Years of data have consistently underscored the persistent graduation gap between America's students of color and their peers. The most recent estimate shows that high school graduation rates for African American, Latino, and American Indian students hover only slightly higher than 50 percent. This is more than 20 percentage points lower than that…

High school exit exams are affecting a growing majority of high school students. Although exit testing polices were enacted with the goal of improving student achievement as well as postsecondary outcomes, they also have the potential for negative effects. To better understand the effects of exit testing policies, in this article the authors…

Every year, "Diplomas Count" takes a careful look at nationwide trends related to high graduation. This year, they have titled their report "Graduation by the Numbers--Putting Data to Work for Student Success." This year's research shows that today's graduation climate is a tough one, particularly for minority students and…

Publicly funded exam schools educate many of the world's most talented students. These schools typically contain higher achieving peers, more rigorous instruction, and additional resources compared to regular public schools. This paper uses a sharp discontinuity in the admissions process at three prominent exam schools in New York City to provide…

Pre-apprenticeship programs have generated interest recently from government, employers and other stakeholders in the training system as one means of improving apprenticeship completion rates and thereby ameliorating skill shortages. However, there has not yet been any research which establishes that pre-apprenticeship programs actually increase…

Increasing the number of college students who graduate prepared for participation in the workforce and civil society will require a redoubling of efforts to improve college-going and completion rates for students traditionally underrepresented by higher education--individuals from low-income backgrounds and young people of color, who currently…

This Research Brief summarizes the performance of M-DCPS students participating in the International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) programs. Outcome data are provided for the eight M-DCPS schools offering the two programs and corresponding examinations. Participation in international…

Currently, there are approximately 1.3 million annual high school dropouts who potentially might lose $355 billion of income over their lifetimes. Effectively addressing retention and dropout issues has far-reaching societal implications. Therefore, this study examined the relationship between ninth-grade retention and on-time graduation. For the…

Driven by external pressure for increased accountability and internal pressure for improved learning outcomes, colleges across the country have been developing and refining assessment systems for several decades. In some cases, assessment results have significant positive impact. In other cases, the results have little impact, are not seen as…

Linked learning transforms students' high school experience by linking a college preparatory course sequence with demanding technical education, and linking real-world experiences with classroom learning to help students gain an advantage in high school, postsecondary education, and careers. With linked learning, students follow industry-themed…

We use a representative sample of Italian graduates drawn from the Consorzio AlmaLaurea to assess the impact of individual and family characteristics, university inputs and the labour market on the time taken to attain a degree. Our estimates highlight that all these dimensions drive the outcome analysed. Weak labour market prospects contribute…

Critics say that for-profit career colleges--which, according to industry figures, enrolled 3.2 million students in the United States in 2009--have been plagued by deceptive recruiting practices that lure students into programs they could find elsewhere for much less money. Students often borrow tens of thousands of dollars to attend these…

Since Georgia's "Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally" (HOPE) Scholarship was initiated in 1993, more than a dozen states have adopted similar state-sponsored merit-based financial aid programs. One recent concern on merit-based programs has focused on their unintended adverse effect on students' choosing science and engineering as…

It has become universally known that Americans as a nation have fallen behind other nations in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). According to the National Science and Engineering Indicators, produced by the National Science Foundation in 2006, the United States has one of the lowest STEM to non-STEM degree…

This study utilized student, teacher, and parent expectations during high school to analyze their predictive effect on post-secondary education status two years after scheduled graduation. The sample included 5,353 students, parents and teachers who participated in the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS; 2002-2006). The researchers analyzed data…