Community colleges across the country have created innovative, data-informed programs that are models for educating underprepared students, engaging traditionally underserved students, and helping students from all backgrounds succeed. However, because most of these programs have limited scope, the field now has pockets of success rather than…

In 2009, Excelencia in Education launched the Ensuring America's Future initiative to inform, organize, and engage leaders in a tactical plan to increase Latino college completion. This initiative included the release of a benchmarking guide for projections of degree attainment disaggregated by race/ethnicity that offered multiple metrics to track…

This study examines nine voluntary working relationships or partnerships between tribal education departments (TEDs) and local education agencies supporting American Indian students. Individual profiles describe how each partnership works, focusing primarily on collaborative activities intended to improve education outcomes for American Indian…

The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD) was assigned the task of compiling, analyzing, and summarizing the data for Indicator 1--Graduation--from the FFY 2010 Annual Performance Reports (APRs) and amended State Performance Plans (SPPs), which were submitted by states to the Office of Special Education…

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, per Section 162.1136 RSMo, conducts an annual study of the educational status of eligible blind/visually impaired students and reports the findings to the Missouri Legislature on December 1st each year. The information contained in this report pertains to the twelve data elements…

The "Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006" ("Perkins IV") requires states to report to the Department of Education each year on their progress in achieving their adjusted performance levels--negotiated with and approved by the Department--on the core indicators of performance (core indicators) described in…

When it comes to educational challenges, the nation's 12.1 million Hispanic schoolchildren face plenty: language, poverty, lower-than-average graduation rates for high school and college, and, more recently, a wave of laws targeting illegal immigrants that has made school seem like less of a safe haven for Hispanic students in some states. Yet, as…

This bimonthly newsletter provides information about the progress of the Honor States Grant Program, a governor-led effort to improve college- and work-ready graduation rates. This issue explores strategies that governors and state policymakers are using to define and assess college and work readiness, Progress of three states in assessment is…

As tuition is being introduced--or raised--at publicly supported university systems around the world, more people are embracing the idea that rankings can help consumers get the best value. Jamie P. Merisotis, president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, a Washington-based research group, says that in the last few years, national…

Conventional wisdom claims a newly discovered dropout crisis in high schools. Jay Greene, of the Manhattan Institute, and Christopher Swanson, formerly with the Urban Institute, are primarily responsible for this claim, publishing reports showing these extraordinary high dropout rates nationwide, for the states, and for many specific school…

This dissertation examines the relationship between mode of instructional delivery and course completion for students attending two community colleges. Course completion is defined as finishing the course with a grade of C or better, thus getting college credit and remaining in good academic standing. The research hypothesis is that distance…

Advancement Via Individualized Determination (AVID) provides middle-achieving, underachieving and socio-economically disadvantaged students in grades 4-12 with success strategies, and rigorous coursework that prepares them for high school graduation and college acceptance. Based on a series of interviews with Latina students who had participated…

This paper addresses methodological issues arising from an experimental study of North Carolina's Early College High School Initiative, a four-year longitudinal experimental study funded by Institute for Education Sciences. North Carolina implemented the Early College High School (ECHS) Initiative in response to low high school graduation rates.…

The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes among staff members of nonprofit social service agencies who participated in or completed an andragogically-facilitated or a pedagogically-conducted online learning module on foundation grant writing. The efficacy of andragogical methods is unknown and often debated due to scarce empirical…

The "29th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2007" follows the 2006--i.e., the 28th annual report--in sequence. The "29th Annual Report to Congress" is, however, the first to have three volumes. In the 28th and earlier editions, volume 2 consisted of data tables…