Communities In Schools, Inc. (CIS) is a nationwide initiative designed to connect needed community resources with schools to help students, particularly those identified as at-risk, successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life. As part of a comprehensive 5-year national evaluation of CIS, ICF International conducted a school-level…

In this essay, the author reflects on the importance of commencement speeches, and the factors that make or break them. He explains his objections to politicians as commencement speakers; describes his favorite and least favorite speeches (by Mr. Rogers and a Harvard professor, respectively); and concludes that scholars, who have spent their lives…

Research has shown that strong leadership support for whole school reform is critical to the successful turnaround of low-performing schools. Yet there is little discussion of how to successfully maintain changes in teaching, learning, and student outcomes when there is a changeover in school leadership. This profile highlights the efforts 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) Congress Begins Budget Debate: House and Senate Budget Plans Accommodate President Obama's Education Proposals; (2)…

This study accepted the theoretical framework of Friedkin and Thomas (1997), who proposed that tracking systems in large comprehensive high schools are emergent. The study replicates a network analysis methodology used by Heck, Price, and Thomas (2004) to understand the way tracking emerged in one high school in Hawaii. However, this study…

What is the relationship between retention, drop-out and graduation rates? Retention of low-achieving students is one of the most controversial and complex issues educational leaders face, despite a half century of research that has shown consistently that any gains in achievement are short-lived, and the long-term effects for retained students…

This study uses statistical analysis to estimate the impact of first-year academic development courses in microeconomics, statistics, accountancy, and information systems, offered by the University of Cape Town's Commerce Academic Development Programme, on students' graduation performance relative to that achieved by mainstream students. The data…

This article reports the investigation of the extent to which US preschool federal funding (Head Start) and the preschool enrollment of African American males (aged three to five) affected the high school graduation rates of this population (aged 14 to 19). The authors found that a link exists between preschool enrollment and the high school…

This study evaluates the impact of enhanced drug court services in a large county in Southern California. These enhanced services, including specialty counseling groups, educational/employment resources, and increased Residential Treatment (RT) beds, were designed to increase program retention and successful completion (graduation) of drug court.…

An 11-year mixed-methods, cross-sectional longitudinal study began with a group of 121 children, identified as gifted, and followed them until high-school graduation. Parents annually identified negative life events experienced by child and family, and, at graduation, students completed an open-ended retrospective questionnaire, focusing on…

The purpose of this study is to identify student and institutional characteristics that influence the probability for graduation. The study delves further into the probability for graduation by examining how far the student deviates from the institutional mean with respect to academics and affordability; this concept is referred to as the "match."…

Students without disabilities traditionally either enter postsecondary education or seek employment after high school graduation. These outcomes are not routinely experienced by youth with disabilities, however. Instead, they often face an uncertain future--one that may include unemployment or underemployment, social isolation, or dependence,…

In metro Milwaukee, as a part of the WIRED Initiative, the Regional Workforce Alliance (RWA)--a collaboration of organizations representing workforce development, economic development and education across southeast Wisconsin--has established the framework for pursuing the local talent dividend goal and a regional strategy for increasing…

The credentials primarily awarded by community colleges--certificates and associate degrees--play a unique role in advancing college completion rates. Given the current economic climate and high unemployment rates, there exists a clear demand for, and focus on, quickly returning people to a changing work environment through education and training.…

The majority of college students are not ready for college-level math courses, which, when completed, have been shown to increase graduation and transfer rates among college students. To address this problem, the Math My Way (MMW) program was developed to integrate module-based curriculum and mastery learning approaches. The purpose of this study…