Admission to colleges and universities has sparked much interest over time. There are articles, books, and even movies designed to shed light on the process of being admitted to institutions. One component of the application process that has drawn a lot of attention is the use of standardized test scores. There are both advocates and critics of…

There has been a steady increase in college enrollment rates in recent decades, which has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in graduation rates. If this discrepancy is partly due to insufficient effort exerted by students, policies that aim at rewarding effort explicitly may succeed in increasing graduation rates. A unique and rich…

"The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB) made schools accountable for student performance through standardized testing. Some claim high-stakes testing is an inexpensive vehicle through which to raise educational standards, however, these studies typically count only the administrative costs of test development, test delivery, and…

Tuition dependency, federal accountability measures, and desire for the prestige associated with college rankings all necessitate institutional attention to admission, retention, and graduation rates. The need to maintain institutional enrollment compels admissions officers to consider an applicant's likelihood of persistence in the admissions…

College student success and graduation are important to students seeking a degree and to the nation's communities (Institute for Higher Education Policy, 1998), yet only just better than half of the students who enroll in 4-year colleges and universities will receive a bachelor's degree within 6 years (Astin, 1985). Past studies have shown that…

This document reviews recent efforts to promote small schools. The rationale for small schools is discussed, drawing on recent studies linking school size and various outcomes. Arguments for large schools are considered, followed by an examination of four ways to reduce the negative effects of school size--build smaller schools, utilize satellite…

This study was conducted at a research-extensive public university in the southeastern United States. It examined the retention and completion of master's degree students across numerous disciplines. Results were derived from a series of descriptive statistics, T-tests, and a series of binary logistic regression models. The findings from binary…

The NEAIR 2010 Conference Proceedings is a compilation of papers presented at the Saratoga Springs, New York conference. Papers in this document include: (1) Collaboration Between Student Affairs and Institutional Research: A Model for the Successful Assessment of Students' College Experience (Michael N. Christakis and Joel D. Bloom); (2) Direct…

This report was designed to examine the influence of a growing Latino enrollment in Minnesota's public schools. Using data from the Minnesota Department of Education, the authors observed that while overall enrollment numbers in Minnesota have declined approximately 3% since 2001, Latino enrollment actually grew by more than 38% during this same…

Comparison of teacher-assigned grades and Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores in English, math, and science for 736 eighth-graders reveals that MCAS hurts African-Americans and Latinos/as in math and girls in math and science. Equitability disparities indicate the need for caution in high-stakes testing; scores should be…

A study was conducted that focused on 5-year graduation as a criterion for success at a major Eastern university, and a set of predictors for use by those concerned with admissions policy was developed. The best predictors of 5-year graduation were persistence to the second year and first-year cumulative grade-point average. Among pre-college…

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission was created in 1967 by the Tennessee General Assembly to achieve coordination and foster unity with regard to higher education. The Commission coordinates two systems of higher education: the University of Tennessee institutions governed by the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees, and the state…

Regression analysis was used to study retention and graduation for the fall 1996 entering class of students at a midwestern research extensive university (n = 3,610; 44% female, 8% minority, 77% in-state). Logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood of a student being retained for each of four years, and the outcome of graduation at the…