The National School Boards Association (NSBA) and the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) are pleased to present a copy of the fourth annual Jacqueline P. Danzberger Memorial Lecture, presented at NSBA's Annual Conference (March 2004). The lecturer, Mrs. Melinda French Gates, Co-Founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, asserted…

Raising graduation rates for students attending schools in the United States is a national priority. As part of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools are required to track and report the percentage of students who graduate with a regular diploma in four years. The magnitude of the problem for student subgroups (including students of Hispanic and…

This brief reports on WestEd's review of California's graduation rate. It examines the methodological debate, provides comparisons between California and other states, and shows California results by race and ethnicity (including data from several of the state's large school districts). Finally, it draws three conclusions: (1) the state's…

This issue of California Counts explores educational resources and outcomes across racial and ethnic groups in the state. Family and school resources, student outcomes, and public policy initiatives affecting California's students from early childhood through university are examined. Several factors that potentially contribute to racial and ethnic…

Compares segmentation modeling and logistic regression with regard to a longitudinal study of graduation rates at Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute. Suggests that segmentation modeling is as effective as the regression techniques in terms of predictive ability, but that segmentation modeling offers a distinct advantage in…

Tracked five cohorts of first-year students for 6 years to determine how many, by gender and race, were academically suspended, how many of those returned, and of those who returned, how many graduated. Found that a greater percentage of males than females and Black than White students were academically suspended. Minority males were the most…

Studied prediction of college freshman performance and graduation in U.S. colleges by examining aggregated data at the institutional level for 1,429 4-year institutions. Results suggest that persistence to graduation as a characteristic of student populations at a college can be predicted better than persistence at the individual level at a given…

Major national policy statements driving the school reform movement ignore potential of interscholastic athletic programs for improving public education. A decline in public support for athletics, the "back to basics" movement, and athletics' traditional financial vulnerability point to an uncertain future. Research shows that athletic programs…

To determine the impact on the academic mission, the models in this study test whether there is statistical evidence that student graduation rates or alumni giving rates are influenced by pigskin or hoop success for major universities after adjustment for key academic variables. Using a sample of big-time sports universities and models comparable…

Many institutions of higher education increasingly are concerned with retention and graduation rates. Focusing on private Baccalaureate Liberal and General colleges and universities, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between institutional selectivity and institutional expenditures and retention and graduation rates. Framed…

Newark's image has begun to change in recent years. High-profile construction projects downtown and a boom in new housing have been among the visible signs of change. Improvements on measures of child and family well-being have added to the impression of the city moving in a positive direction. Child poverty rates fell in recent years. Incomes…

Over the past decade, charter schools have been among the fastest-growing segments of the K-12 education sector in Chicago and across the country. In this report, the authors examine the following issues related to charter schools (1) Are charter schools attracting high- or low-achieving students and do transfers affect the racial mix in the…

What are states doing to improve graduation rates? A requester asked a state scan matrix of Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states or other states with similar student demographics, and other states with exemplary programs with great successes. This paper responds to this request.

The public educates children because of our common interest in ensuring that children become responsible and productive adults and to provide an opportunity to every child to achieve their potential. Unfortunately, several national studies show that we aren't doing a good job educating foster children. Foster children have lower test scores, lower…

This author reports that, among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later. While four-year colleges admit and take money from hundreds of thousands of such students each year, the students who…