Today's welfare system does not encourage postsecondary education, focusing instead on immediate employment. The loss of postsecondary education as a route out of poverty may be detrimental to some women. College graduation is associated with lower rates of recidivism and post-welfare poverty than attendance without graduation or no attendance.…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "What Happened to Dropouts from the High School Class of 2004?": Brief Finds Over a Third Not Working and…

Since 2002, the Center on Education Policy (CEP), an independent nonprofit organization, has been studying state high school exit examinations--tests students must pass to receive a high school diploma. This is CEP's seventh annual report on exit exams. The information in this report comes from several sources: our survey of states that have…

This publication summarizes the status of Maryland public education in 2008 and considers upcoming challenges. Highlights of the report include: (1) Maryland classrooms continue to be comprised of minority-majority enrollment; (2) High school graduation rate tops 85 percent; (3) Scores on the Maryland School Assessment continue to rise; (4)…

Increasing demand for at least some postsecondary education in today's labor market has met with stagnating college completion rates. As a result, states have a growing interest in better understanding the challenges to improving graduation rates and in tracking student progress and success. Six states in the "Achieving the Dream: Community…

Twenty-five years after the seminal report "A Nation at Risk," American education remains in a state of crisis. Millions of students continue to pass through the public schools without mastering basic skills and knowledge. Policymakers and the public must recognize both this persistent failure and the attendant need for systemic reform…

The authors conducted a formal research study to investigate the perceptions of faculty, staff, and community residents regarding town-gown relationships and the sustainability of African American communities as related to educational benefits, home ownership, employment and job training, earning potential, and graduation rates.

This article reviews recent literature highlighting the challenges associated with the college-to-work transition and proposes a model for understanding the experience of workplace entry for new graduates. This model outlines three stages of development in the transition process, namely (a) anticipation, (b) adjustment, and (c) achievement, and…

Educational research has shown that individual-level background characteristics, such as parental socio-economic status and academic ability, influence college going behavior. This study tests for the existence of aggregate-level high school effects on college enrollment, persistence and degree attainment. It links institutional data on students…

Librarians have led the way for information literacy skills and abilities to be more integrated throughout the curriculum, and students are expected to demonstrate competency in finding, evaluating, and using information at many colleges and universities as part of the institution's curricular requirements and student learning outcomes. As part of…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) U.S. Department of Education Holds High School Summit: Diploma Should Be a "Road Map to a Prosperous, Purposeful…

This "Report Card to the Public" is published in accordance with Alaska Statute 14.03.120 for the school year 2012-2013. Under state law, each school district is required to report information about its plans and performance to its community. This report includes a statewide summary of performance results. Public knowledge of the school…

A review of the literature indicates that Latinos lag behind Whites and Blacks in college degree attainment. This educational disparity is of concern because Latinos are currently the largest minority group in the United States, and the Latino population is expected to increase exponentially in the future. College degree attainment for Latinos is…

This paper describes four key strategies to promote the strengthened classroom experiences that ultimately are requisite to both increased levels of college completion and deeper levels of learning. In this report, the term "classroom experiences" refers to any activity that takes place as part of a regularly scheduled course. The key strategies…

This qualitative case study examines teachers' perspectives on testing accommodations for Limited English Proficient (LEP) students taking Indiana's Graduation Qualifying Exam (GQE). The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) states that the purpose of testing accommodations is to "level the playing field" between LEP students and their…