The current study examines predictors of math achievement and college graduation by integrating social learning theory and expectancy-value theory. Data came from a nationally-representative longitudinal database tracking 12,144 students over twelve years from 8th grade forward. Models for math achievement and college graduation were tested…

Information gained from the present study should provide important policy insights into whether adjustments to the School District Finance and Quality Performance Accreditation (SDFQPA) Act funding formula have supported the original goal behind SDFQPA, which was to provide more equal funding to public elementary and secondary pupils in Kansas.…

Hispanics continue to play an increasing role in shaping American society, as they are currently the largest and youngest minority group and whose birth rate accounts for a quarter of all children born in the United States (Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). This increase in the total number of Hispanics will result in a corresponding increase in college…

The 2012 presidential election and many state and local races are only a few weeks away, but schools are not doing much to promote student interest in the elections or provide civic education more broadly, new research suggests. A report last week from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), at Tufts…

Many different versions of Problem-based Learning (PBL) are used today. To be consistent in evaluating the effectiveness of PBL, the focus in this paper is on what Howard Barrows called authentic PBL (aPBL). In aPBL students are empowered with the learning process; key distinguishing features are that the students teach each other the new…

Academic confidence cultivated within the context of learning communities may be an important key to student success. This study examined the structural relationships of four constructs on academic performance and persistence for summer bridge learning community (SBLC) and non-SBLC members. Constructs included: 1) student background; 2) academic…

As community colleges face increasingly tight budgets and calls for a renewed focus on improving student outcomes in the form of graduation rates, colleges must address the concept of access. How much access to higher education can they continue to provide low-skilled students in adult education and similar programs? One way to ensure access to…

The researcher of this study examined dual enrollment and Huskins Bill course effects on academic success and graduation rates by gender and race. Quantitative statistical measures including parametric and non-parametric means comparisons, including ANOVA, t-test and chi-square tests, were used to analyze data from 15,527 North Carolina community…

As a new round of cross-national studies is showing, the US is now one of the most economically unequal of all developed countries. The top 5 percent of Americans now take home 21.3 percent of total income, while the bottom 40 percent takes home only 11.8 percent. Among OECD nations, the US has the fourth highest income inequality, exceeded only…

The Purposes of this research were to construct and develop indicators of learning organization at higher educational institutions emphasize graduate production and social development, and to test the congruence of the structural model of the indicators of learning organization at higher educational institutions emphasizing graduate production and…

This paper is the sixth annual report on the cumulative student loan debt of recent graduates from four-year public and private nonprofit colleges. This analysis found that the debt levels of students who graduate with loans continued to rise, with considerable variation among states as well as among colleges. This paper estimates that two-thirds…

This report describes a follow-up qualitative study, conducted in 2006 by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, of a small group of New York City high schools that, according to 2001 data, were "beating the odds" in preparing low-performing ninth-grade students for timely high school graduation and college going. The thirteen…

"Education for All" (EFA) identifies goals and targets and translates these into indicators which are used to evaluate progress and influence flows of external financing. The search for evidence based policy depends on measures of performance that can link cause and effect and that represent real gains in progress towards desired…

This report provides a view of Career and Technical Education (CTE) and multiple path approaches, along with information on evaluations of its effectiveness. CTE integrates mathematics education within technical and occupational courses, establishing high standards with the expectation that such programs can qualify graduates for postsecondary…

Recent efforts to reform urban high schools have been marked by the pursuit of ever-increasing accountability policies, most notably through the use of high-stakes standardized testing, mayoral control, and secondary school exit exams. "Urban Youth and School Pushout" excavates the unintended consequences of such policies on secondary school…