Many colleges and universities in the United States offer summer programs for their incoming students. While programs are structured and administered in a variety of ways and target various student populations, the most common type of summer bridge program aims to serve historically underrepresented students and students of low socioeconomic…

First-year seminars have become common at liberal arts and other colleges across the United States. An accumulating body of research appears to demonstrate that this curricular element is associated with increased retention of students and is positively correlated with graduation rates, student adjustment and involvement, student satisfaction,…

Research extols the benefits of parent involvement in college choice, but low-SES African American parents are unable to match efforts of wealthier parents. This qualitative study found that in their communities the high school diploma was the normative credential for upward mobility. To this end, parents used narratives of struggle to motivate…

Background/Context: Among the children of immigrants, one of the populations placed at greatest risk of not finishing high school are the children of migrant farmworkers. Although it is difficult to track graduation rates for migrant students because of their mobility, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that only half of all migrant…

"National CrossTalk" is a publication of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The National Center promotes public policies that enhance opportunities for quality education and training beyond high school. The primary purpose of "National CrossTalk" is to stimulate informed discussion and debate of higher…

When the Commission on Access, Admissions and Success in Higher Education (subsequently referred to as the commission) convened in the fall of 2008, the educational landscape included a number of issues that the commission's members recognized as formidable challenges to those students who aspire to enroll and succeed in college. The Commission's…

State testing or end-of-course exams are recommended to determine if high school graduates are ready to enter college or the workforce because these assessments are aligned to content area expectations and standards that are measurable within each state as well as from state to state (Achieve, 2006). However, such assessments do not measure all…

Reported here are the results of analyses to describe the patterns of identification and academic and developmental outcomes for children with disabilities, conducted as part of the 2004 National Assessment of the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This report provides background context for National…

The Division of Policy, Planning, and Research has assembled the Tennessee Higher Education Fact Book which is a compilation of statistical information pertaining to higher education in Tennessee. The 2009-2010 Fact Book contains tables and charts with data relevant to enrollment, persistence, graduation, tuition, financial aid, lottery…

Teachers who work together to blend academic and career/technical (CT) instruction have found a key to motivating students to complete high school and prepare for college, advanced training and careers. This newsletter highlights key strategies schools are using to join academic and technical studies to advance student motivation and achievement.…

This article presents questions and answers about ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks. ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks are the minimum ACT test scores required for students to have a high probability of success in credit-bearing college courses--English Composition, social sciences courses, College Algebra, or Biology. Colleges can use the…

Despite the proliferation of data about student performance, secondary school educators have had difficulty accessing data on their former students' post-high school employment and earnings in the formal economy. This article describes how one community used state unemployment insurance data, merged with student record data, to investigate the…

Educators act as advocates every day, and an advocate's greatest tool is credible information. The College Board and the Alliance for Excellent Education are pleased to announce a series of jointly produced fact sheets intended to arm educators and others with information they can use in advocating for their students, professions, and…

In a direct reversal from last year, the 2007-08 achievement gap between schools in southeast Wisconsin and those in the rest of the state, as measured by Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam (WKCE) standardized test scores, narrowed in all subjects at all grade levels. While the region lags the state in WKCE test scores and schools making…

This document includes the following information in tabular format: (1) First to Second Year Retention of First-Time, Full-Time, Degree-Seeking Freshmen--Ohio Public Colleges and Universities by Sector, 2001-2005; (2) First to Second Year Retention of First-Time, Full-Time, Degree-Seeking Freshmen--Ohio Public Colleges and Universities, 2001-2005;…