In this Issue Brief, differences in the average number of course credits earned between high school graduates and dropouts, both within and accumulated across academic years, are examined in order to describe enrollment and completion behavior of high school graduates and dropouts. Differences in course credit accrual by selected subjects…

In January 2005, leaders from Connecticut's business, higher education and civic communities came together to create the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN): a nonprofit organization designed to be a catalyst for the fundamental changes needed to move Connecticut from having the largest to having the smallest achievement gap in the…

According to a report by National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), scholarship athletes at Division I institutions continue to graduate at a rate higher than students over all. Among white male students, athletes graduated at a lower rate than their peers in the student body at large. In a handful of the biggest programs, athletes completed…

The purpose of this publication is to provide basic descriptive information about the 100 largest school districts (ranked by student membership) in the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia) and other jurisdictions (Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Defense schools, Puerto Rico, and four outlying areas: American Samoa, Guam,…

This study uses a widely respected method to calculate public high school graduation rates for the nation, for each state, and for the 100 largest school districts in the United States. The authors calculate graduation rates overall, by race, and by gender, using the most recent available data (the class of 2003). While this report builds upon a…

This paper, the second annual report by the Arizona Education Policy Initiative (AEPI), is a collection of policy briefs on key issues in Arizona education. The authors of these briefs are on the faculty of Arizona's three public universities: Arizona State University (ASU), Northern Arizona University (NAU), and the University of Arizona (UA).…

Graduating more students prepared to meet the social, civic, and economic challenges of coming decades is a national priority. Indeed, institutional graduation rates are being scrutinized by state legislatures and by those in Congress drafting the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Every college and university can improve its graduation…

This report draws on combined sets of data to examine the relationship between students' academic performance and experiences in high school and how well they did in their initial year in college. Specifically, it looks at students who graduated from a Maryland high school in the 2003-2004 school year who enrolled at a Maryland college or…

This report examines trends in enrollment, degrees awarded, and other selected data from Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida (ICUF) accountability reports published between 1996 and 2001. Were data were available, comparisons were made for Nova Southeastern University (NSU) and the State University System of Florida (SUS). Information…

Texas has apparently achieved great success in closing the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students, at least in the lower grades. Texas students in all grades have made substantial gains on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). The effect of TAAS-type accountability on student performance in the higher grades is important,…

The only way to ensure that all young people graduate from high school ready for college, work, and life is through the concerted, coordinated efforts of educators, students, policymakers, parents, and business and community leaders. People need to take stock of what they know about high schools--about what students need, what schools should be…

Closing the Gaps by 2015 was adopted in October 2000 by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board with strong support of the state's educational, business, and political communities. The plan, which is directed at closing educational gaps within Texas, as well as between Texas and other states, has four goals: (1) to close the gaps in student…

Ten-year trends in the retention, transfer, and graduation of first-time, full-time Maryland public community college students are presented in this report. Tables track students two, three, and four years after matriculation and are broken down by gender and ethnic categories. When considering this data, it must be remembered that retention,…

Although substantial attention has been given to federal strategies for improving college access, too little attention has been given to the impact of state finance strategies on academic preparation and access for prepared students. This report provides the following: (1) a review of prior access studies; (2) a new conceptual model for assessing…

Community colleges are a crucial point of access to higher education for low-income, minority, and other underserved students. These groups are overrepresented (with respect to their share of undergraduate enrollment) in two year and less than two year post secondary institutions. The community college access mission is built on low tuition, …