The federally financed GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program) was organized two decades ago with the purpose of increasing high school completion and college enrollment among low-income students. The College Crusade of Rhode Island's GEAR UP program was designed as a long-term effort to buttress student success…

Editor's Note: This commentary is based on the conference sessions, "Orientation and Mobility Career, College and Community Readiness Standards," by Kathryn Botsford and Mary Tellefson, and "Engaging Students, Families and Teams for Success After High School," by Sheila Koenig, which took place on Thursday, February 28, 2019,…

Over the past four decades, policymakers have developed numerous policies and programs with the goal of increasing college enrollment. Despite the apparent plentitude of policies and programs, however, college access and choice for recent high school graduates remain stratified by socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity. By characterizing the ways…

Explores alternatives for reporting state dropout data and high school completion rates based on Common Core of Data information. Analyses find that the major types of nonstandard dropout reporting practices have statistically significant, but different, effects on the size of state dropout rates. (Author/SLD)

This study examines the impact of state-level educational reform in Kentucky on college student retention. By tracking the educational progress of students who graduated from high school in a large school district and who subsequently enrolled in a research university in the same metropolitan area, the study reveals that the accountability…

Presents national data on elementary and secondary schools and degree-granting institutions, including projections to the year 2012. Also includes state-level projections of public school enrollment and public high school graduates. (SLD)

In response to public demands for better-quality high school graduates and to requirements of No Child Left Behind legislation, states have developed a variety of policies such as high-stakes exit exams and diploma options. Additionally, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997, students with disabilities must be…

New Jersey's statewide testing program demonstrates that systematic data collection and reporting can have a major impact on both understanding the gap between college expectations and high school preparation and on the college and pre-college efforts to close that gap. (Author/MLW)

This study examined state-by-state variation in high school completion rates and the impact of state-level child disability, demographic, and economic factors upon completion by diploma or certificate for youth with serious emotional disturbances (SED). Variables examined included ethnicity, geographic region, per capita personal income, per pupil…

Faced with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state higher education officials are trying to relieve the burden on the state by redirecting several thousand high school seniors from California's public four-year universities to community colleges for their first two years of school. The California effort emerges…