Increasing graduation rates continues to be a high priority for administrators at community colleges nationwide. While several factors affect graduation rates, many researchers focus on how a student's status as declared or undecided may impact their likelihood of graduating. This study aims to examine the potential relationship between…

During the past several years, the federal and state governments have adopted a college completion agenda using graduation rates as evidence of student success. With the demand for increased accountability on colleges and universities to ensure student success, institutions of higher education are searching for more effective ways to help students…

Florida's high school graduation rate is based on the percentage of students who graduated with a standard diploma within four years of their first full year of enrollment in ninth grade in the state. However, adjustments are made to this cohort over time to: (1) add incoming transfer students based on their grade level and year of entry; (2)…

Sadly, an enduring legacy of the United States is inequities between groups of people based on their skin color. These inequities are ingrained within the educational system, such as a lack of opportunities and interventions and significant gaps in support and resources that target underserved populations. The problem that this study addressed was…

The increase in the number of years of school within the Jamaican school system has caused the government of Jamaica to introduce the Six Form Pathway program. The program was introduced as an intervention method for students to stay in school longer in order to acquire the requisite subject or experience to attend university or to be employable.…

In 2019, the Legislature passed House Bill 1599, which established graduation pathways as a requirement for graduation. These pathways must be aligned with a student's postsecondary goals as described in their High School and Beyond Plan. This report includes the unique pathway options, a data summary, and disaggregated pathway completion data for…

This quantitative study tested a relationship between the bell schedule models used in Oregon high schools, and mean graduation rates during the school years 2017-2020. One-hundred fourteen public high schools in Oregon with adjusted cohorts of at least 100 students were examined. Bell schedules were categorized by the day/meet pattern as seven…

There is increasing attention on the retention of international students, with many stakeholders desiring to keep international students for long-term economic growth. This study examined the factors affecting international students choosing to stay in Finland 5 years after initial enrollment, with particular focus on the role graduation plays in…

California graduation requirements have been largely unchanged since 2003. Within the state of California, a public-school district has to meet state requirements to offer a high school diploma, but a district can implement additional requirements for students beyond the state minimum. Postsecondary educational eligibility is determined during a…

A typical bachelor's degree within the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) requires 120 credit hours while a typical associate degree requires 60. If a student enrolls in 15 credit hours per semester, it would take them a total of eight semesters to complete 120 credit hours for a bachelor's degree and four semesters to complete 60 credit hours…

Across Massachusetts, legislators, policymakers, educators, families, and communities are engaged in important conversations about whether to continue using student performance on the MCAS tests as part of the state's high-school graduation requirements. This document presents lessons drawn from 15-plus years of research on educational opportunity…

Objective: Policymakers in many states are endeavoring to increase graduation rates among older community college students. However, we know little about how the factors that influence college completion among older students differ from their younger peers. We aim to identify features of institutional contexts in which adult community college…

Despite evidence that informational interventions can influence K-12 school choices, we know little about the mechanisms through which they work and the factors that produce heterogeneity in student responses. Through a school-level randomized controlled trial conducted in 473 New York City middle schools serving 115,000 eighth graders, we…

In a bid to make high school fruitful and engaging for every student, the Indiana State Board of Education in December 2024 approved a single new diploma that will be effective for all seniors in the 2028-29 school year. The diploma doubles elective credits to 12 to allow more flexibility for students to tailor their learning to their goals. They…

We examine the causal effects of Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) school designation under the Every Student Succeeds Act on student outcomes in Ohio using a regression discontinuity design. We find that the designation had no positive effects in the four years following designation, but it did have negative effects on attendance,…