To understand and evaluate a university's effectiveness requires a lot of information. But rarely is that information brought together in one place. This report compiles publicly available data about the University of North Carolina system. It illustrates key characteristics of the 16 campuses and how they have changed over the past decade. This…

Most Latino students who enroll in college begin at community colleges. This paper highlights how "Excelencia" in Education ("Excelencia"), Single Stop USA, and innovative community colleges across the country are making smart changes in their student services that are helping thousands of Latino students access millions of…

The nation could save as much as $18.5 billion in annual crime costs if the high school male graduation rate increased by only 5 percentage points, a new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education finds. This report examines and builds upon research that links lower levels of educational attainment with higher rates of arrests and…

Retention means repeating one or more courses in high school, rather than a full grade. Over 3,500 high school students were retained in 2011-12 in Wake County Public School (WCPSS), with the largest numbers in grades 9 and 10. Some students enter high school below grade level. In 2011-12, half the WCPSS high schools had greater than 30% of…

Many educational administrators in Georgia continue to struggle with low student academic achievement and low high school graduation rates. DuFour's professional learning community (PLC) theory suggests a positive relationship between levels of PLC implementation and academic achievement and between levels of PLC implementation and graduation…

Internet-related technology has the capacity to change the learning production system in three important ways. First, it creates the capacity to move from the existing batch processing system of teaching and learning to a much more individualized learning system capable of matching instructional style and pace to a student's needs. Second,…

Apex Learning is the largest provider of secondary digital curriculum in Houston Independent School District (HISD). Introduced in January 2010 through Graduation Laboratories (Grad Labs) located at each high school, the program has grown from providing seniors with opportunities to recover credits required for graduation to providing secondary…

Outcomes for students classified as emotionally disturbed (ED) are among the poorest for any disability group and include disturbingly low graduation rates, poor academic achievement, high rates of school suspensions and school dropouts, and chronic interpersonal problems. Additionally, these students are often underserved within the school…

Over the past 10 years, the author has spent time in hundreds of high schools reviewing data; observing classes; learning about interventions and whole-school reforms; and speaking with principals, teachers, counselors, and students. She has also been a district leader in New York City responsible for high school reform that has achieved promising…

In this article, the authors share what they have learned in two distinct but complementary research projects that focus on institutional efforts to enhance student persistence and graduation--one funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education and the second by the College Board. Together, these projects have helped them develop a fuller picture of…

U.S. academic institutions awarded 48,802 research doctorate degrees in 2008, the sixth consecutive annual increase in U.S. doctoral awards and the highest number ever reported by the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). This number represents an increase of 1.4% over the 2007 total (48,112), the smallest annual increase over the 6-year span.…

Schools in Maryland and Connecticut are rethinking suspension policies and practices. They are finding that promoting positive behavior choices rather than punishing the negative is leading to higher graduation rates, especially among students of color. In the 2003-2004 academic year, Baltimore City Public Schools recorded 26,000 suspensions. Six…

This study contributes to the body of research that is attempting to uncover what student characteristics and university programs and policies are predictive of student persistence and graduation. Loss of student enrollments through attrition prior to graduation and low graduation rates have significant negative consequences for universities and…

In 2006, the National Center for Postsecondary Research, of which is MDRC is a partner, launched a demonstration of one-semester learning community programs at six colleges; five of these programs focused on developmental education. This is the executive summary of the final report from the project and includes findings from analyses that pool…

The National Research Council (NRC) and National Academy of Engineering (NAE) have released a new report, "Community Colleges in the Evolving STEM Education Landscape: Summary of a Summit." Based on a national summit that was supported by the National Science Foundation and organized by the NRC and the NAE, the report highlights the importance of…