School finance and school consolidation concepts have been researched to great lengths in previous studies on school finance and increasing spending efficiency. This quantitative research study seeks to identify variables in school district finance while evaluating school consolidation to better evaluate potential financial efficiencies at the…

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to enrollment in higher education. The overall shut down of the nation in March of 2020 forced colleges and universities to shift their content delivery primarily online, a context which continued for the remainder of the 2019-20 academic year. As the pandemic stretched on through the summer,…

Community colleges report general opening spring term enrollment figures to the Illinois Community College Board using a brief web-based survey. These figures reflect student enrollments as of the end of registration for the Spring 2022 semester--usually the 10th day of the term. Community colleges in Illinois serve a racially and ethnically…

There are substantial and ongoing concerns in the Australian and international secondary and tertiary education sectors about students' transition from secondary to tertiary mathematics. Of recent concern is the number of students choosing Advanced Mathematics (AM) in the last two years of secondary school. Declining enrolments in AM in secondary…

Ensuring students from all backgrounds can access valuable postsecondary opportunities is critical to meeting the national imperative for an educated, resilient, and diverse workforce. In 2023, the Supreme Court's "Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA)" v. "President and Fellows of Harvard College" decision limited the ways in…

Self-placement in math is becoming increasingly popular in community colleges in the U.S., where students will decide for themselves whether to enroll in non-credit developmental (or remedial) math courses. To fully understand the factors associated with students' math enrollment choices and the long-term effects of initial math enrollment…

The number of jobs across the United States requiring postsecondary education continues to grow. Concerns expressed by business leaders, policymakers, and the public include too few students enrolling in higher education, the affordability of college, and decreasing levels of college completion. One solution to address these issues has been to…

Postsecondary education enrollment is declining across the United States. The U.S. Department of Education's Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) initiative focuses on increasing the college-going rate of students living in low-income neighborhoods through targeted university-community partnerships (UCPs).…

Because states typically fund districts based on student counts, districts reporting shrinking enrollment worry about shrinking dollars as well. The seemingly obvious quick fix is for states to hold districts financially harmless for some or all of their enrollment loss. But states have many factors to weigh when deciding whether or how to go down…

Limited research has examined the relationship between the Enneagram personality styles of faith-based university presidents/provosts and the institution's student enrollment size. While there are many personality theories, the Enneagram is a sophisticated model that exposes the unconscious predispositions, motivations, anxieties, and behavioral…

From November 2 to December 10, 2021, EdChoice Kentucky administered a survey of Kentucky's private K-12 schools. The purpose of that assessment was six-fold: (1) forecast a count of currently available seats and capacities to enroll additional students, (2) measure the familiarity with and potential interest in various private school choice…

This Information Capsule utilized data from the Scoir platform to report on post-secondary plans and enrollment for the M-DCPS class of 2022. Approximately 95% of the high school seniors enrolled in traditional high schools had available data on the platform and of those, 90% indicated they had plans to attend college after graduating from high…

This report addresses the pressing challenges facing higher education institutions due to declining enrollment. This comprehensive document offers actionable recommendations for universities and policymakers to navigate the anticipated demographic shifts and safeguard the future of higher education. As enrollment rates continue to decline, driven…

Districts with expansive school choice must decide how to match students and schools. Increasingly, districts are centralizing applications on one-stop portals that feature information about schooling options, admission requirements, and a single application and deadline with the hope of increasing transparency and streamlining the enrollment…

Large magnitude shocks generated by natural disasters have devastating impacts on household welfare and human capital accumulation. Using a rich household dataset, I estimate the effect of destruction caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 on educational outcomes in Jamaica. I treat the hurricane as a natural experiment and exploit exogenous variation…