Empirical evidence confirms that increased education is positively associated with higher earnings across a wide spectrum of fields and student demographics (Barrow & Rouse, 2005; Card, 2001; Carneiro, Heckman, & Vytlacil, 2011; Dadgar & Weiss, 2012; Dynarski, 2008; Jacobson & Mokher, 2009; Jepsen, Troske, & Coomes, 2009; Kane…

Students face many challenges in the transition to high school. From pressures of high-stakes testing for graduation to transitioning to the high school environment, many diversions can delay or even stop a student's path to graduation. Ninth-grade students are at a pivotal point in their educational careers, and a successful transition to high…

This article provides guidance for those looking to establish an African-American Male Initiative (AAMI) on their campus. The hallmark of a strong AAMI is collaboration. This article explores contextual factors that influence the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of African-American males in higher education. It includes the development…

Research examining factors contributing to online students' success typically focuses on a single point in time or completion of a single course, as well as individual difference variables, such as learning style or motivation, that may predispose a student to succeed. However, research concerning longer term online student outcomes, such as…

The case study is an analysis of a state performance funding policy at a public historically Black college and university (HBCU). The policy attaches state funding to HBCU performance on measures like graduation rates and equity measures like the reduction in achievement gaps between Black and non-Black students. Participants liked that the policy…

Research tells us much about the effects of primary and lower-secondary schooling on skills inequality, but we know less about the impact of the next stage of education. This article uses a differences-in-differences analysis of data on literacy and numeracy skills in PISA 2000 and SAS 2011/12 to assess the contribution of upper-secondary…

This study explores the effects of an academic seminar on the persistence of first-year college students, including effects on students most at risk of dropping out. A secondary interest was demonstrating the utility of using classification and regression tree analysis to identify relevant predictors of student persistence. The results of the…

U.S. high school graduation rates have risen steadily for the past decade, hitting an all-time high of 82 percent in 2013-14 (Rich, 2015). Yet there's a dark cloud behind this silver lining. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education (2015), only 59 percent of students who enter four-year colleges complete their…

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia) and other U.S. jurisdictions (see appendix A for a list of other U.S. jurisdictions). This "First Look" presents findings from the preliminary data of the…

Health and education are reciprocally related, and research indicates that unhealthy students are poorly positioned to learn. Providing services that prevent health problems or help students cope with existing health concerns is one way that schools intervene in the relationship between student background and educational outcomes. Providing health…

Allowing high school students to fulfill a math or science high school graduation requirement via a computer science credit may encourage more student to pursue computer science coursework. This Education Trends report is an update to the original report released in April 2015 and explores state policies that allow or require districts to apply…

This report highlights states' school accountability systems, with an eye on the states that include a measure of student growth in their accountability system. For each state, the report includes: (1) Proficiency measures; (2) Growth measures; and (3) Additional measures such as graduation and dropout rates. The report also provides an overview…

This work asks one simple question: "how reliable is the method used by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) to estimate projected rates of VET program completion?" In other words, how well do early projections align with actual completion rates some years later? Completion rates are simple to calculate with a…

It is generally assumed by educators that the K-12 curriculum--the curriculum used in primary, elementary, and secondary education--will affect students' post-secondary educational experiences and their ability to enter the workforce. This report takes a multi-faceted approach to addressing the impact of changes in the K-12 curriculum on students'…

Young men are significantly less likely to enter higher education than young women, and they are also more likely to drop out and less likely to achieve a highly-graded degree. There are many causes and the disparity in educational achievement starts long before higher education. Yet, while this issue is better understood than it was, there has…