The Southern Regional Education Board is a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively with Georgia and 15 other member states to improve education at every level--from pre-K to postdoctoral study--through many effective programs and initiatives. SREB's "Challenge to Lead" Goals for Education, which call for the region to lead the…

This new Iowa Kids Count data book, "Iowa Kids Count 2008: Trends in the Well-Being of Iowa Children," is the latest annually produced book containing data on 18 different indicators of child and family well-being for the United States, Iowa and its 99 counties. The 18 indicators provide a wealth of health, education, welfare and…

This research is a follow up to a similar study published by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in 2003 in which researchers examined alternative education policies and practices among Pennsylvania school districts. The current study extended the previous research to include information on the perceptions of administrators and teachers on the…

When this research report was first conceived, the current economic crisis was only just on the verge of revealing its full extent. Economic crisis or no economic crisis, over the years funding for PK-12 education has been a constant struggle. While all schools continue to face difficulties, for various reasons rural schools have different and…

Students entering the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as freshmen in 1967-72 were followed for approximately six years after their initial enrollment to determine the number who received their bachelor's degrees from the institution. For all six freshmen classes combined, 49.9 percent received their degrees within four years, 64.8…

Through a series of tables, this document presents a profile of the system of higher education in Mississippi. The first section focuses on finances, with tables portraying the history of funding for higher education in Mississippi, appropriations per student, faculty salaries, and information on operating budgets and tuition and fees. The next…

The purpose of this study is to describe federal legislation and programs that support higher education and to assess Latino participation in these programs. While there are many programs at the state, institutional, and community levels that facilitate access to higher education for Latinos, the Higher Education Act (HEA), due for reauthorization…

This summary is based on the findings of the full-length report, "Graduation and Dropout Trends in Chicago: A Look at Cohorts of Students from 1991 through 2004." The report was written to disseminate accurate and detailed information on student outcomes in Chicago's public schools. This summary includes information on how the rates in…

Each year our college system gives twice as many bachelor's degrees (BAs) to African American females as males. Large gender gaps favoring women also exist for other groups. Indeed, on average our college system gives 35% more BAs to females than males across all racial and ethnic groups. Traditional explanations for this pattern have focused on…

Iowa's educational system is defined by the strong working relationship between the local school districts and area education agencies. Local districts provide the instructional program and area education agencies provide support services. Area education agencies (AEAs) were created in order to provide equity in the provision of programs and…

Although numerous quality ratings exist in today's media-centric environment (Money Magazine, and U.S. News and World Report, etc.), it is quite difficult to provide any reasonably meaningful estimates of institutional quality, either qualitative or quantitative. Global ratings of university "quality" abound, despite the fact that there…

This report was designed to examine the influence of a growing Latino enrollment in Minnesota's public schools. Using data from the Minnesota Department of Education, the authors observed that while overall enrollment numbers in Minnesota have declined approximately 3% since 2001, Latino enrollment actually grew by more than 38% during this same…

This information brief highlights the graduation rates for full-time first-time-in-college students in Florida's State University System (SUS) institutions as well above the national average for public four-year colleges, based on early release data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Of those who entered the SUS as…

This information brief examines four factors contributing to Florida's overall high graduation rates in public four-year institutions: (1) Graduation rates for the largest race/ethnic groups were higher than for the nation as a whole; (2) The gaps between racial/ethnic groups were smaller than in the nation as a whole; (3) Florida's largest…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) began, upon its institution in 2002, to hold states more directly accountable for the progress of all students, including students of color and students of low socioeconomic status (SES). These groups of students have historically performed less well than their White or upper-class peers. In 2001, prior…