People have a habit of taking international comparisons of various aspects of higher education that are produced in--to put it gently--dubious ways, and delighting in their terrible and/or falling position. It's time to cease and desist this self-flaggelatory habit. Even rhetorically, as a goad to improve, the statements have been uttered so often…

The American K-12 grade education system is experiencing a truancy crisis. Nationally, 15%, or 7.5 million students, miss an entire month of school annually [1], with that rate frequently doubling or even tripling among students from underserved communities [2]. Research has identified attendance as one of three primary indicators of high school…

The purpose of this study is to explore how campus climate, ethnic group cohesion and cross cultural interaction influence Filipino American college students' sense of belonging in college. Specifically, we examine the impact of three environmental and behavioral factors on students' sense of belonging: 1) campus racial climate, 2) ethnic group…

In his first inaugural speech, President Obama declared that "our schools fail too many" and an essential component of laying "a new foundation for growth" will be "to transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age." Concerns about our nation's position in the global education race have led to a focus on…

This paper examines the relationship between excellence scholarships and research productivity, scientific impact, and degree completion. Drawing on the entire population of doctoral students in the province of Quebec, this pa- per analyzes three distinct sources of data: students, excellence scholarships, and scientific publications. It shows…

Have efforts to improve schools neglected high achievers? A growing chorus of critics is voicing concern for the achievement gap, but not the gap between well-to-do and poor students, or white and non-white students. The gap that most worries them is the one between U.S. students and students in other industrialized nations. Among the 34 nations…

This policy brief presents results from a random assignment evaluation of the City University of New York's Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). An ambitious and promising endeavor, ASAP provides a comprehensive array of services and supports to help community college students graduate and to help them graduate sooner. The evaluation…

Over the last decade, high school dropout rates have declined to single digits nationally. However, the U.S. only ranks 22nd in high school graduation rates and 14th in college attainment among industrialized countries. Furthermore, graduation gaps persist among students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and minority racial groups. Reducing…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the Tennessee State University (TSU) fall 2005 Freshmen Cohort (N = 1205) based on the variables of race, gender, persistence, retention and graduation, as well as to examine the impact of the newly implemented Complete College Tennessee Act's (CCTA) funding formula component on the university's budget…

The purpose of this study was to look at mission driven school district leadership in Massachusetts public schools and attempt to identify any relationship, or lack thereof, between district mission statements and student achievement. In this study, 288 Massachusetts public school districts are ranked according to their 2011 high school graduation…

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were essentially two types of organizational structures for primary and secondary education in the United States. There were either one-room K-12 schools or in larger systems K-8 buildings feeding into four-year high schools. Despite numerous experiments since then in reconfiguring schools resulting in a…

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has released a new publication titled "High School Graduation: State Policies Driving Transparency and Success." The report describes recent state actions aimed at ensuring all students graduate from high school college-and career-ready, and policy issues such as graduation rate…

Recent stories of soaring student debt levels and under-placed college graduates have caused some to question whether a college education is still a sound investment. In this paper, we review the literature on the returns to higher education in an attempt to determine who benefits from college. Despite the tremendous heterogeneity across potential…

Adult students are enrolling in postsecondary educational programs in record numbers, but many are not completing their programs. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the perceptions of adult students enrolled in a nontraditional undergraduate evening program at a selected liberal arts college to gain insights into the factors…

This quantitative, cross-sectional correlational study sought to explore whether the perceived caring behaviors of online nursing faculty were related to students' intent to persist in the educational program. A quantitative, cross-sectional correlational survey methodology was employed to assess student perception of online faculty caring…