The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia) and other U.S. jurisdictions (see appendix A for a list of other U.S. jurisdictions). This "First Look" presents findings from the preliminary data of the…

In 2009, President Barack Obama announced the 2020 College Completion initiative. The goal: By 2020, the United States will have the greatest proportion of citizens who are college graduates, compared with the rest of the world. On a national level, however, the average six-year completion rate hasn't changed much in the more than five years since…

This quantitative study provides evidence of the benefits of learning contracts in online higher education. In this study, data were gathered from doctoral students who had completed all course work and comprehensive exams, but failed to make expected progress on dissertation. The students were given the opportunity to participate in a voluntary…

Online education has been steadily growing during the last decade. This growth has mainly taken place in the non-laboratory science fields. This essay describes some of the best practices to increase and maintain student retention, increase student engagement and increase graduation rates for college running online laboratory science courses. This…

Community colleges increase college access, extending postsecondary educational opportunities to underserved students, yet, these students exhibit low rates of program completion and transfer to 4-year colleges. Sociological research on community colleges focuses on the tension between increasing educational opportunity and failing to improve…

Church-related small private liberal arts baccalaureate minority-serving institutions like Wesley College have modest endowments, are heavily tuition-dependent, and have large numbers of financially-challenged students. In order to sustain the level of academic excellence and to continue to build student demographic diversity in its accessible…

This article presents three lessons from research by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) on strategies community colleges can use to improve completion rates while maintaining broad access and keeping costs low for students and taxpayers. I also identify two sets of data pointing to the potential returns to students and society that could…

Few college experiences elicit as much controversy as racial/ethnic student organizations. Critics argue that these student groups promote racial division and segregation, whereas supporters counter these claims and suggest instead that they facilitate college adjustment, learning, and growth. Clearly, some students are quite predisposed to…

The completion agenda demands higher community college graduation rates among adult learners, and prior learning assessment (PLA) is a promising solution. PLA permits students to earn credit for college-level learning acquired outside of higher education and is associated with improved student outcomes. However, little is known regarding community…

This report builds upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates in 2012, provides data about trends in dropout and completion rates over the last four decades (1972-2012), and examines the characteristics of high school…

Absent any federal requirement to monitor the performance of student subgroups, a significant number of states have implemented accountability systems that either ignore the performance of these students or provide only minimal oversight. As Congress moves forward with reauthorizing ESEA, it must codify the 2008 high school graduation rate…

Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) collects information on postsecondary plans and scholarship information. Each student reports their educational or career plans for after graduation as well as what scholarship(s), financial aid, or grant monies they have been offered and what monies have been accepted. This report summarizes the…

This "First Look" presents findings from the provisional data of the IPEDS winter 2014-15 data collection, which included four survey components: (1) Graduation Rates (GR); (2) 200 Percent Graduation Rates (GR200); (3) Student Financial Aid (SFA); and (4) Admissions (ADM). GR and GR200 present graduation rates for selected cohorts within…

This project applied the gap analysis problem-solving framework (Clark & Estes, 2008) in order to help develop strategies to increase completion rates at Travelor Adult School. The purpose of the study was to identify whether the knowledge, motivation and organization barriers were contributing to the identified gap. A mixed method approached…

The data gathered from disability service professionals in six different states through an on-line survey and follow up interviews was used to determine if there was a correlation between specific professional practices and the magnitude of the disparity in four-year college graduation and employment rates between individuals with visual…