Over the past decade, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland has focused on improving teacher capacity as a strategy to address achievement gaps and promote "college-ready" standards in what has become an "urban suburb" with significant pockets of high-need students. As part of this focus on quality teaching, the…

This report presents the number of high school graduates, the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR), and the dropout data for grades 9 through 12 for public schools in school year 2007-08. The counts of graduates, dropouts, and enrollments by grade are from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) nonfiscal…

The goal of helping all students become college- and career-ready has become a focal point of American education. But most high school accountability systems are lagging behind, failing to recognize college- and career-ready goals. Most high schools are rated on only two measures: graduation rates and student scores on basic skills tests given in…

Higher education institutions are facing challenges with regard to improving the success and pass rate of students. Mentorship in the life skills programmes should contribute significantly in addressing these issues. A study was undertaken to determine students' perceptions of the life skills programme at the Tshwane University of Technology. The…

For students with emotional disability (ED), school can be a stressful experience marked by disapproval, rejection, isolation, and shame. Staff serving these students in a large school district received Response Ability Pathways (RAP) training. This article summarizes positive impacts on behavior, as well as ongoing challenges in changing school…

Recent changes in public school educational finance in the state of Kansas are shown to have had little positive effect on student educational achievement. A differences structure is used to determine the effect of changes in revenue per student at the district level on changes in measures of student achievement. Measures of achievement employed…

According to the College Board's review of data from the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development, the U.S. ranks 12th out of 36 nations in terms of postsecondary attainment among citizens 25 to 34 years old. Completion is the mantra since President Barack Obama challenged higher education by setting an ambitious goal for 60 percent…

This paper represents an investigation of the broad factors which underpin the success of second-level schools in terms of the proportion of their "sits" who proceed to third-level education and, also, in terms of the "quality" of their educational destinations. It distinguishes between three school types: public (non-fee…

Admissions committee members often speak of "it" as an important consideration during the admissions process; however, empirical evidence documenting the efficacy of "it" as a basis for admission is scarce. The purpose of this research was to test the validity of student-institution it as a significant predictor of college success--specifically,…

The study takes advantage of the nontraditional selection process of the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program to test the association between selectivity of 4-year institution attended as well as other noncognitive variables on the college completion rates of a sample of students of color. The results of logistic regression and propensity score…

In the United States, considerable financial and human resources have been devoted to breaking some large high schools into smaller learning communities (SLCs). This article reviews research that compares SLCs to comprehensive high schools on a variety of measures. Extant research neither supports nor refutes the promise of SLCs to improve…

In this article, an alternative for Tinto's integration theory of student persistence is proposed and tested. In the proposed theory, time available for individual study is considered a major determinant of both study duration and graduation rate of students in a particular curriculum. In this view, other activities in the curriculum, in…

This paper employs hierarchical linear models to explore the long-term effects of stereotype threat on college outcomes for students in the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen. Performance burden was negatively related to both grades and social satisfaction with college. Social satisfaction with college was also significantly impacted by…

This annual snapshot of child well-being is intended to inform policymakers and the public of the progress of and challenges to ensuring the health, welfare, and safety of all children. Following an introduction, this report contains seven sections: (1) The State of Children and Families, including data on births and family structure; (2) The…

In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional level. While the higher education landscape has been shaped by the CCTA, higher…