As governors confront the worst state fiscal environment in the past 25 years, long-term prospects for strong economic growth are hampered by an immense underlying problem: the high school dropout crisis. At least one student in five drops out of school, and nearly 5 million 18- to 24-year-olds lack a high school diploma. Annually, dropouts cost…

This compendium of narrative and statistical information is an overview of the Oregon University System (OUS) and is produced every two years. The introduction includes a mission and vision statement, strategic priorities, a listing of OUS campuses and centers, a roster of the members of the State Board of Higher Education, OUS degree partnership…

The District conducts a "cross-sectional" analysis of student dropouts annually; it examines dropout rates among students enrolled in various grades at one point in time. A "longitudinal" analysis, also conducted annually, tracks a group of students in the same grade or cohort over a period of several years. Each method…

From the 3rd grade to the 11th grade, Jorge Martinez walked out of his front door each day hating the prospect of going to school. For most of those days, Martinez, now 17, was a target of bullies. But that was only half of it. There was discord at home. He says he was lazy and unmotivated, preferring to spend his time in front of the television,…

This study sought to determine whether GRE subscores (or GMAT) could predict graduation rates in related areas (math-oriented majors for GRE quantitative, etc.) in a sample of over 9,000 graduate students at a major public research university. Because few low quantitative scores were present in math-oriented majors, an attempt was made to…

This report provides information on states' progress in implementing the graduation rate all 50 governors agreed by signing the Graduation Counts Compact in 2005 to adopt. The governors undertook this commitment because they understand the imperative to gather more accurate, comparable data on how many of their students graduate from high school…

The first volume of this report examines the existing measures of high school completion and the newly proposed proxy measures. This includes a description of the computational formulas, the data required for each indicator, the assumptions underlying each formula, the strengths and weaknesses of each indicator relative to a true cohort on-time…

In the past decade, school districts around the country have sought to improve struggling urban high schools, where high dropout rates, poor student achievement, and low rates of graduation and college-going remain all too prevalent. In a field crowded with reform initiatives, Project Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) stands out as…

This Challenge to Lead report, Getting Serious About High School Graduation, not only describes the challenges SREB states face in meeting the goal that all young adults have a high school diploma, but it also provides policies and strategies that each state can--and should--use to get serious about high school graduation. It is possible to adjust…

This brief discusses a research study that was conducted to determine the rates of degree completion of community college occupational students compared with other types of postsecondary students, and to identify factors that might explain those differences. Much of the existing literature on college persistence and completion is focused on…

This third report on the performance of Texas public universities provides summary information on performance in academic and other areas in table form. A section on statewide comparisons contains these tables: (1) statewide higher education enrollment; (2) fall 1999 headcount enrollment by ethnicity; (2) selected student demographics; (3) 6-year…

This report contains information on the retention and graduation patterns of full-time undergraduates at Maryland's public four-year colleges and universities from 1981 to 2001. It looks at the number and percentage of students who were retained at their original public four-year campus and those who graduated from any senior public college or…

To ensure that students who receive high school diplomas meet basic thresholds of academic proficiency and job readiness, 24 states have adopted exit exams that students must pass to graduate. Opponents of these exams complain that they drive already-low graduation rates downward. They argue that raising the bar for graduation forces many…

Between 1970 and 2001, women went from being the minority to the majority of the U.S. undergraduate population, increasing their representation from 42 percent to 56 percent of undergraduates (Freeman 2004). Projections to 2013 indicate that women's undergraduate enrollment will increase to 8.9 million or 57 percent of the undergraduate population…

The current year, 2004, marks a monumental year in higher education for students of color. This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which declared racial segregation in public education settings unconsitutional. Despite the gains that have been made in increasing access to higher education for…