The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has been reviewing state report cards for the past seven years. They continue to examine the landscape of state report cards because they believe states must increase transparency and build trust by sharing information. But after many years, it was time to look at state report cards with fresh eyes. In addition to…

Increasing graduation rates continues to be a high priority for administrators at many institutions of higher education. With longitudinal data from a large research university in the Western United States, the purpose of this study was to examine the potential relationship between matriculating with or without a major declared and degree…

Higher education institutions have prioritized supporting undecided students with their major and career decisions for decades. This study used a U.S. public research-focused university's large-scale institutional data set and undecided student's retention and graduation rate predictors to demonstrate how to couple student and institutional data…

Charter schools are funded and governed by public agencies but operated by private organizations under government contracts. As private organizations, charter schools have more autonomy over their operations than traditional public schools. Charter school teachers typically do not work under collective bargaining units or have tenure protections,…

Despite the growing popularity of free college proposals, countries with higher college subsidies tend to have higher enrollment rates but not higher graduation rates. To capture this evidence and evaluate potential free college policies, we rely on a dynamic model of college enrollment, performance, and graduation estimated using rich…

In response to low completion rates in the California Community College system, the 2012 Seymour Campbell Student Success Act requires districts or colleges to provide all degree- or transfer-seeking students with an opportunity to develop individual Student Educational Plans (SEPs). SEPs are guiding documents prepared in consultation with…

Between 2015 and 2019, Holyoke Public Schools in Massachusetts cut its dropout rate nearly in half and increased its graduation rate by 10 percentage points, with notable gains among historically marginalized student groups. The district cites Opportunity Academy (OA), an alternative education program within the district's high school, as a key…

The purpose of this study was to analyze admissions policies pertaining to the declaration of academic majors for incoming students and structures of academic advising at American universities and how they relate to student outcomes. The student outcomes considered for the study were first to second year retention rates and graduation rates. …

Now that all 50 states and the District of Columbia are building statewide longitudinal data systems, the next step is to ensure that the information in these systems is used to improve student learning. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has identified 10 actions that states can take to ensure that the right data are available and accessible and…