We describe changes over time in inequality in postsecondary education using nearly seventy years of data from the U.S. Census and the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. We find growing gaps between children from high- and low-income families in college entry, persistence, and graduation. Rates of college completion increased by…

The "National Dropout Prevention Newsletter" is published quarterly by the National Dropout Prevention Center/Network. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Special Olympics Project UNIFY (Andrea Cahn); (2) The Impact of Project UNIFY; (3) Project UNIFY Brings Youth Together to Learn and Graduate (William H. Hughes); (4)…

A number of states have made progress in implementing performance-based funding (PFB) and accountability. This policy brief summarizes main features of performance-based funding systems in three states: Tennessee, Ohio, and Indiana. The brief also identifies key issues that states considering performance-based funding must address, as well as…

Research was conducted to determine if graduates from either the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education or Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program maintained behavioral changes 6 months after completing the program. Staff asked graduates to complete a 10- or 15-question behavior checklist that was identical to the entry and exit…

With projections of the decline of the Texas economic base, graduation rates and percentages of Hispanic students at Texas community colleges were examined to determine whether statistically significant increases were present from the years 2000 to 2008. In 2010, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board modified the major initiative Closing…

The present paper determines whether community college transfer students have higher baccalaureate rates when they enroll in four-year colleges and departments that have larger shares of transfer students. Transfers attending non-technical campuses with larger shares of transfers have higher eight-year baccalaureate rates, but within-campus…

Engineering, a field that has shaped the world's industrial and technological base, is ripe for an influx of Latino undergraduate students. Given U.S. Latino population increases, what is the trajectory of Latino participation in engineering education? Using an interdisciplinary lens, we critically examine Latino trends in undergraduate…

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…

Today, women across race and class categories graduate high school and college at higher rates than men (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). According to Marxist reproduction theories, schools maintain social hierarchies by academically rewarding the elite. Yet, despite educational gains, women remain materially and symbolically unequal, proving to be…

This study examines an extra-curricular English course that gives a chance for the low-proficient seniors who have not yet met the graduation qualification to graduate upon completion of 90 hours of English program. The subjects were 14 seniors who failed to obtain the minimum requirement scores and had to complete the course in summer of 2014. A…

Retention and graduation rates of an entire cohort of 1,913 first-time full-time college students are analyzed. The effects of participation in a first year experience (FYE) course and of entry level academic preparation (ELAP) on retention and graduation are examined, both descriptively and with discrete-time survival analyses. Although…

Texas' Hispanic population has increased dramatically since 2000 as have Hispanic enrollments in higher education (+118%). Despite having the largest spike in college enrollment, Hispanic students' completion rates remain the lowest among all ethnic groups. To identify institutional practices that might encourage Hispanic student retention,…

There have been appeals within the educational change (EC) and school improvement (SI) literature for research to explore more non-westernized and developing country contexts (Dimmock, 2000; Harris, 2009; Harris & Chrispeels, 2006; McMahon, 2006). This article is a response to those appeals. The study maps the SI educational policy contexts of…

At present, one of the major issues and most interesting discussions within the European Higher Education Area is the rate of success in university-level study, and therefore the adaptation of today's university education system to society's requirements. Moreover, we have seen significant growth in distance education throughout recent decades, as…

Background: Many programs emphasize subsequent pregnancy prevention and high school graduation among teenage mothers; however, less is known about their ability to increase financial earnings from employment opportunities while concurrently enrolled in school. This study evaluates factors influencing employment status among teenage mothers after…