent of a growing number of American policymakers to embrace the idea that some form of postsecondary education is crucial to students' success after high school. This year's edition of "Diplomas Count", a report by "Education Week" and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center,…