Over the past decade, charter schools have been among the fastest-growing segments of the K-12 education sector in Chicago and across the country. In this report, the authors examine the following issues related to charter schools (1) Are charter schools attracting high- or low-achieving students and do transfers affect the racial mix in the…

What are states doing to improve graduation rates? A requester asked a state scan matrix of Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states or other states with similar student demographics, and other states with exemplary programs with great successes. This paper responds to this request.

The public educates children because of our common interest in ensuring that children become responsible and productive adults and to provide an opportunity to every child to achieve their potential. Unfortunately, several national studies show that we aren't doing a good job educating foster children. Foster children have lower test scores, lower…

This author reports that, among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later. While four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year, the students who…

"The Condition of Education 2017" is a congressionally mandated annual report summarizing the latest data on education in the United States. This report is designed to help policymakers and the public monitor educational progress. This year's report includes 50 indicators on topics ranging from prekindergarten through postsecondary…

"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) House of Representatives Passes Education Funding Bill: Legislation Draws Veto Threat From President Bush for…

This report examines degree and certificate attainment and transfers into the California State University and the University of California for a selected group of first-time freshmen in the California Community Colleges. It is the first in a series on this accountability measure and is presented as part of the Commission's "Accountability…

A policy analysis conducted jointly by Achieve, Inc. and Jobs for the Future, outlined in this report, suggest ways that North Carolina can create a more coherent, intentional, and aligned assessment and accountability system to improve both achievement and graduation rates for struggling and out-of-school students. The report includes a…

Background/Context: This essay reviews recent demographic literature on school transitions. I describe how a demographic perspective, by which I mean using methods that are standard in the study of population processes, is a useful way to examine differences in access to and completion of post secondary schooling in the United States.…

Special education in Baltimore City--the educational program for students with certain mental, emotional, or physical disabilities--has been a nagging, intractable, and very public problem for at least 25 years. Community leaders have been mindful of the inequities that undermine the education of students with disabilities and continue to address…

The Black-White gap in completed schooling among Southern born men narrowed sharply between the World Wars after being stagnant from 1880 to 1910. We examine a large scale school construction project, the Rosenwald Rural Schools Initiative, which was designed to dramatically improve the educational opportunities for Southern rural Blacks. From…

As the nation struggles to get back on its feet economically, the colleges and universities are working harder than ever to fulfill their mission: to educate the next generation of workers and citizens. In the West that task is arguably more challenging than elsewhere. The region is highly diverse in terms of both demographics and geography, with…

This compendium of narrative and statistical information is an overview of the Oregon University System (OUS) and is produced every two years. The introduction includes a mission and vision statement, strategic priorities, a listing of OUS campuses and centers, a roster of the members of the State Board of Higher Education, OUS degree partnership…

Despite many accomplishments and a widely-praised system, there remain significant challenges to address in higher education in Virginia: (1) Although the state performs well in six-year graduation rates for bachelor degree programs, graduation rates at specific four-year institutions range from the very high end of the spectrum to the very low;…

"Education at a Glance 2011: Highlights" offers a reader-friendly introduction to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) collection of internationally comparable data on education. As the name suggests, it is derived from "Education at a Glance 2011", the OECD's flagship compendium of education…