During the past several years, the federal and state governments have adopted a college completion agenda using graduation rates as evidence of student success. With the demand for increased accountability on colleges and universities to ensure student success, institutions of higher education are searching for more effective ways to help students…

Florida's high school graduation rate is based on the percentage of students who graduated with a standard diploma within four years of their first full year of enrollment in ninth grade in the state. However, adjustments are made to this cohort over time to: (1) add incoming transfer students based on their grade level and year of entry; (2)…

Sadly, an enduring legacy of the United States is inequities between groups of people based on their skin color. These inequities are ingrained within the educational system, such as a lack of opportunities and interventions and significant gaps in support and resources that target underserved populations. The problem that this study addressed was…

In 2019, the Legislature passed House Bill 1599, which established graduation pathways as a requirement for graduation. These pathways must be aligned with a student's postsecondary goals as described in their High School and Beyond Plan. This report includes the unique pathway options, a data summary, and disaggregated pathway completion data for…

This quantitative study tested a relationship between the bell schedule models used in Oregon high schools, and mean graduation rates during the school years 2017-2020. One-hundred fourteen public high schools in Oregon with adjusted cohorts of at least 100 students were examined. Bell schedules were categorized by the day/meet pattern as seven…

There is increasing attention on the retention of international students, with many stakeholders desiring to keep international students for long-term economic growth. This study examined the factors affecting international students choosing to stay in Finland 5 years after initial enrollment, with particular focus on the role graduation plays in…

California graduation requirements have been largely unchanged since 2003. Within the state of California, a public-school district has to meet state requirements to offer a high school diploma, but a district can implement additional requirements for students beyond the state minimum. Postsecondary educational eligibility is determined during a…

Across Massachusetts, legislators, policymakers, educators, families, and communities are engaged in important conversations about whether to continue using student performance on the MCAS tests as part of the state's high-school graduation requirements. This document presents lessons drawn from 15-plus years of research on educational opportunity…

Objective: Policymakers in many states are endeavoring to increase graduation rates among older community college students. However, we know little about how the factors that influence college completion among older students differ from their younger peers. We aim to identify features of institutional contexts in which adult community college…

Despite evidence that informational interventions can influence K-12 school choices, we know little about the mechanisms through which they work and the factors that produce heterogeneity in student responses. Through a school-level randomized controlled trial conducted in 473 New York City middle schools serving 115,000 eighth graders, we…

Community colleges in North Carolina offer a variety of associate degrees, including those designed for transfer to bachelor's degree-granting institutions and applied science degrees that lead directly to employment. As workforce demands evolve due to industrial growth and population changes, a considerable number of students are transferring…

Florida's high school graduation rate increased by 1.7 percentage points over the last year, which continues to exceed the pre-pandemic rate. The graduation rate has increased significantly over the past twenty years. The rate rose from 59.2 percent in 2003-04 to 89.7 percent in 2023-24, which is a 30.5 percentage-point increase. This report…

Data in this report reflect responses from 86 four-year private institutions that collectively enroll approximately 261,189 undergraduate students (according to data reported to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)). Respondents participated in the Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL) national electronic poll of "Effective…

This qualitative case study uses comparative case study methodology with discourse analysis to compare Arizona and New Jersey regulations, policies, procedures, and practices influencing high school graduation rates for Hispanic and Native American youth. National and state reports (NCES, 2019) indicated a gap between high school graduation rates…

This paper examines the impact of a reform aimed at expediting graduation times in Italian universities by reducing the number of exams students must pass to obtain a fixed number of credits. Using event-study estimates that leverage the reform's staggered implementation, we find that this policy change led to an increase in on-time graduation…