Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) collects information on postsecondary plans and scholarship information. Each student reports their educational or career plans for after graduation as well as what scholarship(s), financial aid, or grant monies they have been offered and what monies have been accepted. This report summarizes the…

Students are typically given a large amount of freedom to choose the level of "curricular dispersion": the tight focus or lack thereof in the courses they elect to take while in college. There is little evidence about what predicts students' curricular dispersion, whether it affects later college or labor force outcomes, or, in fact, how…

This "First Look" presents findings from the provisional data of the IPEDS winter 2014-15 data collection, which included four survey components: (1) Graduation Rates (GR); (2) 200 Percent Graduation Rates (GR200); (3) Student Financial Aid (SFA); and (4) Admissions (ADM). GR and GR200 present graduation rates for selected cohorts within…

Background: Entry to speech and language therapy (SLT) undergraduate pre-registration programmes in the UK is usually achieved through qualifications attained at school (e.g. A-levels). A smaller number of people who did not succeed academically at school enter through qualifications achieved post-schooling, e.g. Access to Higher Education…

Understanding the relationship between high school dropout and teen childbearing is complicated because both are affected by a variety of difficult to control factors. In this paper, I use panel data on aggregate dropout and fertility rates by age for all fifty states to develop insight by instrumenting for dropout using information on state…

In recent years, the education spotlight in the United States has shifted from high school graduation to postsecondary success, along with the recognition that to thrive in today's economy requires more than just a high school diploma. Also, while prior research has focused on after-school and higher-education collaborations with districts, there…

There's an emerging trend in the national college completion movement. A group of small but powerful Student Success Centers is creating statewide impact in states traditionally devoid of a strong centralized tradition of community college governance. Growing directly out of a decade of hard work to dramatically boost student completion rates in…

This project applied the gap analysis problem-solving framework (Clark & Estes, 2008) in order to help develop strategies to increase completion rates at Travelor Adult School. The purpose of the study was to identify whether the knowledge, motivation and organization barriers were contributing to the identified gap. A mixed method approached…

There is a growing demand by our society and legislature to educate all students equitably in an inclusive general education setting. Societal trends vary as time progresses, but this does not eliminate the growing debate regarding diploma options, exit requirements and future career planning for high school graduates. What does a future look like…

The data gathered from disability service professionals in six different states through an on-line survey and follow up interviews was used to determine if there was a correlation between specific professional practices and the magnitude of the disparity in four-year college graduation and employment rates between individuals with visual…

This report, an analysis of 1669 U.S. institutions, is a first-time study of the relationship of attrition to revenues lost in four-year public, private, and for-profit colleges and universities on an annual basis. The report is the result of a study investigating the financial impact of attrition on four-year colleges and universities. Other…

Nationally, more than one in four high school freshmen does not graduate in four years; in the 50 largest U.S. cities, the dropout rate is closer to 50 percent. Although many of these young people eventually seek to continue their education, a sizable number of dropouts (and many high school graduates) become seriously disconnected from both…

Rationale: Research examining the relationship between initial community college enrollment and bachelor's completion have shown mixed results with some studies indicating a clear penalty for community college enrollment and other studies showing no penalty, partly due to the point at which the given study began tracking the community college…

The graduation rates for Hispanic students in higher education are the lowest in the nation in comparison to any other subgroups, yet they are the fastest growing population in the nation. Lack of a rigorous curriculum in a K-12 setting and college readiness skills are factors. There needs to be a strong partnership among K-12 school districts and…

"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) "Building a Grad Nation": New Report Finds More than Half of States Increased High School Graduation Rate, Number of "Dropout…