In a time of growth in secondary education online programs, there have been few studies directed at understanding secondary online programs and the students they serve. That is particularly true for large, inner-city public school districts with a diverse student body. This is a mixed methods case study which identified that students' primary…

Students with disabilities are entering colleges and universities across the nation in ever-increasing numbers, with the greatest percentage being students with learning disabilities (LD). Yet, students with disabilities often do not graduate from college at the same rate as students without disabilities. Self-determination is an important skill…

The central message of this report is that some states and school districts are raising their high school graduation rates with scalable solutions in the public schools, showing the nation they can end the high school dropout crisis. America made progress not only in suburbs and towns, but also in urban districts and in states across the South.…

This study examines the number of credits earned at graduation for two groups: those who graduated with a baccalaureate degree and who were admitted as transfer students and those admitted as secondary school students to one of the four BC research universities [Simon Fraser University (SFU), University of British Columbia, Vancouver (UBC),…

High school dropouts adversely impact the state of Tennessee each year--financially and socially. Dropouts' lower incomes, high unemployment rates, increased need for medical care, and higher propensity for incarceration create a virtual vortex that consumes Tennesseans' tax dollars at a vicious rate. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on…

This qualitative study examined the lived experience of eight individuals attending a four-year college who were all part of a campus support program for former foster youth. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and explore the lived experiences of these unique college students that have gone through the foster care system.…

Since the early 1990s, the federal government has required colleges to track and report graduation rates for all first-time, full-time degree- or certificate-seeking students. The most widely used figure tracks students for 150 percent of the time they expect to take to graduate. For bachelor's degree programs, students are considered graduates if…

Tennessee Code Annotated 49-5-108 requires the state to develop a report card or assessment on the effectiveness of teacher training programs. This report includes data on the performance of each institution's graduates in the following areas required by state statute: placement and retention rates, Praxis results, and teacher effect data based on…

This study addressed the problem of poor attendance adversely affecting grades and learning. Current school policies do not address problematic attendance for all school-aged children, perpetuating trends of academic failure. The research objective was to determine if unexcused absences had a greater negative impact on a high-stakes test compared…

Nearly all high school seniors today aspire to pursue higher education because they know that a college degree offers them the best opportunity to realize the American Dream. Indeed, college-going rates are up considerably for all students over the last 30 years. At the same time, however, racial gaps in degree attainment actually have grown, even…

College and career readiness offers a distinct purpose to the high school experience. This experience must provide a variety of options with a clear focus on fruitful opportunities for success. Meaningful citizenship in any learning community demands that all students participate in a pathway of sequenced, practical, related classes and achieve…

There are many reasons for pursing a higher education. For most persons, a significant, maybe even the dominant reason, for going to college is that it supposedly will improve one's prospect of acquiring a good job. In a sense, a college degree has long been considered a ticket to the middle class--an adult life with a good income and relatively…

Included in this addendum are the findings for the Noel-Levitz 2010 National Freshman Attitudes Report by race/ethnicity for incoming students. These data show the percentage of students within each group that agreed with each item. This paper provides a detailed explanation of the statistical processes used to produce these data, as well as a…

Many of today's colleges and universities are venturing into online education, with distance education enrollments in the United States having increased from 1.6 million students in 1998 to over 3.9 million in 2007. However, concerns over student frustrations and high attrition rates in online learning have led many educators to research and…

Although many high schools are switching from a semester to a trimester schedule as a response to increased high-school graduation requirements, there is very little empirical research on trimesters. In this ethnographic case study (2006-2009), we observed 22 math and science classrooms, interviewed seven administrators, two counselors and 22…