Researchers increasingly have access to two types of data: (i) large observational datasets where treatment (e.g., class size) is not randomized but several primary outcomes (e.g., graduation rates) and secondary outcomes (e.g., test scores) are observed and (ii) experimental data in which treatment is randomized but only secondary outcomes are…

Many students who enter college do not finish, reflecting numerous academic, financial, and social barriers to postsecondary completion. Success Boston Coaching (SBC) provides students in the Greater Boston area with coaching during their first 2 years of college to help them overcome barriers to postsecondary completion and connect them to…

This study examines the influence of Black faculty representation on the graduation rates of Black students, with a particular focus on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Although HBCUs are only a small fraction of U.S. higher education institutions, they play an outsized role in the academic and economic success of Black…

People's quality of life and opportunities for activity are influenced by their surrounding environments. A substantial body of literature on the positive effects of nature and greenery has emerged during the last 50 years. Additional research has focused on other types of environmental qualities. While some Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs)…

This study explores the association between having a transit stop within walking distance of campus and Pell Grant recipient completion rates at US commuter institutions, using a novel dataset on transit stop locations and institutional level data. The findings indicate that there is a positive association between transit access and Pell…

The observed decline in academic performance among 15-year-old students, as reported by recent OECD-PISA surveys, alongside the democratisation of university admissions, points to a potential decrease in the marginal academic proficiency of incoming higher education students. Paradoxically, grades at the tertiary level have either remained stable…

Curricular design in higher education significantly impacts student success and institutional performance. However, academic programs' complexity--shaped by pass rates, prerequisite dependencies, and course repeat policies--creates challenges for administrators. This paper presents a method for modeling curricular pathways including development of…

In the United States, both education policy and education research tend to conflate remote contexts with rural contexts or fail to define rural at all. Remote is subsumed within the broader conceptualization of rural and so is assumed to be covered by rural-focused research. As a response to the priorities outlined in the National Rural Education…

This paper summarises exploratory analysis undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of using machine learning approaches to calculate projected completion rates for vocational education and training (VET) programs, and compares this with the current approach used at the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) -- Markov chains…

This study utilized a retrospective, population-based cohort of administrative records of 167,319 children who attended school in British Columbia, Canada. The outcomes of standardized English, math, and science exam scores, as well as high school graduation were examined. The associations between poverty and educational outcomes at high school…

In 2015, the City University of New York (CUNY) launched a new program-- Accelerate, Complete, and Engage (ACE)--aimed at improving college graduation rates. A prior randomized-control evaluation of the program found a nearly 12 percentage point increase in graduation five years after college entry. Using this impact estimate and national data on…

In this article, the authors sought to discover if participation in formal debate programs translates into better academic achievement and attainment for students. First, individual debaters' reading and math test scores over time were looked at and students were compared to themselves in years when they did and did not participate in debate. The…

Objective: Policymakers in many states are endeavoring to increase graduation rates among older community college students. However, we know little about how the factors that influence college completion among older students differ from their younger peers. We aim to identify features of institutional contexts in which adult community college…

Despite evidence that informational interventions can influence K-12 school choices, we know little about the mechanisms through which they work and the factors that produce heterogeneity in student responses. Through a school-level randomized controlled trial conducted in 473 New York City middle schools serving 115,000 eighth graders, we…

This cross-sectional, observational study examined how school-level academic performance and enrollment in the physical sciences (Earth science, chemistry, and physics) mediate the predictive value of socioeconomic status on graduation rate in U.S. high schools. Data were collected from N = 555 schools (475,539 students) that reported enrollment…