This article discusses a program at John Adams High School in New York City that helps students who have fallen behind acquire the credits they need to graduate, while still enabling them to hold a job and meet family obligations. The program is one of 20 Young Adult Borough Centers operated by the New York City Department of Education in…

This article tests a relationship between class attendance and final grades in several political science courses that I taught at the University of Georgia, University of Vermont, and University of Central Arkansas between the Fall 2000 and Spring 2006 semesters. The study employs ordinary least square estimators to test the foregoing hypothesis.…

This analysis examines the demographics of the special needs population in public and private schools in Oklahoma and estimates the impact on school enrollments providing tax credit funded scholarship grants for special needs students. The author and his colleagues develop a model that shows how the expenditures of Oklahoma's school districts vary…

The Breaking Through (BT) initiative promotes an expanded and enhanced role for community colleges in providing access to college for low-skilled adults. BT is uniquely important in its systematic integration of adult education, developmental/remedial education, professional-technical education (PTE), and career planning and preparation in…

Federal higher education policy has shifted over the past few decades from grants to loans as the primary means for providing access to postsecondary education for low- and moderate-income families. With this shift, policy makers have begun tracking student loan default rates as a key indicator of the efficacy of student loan programs. This effort…

One of the greatest challenges that community colleges face in their efforts to increase graduation rates is improving the success of students in their developmental, or remedial, education programs--the courses that students without adequate academic preparation must take before they can enroll in courses for college credit. Emphasizing results…

As an overall assessment of the Work Incentive (WIN) and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) tax credit programs, the project reported sought answers to the following questions: (1) To what degree are tax credits a factor in employer decisions to hire WIN registrations and welfare recipients? (2) What are the differences in usage of the…

The five sections of this consumer handbook are The Cost of Credit, Applying for Credit, Credit Histories and Records, Correcting Credit Mistakes, and Complaining about Credit. Each section discusses relevant legislation: Truth in Lending, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Topics discussed in section I include…

Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count for this issue of "Data Notes," we examine the relationships between course attempts, completions, and attainment - and found results that countered our expectations. The analysis examines the number of credits attempted and completed for the 2002 Achieving the Dream cohort's first…

This report, for the first time ever, provides a state-by-state breakdown of the key elements a policymaker needs in order to understand the legal environment for school choice in any given state--and to craft appropriate legislation to expand educational opportunity. This guide is intended to arm policymakers and advocates with the essential…

This report examines levels of debt incurred by students and families for undergraduate education, and explores the implications significant debt levels may have on access to higher education. Included in the analysis are undergraduate debt levels at California public and private institutions and comparisons of California student debt with student…

Army National Guard Sergeant James Reynolds is one of about 10,000 former and current military service members who, since 1994, have arrived in the classroom via the federal Troops to Teachers program. Reynolds, who was serving as rear gunner on a Humvee patrolling a Bosnian town, is currently teaching 6th grade students at Hybla Valley…

This article reviews early education and care policies in the United Kingdom since 1997, when a Labour Government came to power, and sets them in the wider context of international changes. It argues that the Labour Government has, by intention and by default, supported the development of private sector, and especially corporate sector childcare.…

Gordon Berlin discusses the nation's long struggle to reduce poverty in families with children, and proposes a counterintuitive solution--rewarding the work of individuals. He notes that policymakers' difficulty in reducing family poverty since 1973 is attributable to two intertwined problems--falling wages among low-skilled workers and the…

The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) has been developed and instituted to facilitate student mobility and academic recognition. This paper presents, discusses, and illustrates the pertinence and the limitation of the current statistical distribution of the ECTS grades, and we propose an alternative way to calculate the ECTS…