In this paper, we examine the antecedents and consequences of timing in the transition from high school to college. Using the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), we find that 16 percent of high school graduates postpone enrollment by seven months or more after completing high school. Delayers tend to have some common…

In spite of the growing body of political and intellectual rhetoric regarding student success in the academy, the need has never been greater to redefine where the burden of responsibility lies to ensure such success. For the past 10 years, politicians, educators, policymakers and all the essential stakeholders in higher education have heralded…

While Chapman University's six-year graduation rate has been increasing steadily in the last few years, the institution continues to seek better ways to retain its students. Accordingly, our attention has focused on trying to identify freshman students who are more likely to be retained and those who are likely to depart college prior to degree…

Data mining of IPEDS data is used to develop models that calculate predicted graduation rates for two- and four-year institutions. (Contains 7 tables and 5 figures.)

Research shows that Latino students are grossly underrepresented in higher education. In this chapter, however, we show how family, community, and institutional partnerships can be an evidence-based practice for faculty and student affairs professionals who wish to increase Latino participation and graduation rates.

In looking at recent graduation rates reported by states, Latinos should be proud. For the 2002-03 school year, North Carolina reported a 94% graduation rate for Latinos, while New Mexico claimed an 89% rate, and Indiana, an 85% rate. Unfortunately, these numbers are not only deceptive, they are, according to the Education Trust, wrong. Under the…

The purpose of this study was to determine football coaches' perceptions about support services for two-year college student-athletes. A telephone interview was used to collect data about Personal Services, Career Services, and Academic Services that were available for football players at 33 two-year colleges in 11 states. All two-year colleges…

Few studies examine whether financial aid affects college retention. This paper uses University of Oregon data to examine financial aid's affect on retention net of uniquely detailed enrollee attributes and conditioned on unobserved enrollee attributes identified by jointly modeling retention and enrollment. The results show that need- and…

Amid growing criticism of public universities, there is little discussion of what appropriate institutional evaluation would entail. Six-year graduation rates are commonly used, and public bachelors granting institutions have lower rates than private institutions, but with the growth in non-traditional college attendance, these can be misleading.…

The question addressed in this paper is whether there are signs that students' progression through high school to graduation has been affected by the efforts to increase school accountability, including high-stakes exit exams. If such accountability systems were able to raise student academic performance significantly in elementary and middle…

What steps are needed to be taken to rebuild public investment in America's higher education? In this article, the author offers three actions which he believes the US higher education community must collectively embrace and suggests that the higher education community should also learn to speak with a common voice. To help put that idea into…

According to a February 9, 2006 "New York Times" story headlined, "Panel Explores Standard Tests for Colleges," a new accountability era is descending upon a resistant higher education domain. The story describes the deliberations of a Bush-appointed commission considering imposition of standardized tests on college students. Ten days earlier, the…

A long-standing concern of many colleges and universities are low persistence and graduation rates. This study examined how institutions can affect, and potentially improve, persistence and graduation rates by targeting their expenditures toward those activities that have an affect on persistence and graduation. Framed by Tinto's theory of…

State Education Agencies (SEAs) lead the charge for effective change, impact, and sustainability in the adoption and implementation of programs and practices that promote school completion. Steps taken by state and local education agencies to decrease dropout include (a) collection, analysis, and public reporting of "dropout" rates and related…

Recent research shows that variation in teacher quality has large effects on student performance. However, this research is based entirely on student test scores. Focusing on high-school math teachers, this paper evaluates teacher quality in terms of another educational outcome of great interest--graduation. I use a unique instrumental variables…