According to the Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE), nationally one-third of students, 1.3 million each year, fail to graduate. The AEE suggests that these low rates have for too long been "obscured... by inadequate accountability systems at state and federal levels." Montana's accountability system is a case in point. Dependent on…

This paper examines the graduation/dropout crisis among American Indian and Alaska Native students using data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Data from 2005 is drawn from the seven states with the highest percentage of American Indian and Alaska Native students as well as five states in the Pacific and Northwestern regions of…

Purpose: Many students do not benefit from mainstream education and are forced to leave it. Governments and non-government organisations concerned with the social injustice and problems that such rejection could cause offer these students second-chance education programmes. This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of such opportunities, using…

Urban schools are plagued with multiple issues that contribute to their low graduation rate. University of Louisville took a step forward by partnering with the school district to transform five schools into high performing schools. Building on the strengths of these schools, a collaborative partnership was developed that involved the entire…

A year ago, Arne Duncan was known as a long-serving urban district chief who had used his collegial management style to push innovation and close failing schools in Chicago. This week, he enters his second year as U.S. secretary of education pursuing a similar national policy agenda that could place him among the most influential leaders in his…

Socialization has become the common theoretical framework used to better understand the complexity of the doctoral student experience. In particular, theories of socialization have been connected to the issue of attrition in doctoral education, with researchers often attributing poor or inappropriate socialization to a student's decision to depart…

In light of the recent bans on affirmative action in higher education, this paper provides new evidence on the effects of alternative admissions policies on the persistence and college completion of minority students. I find that the change from affirmative action to the Top 10% Plan in Texas decreased both retention and graduation rates of…

During the last two decades, median instructional spending per full-time equivalent (FTE) student at American 4-year colleges and universities has grown at a slower rate than median spending per FTE student in a number of other expenditure categories, including academic support, student services and research. Our paper uses institutional level…

Each year in the Top 100 series, researchers highlight the institutions that confer the most degrees to students of color. In this edition, they focus on the most prevalent degree conferred: the bachelor's degree. Among the types of colleges and universities that they examine--those that have Title IV status (recognized by the U.S. Department of…

This study which has much of its base in the Education, Excellence & Equity (E3) program is about the dropout rates among minority students within a certain county in Northern California. Why are minority students dropping out at higher rates than their white counterparts? The research hypothesis is that the dropout rate is higher among…

The main objective of the authors' proposed study is to evaluate the effectiveness of math placement policies for entering community college students on these students' academic success in math, and their transfer and graduation rates. The main research question that guides the proposed study is: What are the effects of various basic skills…

In 1988, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) introduced a proposal to develop a private school data collection that would improve on the sporadic collection of private school data dating back to 1890 and improve on commercially available private school sampling frames. Since 1989, the U.S. Bureau of the Census has conducted the…

The theoretical framework for the present study encompassed the four pillars of the Performance Based Diploma System (PBDS) program: small learning communities, educational technology, flexible scheduling, and mentoring. This mixed-methods study uses appropriate portions of the Context-Input-Process-Product program evaluation model to assess…

The annual event dropout rate describes the proportion of students who leave school each year without completing a high school program. The event dropout rates for the school year 2009-2010 of 1.89% for grades 7 through 12th and 2.69% for grades 9 through 12th are consistent with the dropout rates for the past four years. The event completion rate…

The 2011 Southern Regional Education Board annual report describes SREB's recent achievements and how the organization has helped its 16 member states improve education in tough economic times. The report highlights program activities and also includes remarks from the Board Chair and President, acknowledgment of financial contributors, and lists…