Over sixty years following Brown vs. Board of Education, racial and socioeconomic segregation and lack of equal access to educational opportunities persist. Across the country, voluntary desegregation busing programs aim to ameliorate these imbalances and disparities. A longstanding Massachusetts program, METCO, buses K-12 students of color from…

Policy research established that it is possible to predict a student will drop out of school based on academic, attendance, behavior indicators. Little is known about the processes that put Early Warning Systems (EWS) in place. This case study of the Montana EWS describes the characteristics of a statewide implementation, the efficiency of the EWS…

Local teacher recruitment through "grow-your-own" (GYO) programs is a prominent strategy to address workforce shortages and ensure that incoming teachers resemble, understand, and have strong connections to their communities. Despite the growing popularity of GYO programs, there is little credible evidence of their effectiveness. The…

The Tuition Opportunity Program for Students subsequently renamed the Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) was created by Act 1375 of the 1997 Regular Legislative Session. The first college freshman class to receive TOPS awards entered postsecondary education in the fall of 1998. Act 1202 of the 2001 Regular Legislative Session requires…

Indiana, Oklahoma, and Washington have programs designed to address college enrollment and completion gaps by offering a promise of state-based college financial aid to low-income middle school students in exchange for making a pledge to do well in high school, be a good citizen, not be convicted of a felony, and apply for financial aid to…

Objective: States increasingly create promise programs to increase college enrollment and degree attainment. The objective of this study was to understand the experiences of adult learners using the Tennessee Reconnect Grant (TN Reconnect) as they transitioned to becoming college students. Methods: Drawing upon interviews with 23 adult learners,…

The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the Texas "Closing the Gaps by 2015" plan to increase Hispanic enrollment into and graduation from institutions of higher education. This study uses Interrupted Time Series with Comparison Group to analyze 26 years of student cohorts in Texas universities. Controlling for…

In this study, we investigate the impact of the Bright Futures Scholarship Program on college enrollment and degree production in Florida by using IPEDS enrollment, migration, and completion data. Results suggest large and significant enrollment effects at Florida's public 4- and 2-year institutions, for both full-time and part-time enrollment.…

This report provides six mini-case studies of higher education policy reforms enacted in other states, exploring the important role that state policy leadership played in developing, promoting, and implementing these policies aimed at improving higher education outcomes, and discussing the relevance of each reform effort for California. This…

Hawaii's largest populations of at-risk youth include those youth who have dropped out of school, are at-risk of not completing high school, and youth who have completed school but are still not prepared for the workforce. Depending on estimates used, between 20 and 25 percent of Hawaiian youth are at risk of dropping out school. For older youth,…

Since 2002, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) has collected and reported data on state policies that require students to pass a state assessment in order to receive a high school diploma. The state policies associated with these assessments, also known as high school exit exams, have undergone a number of changes over the past ten years. For…

The ambitious goal set by Colorado's governor to address the state's dropout problem is a model for the nation. Helping thousands of young people to receive their high school diplomas instead of leaving school without them is a crucial step in improving the quality of life for all Colorado residents. Accomplishing this goal will require focused…

This paper examines the results of a national study on the current status of state graduation policies and diploma options for youth with disabilities. It examines state policies in relation to their intended benefits as well as possible unintended consequences, and compared the findings with a similar study conducted by Johnson and Thurlow in…

This paper discusses the national movement toward increasing high school graduation requirements and the development of alternatives to the standard high school diploma for students with disabilities. Findings from a review of state policies indicate: (1) 38 states and territories apply some graduation requirements to students with disabilities;…

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that investigated state appeals processes for students with disabilities who fail state-mandated graduation exams. State Web sites were studied to determine the extent to which there are other options for demonstrating skills, to check the availability of these to students with disabilities, and to…