State Compensatory Education is a supplemental program in Texas designed to eliminate disparities in (a) student performance on assessment instruments administered under chapter 39 of the Texas Education Code (1995, amended 2007), and (b) the rates of high school completion between students who are at risk of dropping out of school, as defined by…

School administrators and teachers are often implicated, when the topic of dropouts and low graduation rates arises, for their alleged failure to make schools effectively engaging for students and their families. However, this may be simplifying a situation that is comprised of many complexities. Even an amply inspiring school program may not…

In an effort to reduce failure and attrition rates to increase on-time program completion and graduation rates, many schools are adopting a policy of assigning minimum grades. While justifications supporting the policy are often mathematical in nature, some proponents also claim the practice works to keep students motivated, hopeful, confident and…

Documenting student outcomes is a priority for higher education institutions. Federally-mandated graduation rates are often used as the sole measure of student success. However, this measure fails to document outcomes for students with multiple educational objectives and career paths. Driven by this challenge, the City Colleges of Chicago…

By explicitly naming education as one of three top priority areas in his first joint congressional address and in his first federal budget proposal, President Barack Obama is putting considerable political weight--and even more money--behind the agenda he laid out during his campaign. Certain themes he struck in the February 24…

What does it mean to be "successful" in higher education? For some in mainstream society, the value is placed on the financial status gained from a university education. Governments and university administration measure success through graduation rates. While the economic and social benefits of a university education are also important…

An analysis of spending trends that is designed to discourage policy makers' focus on finding new revenue rather than reining in spending suggests that the model for financing colleges has reinforced educational inequities and failed to increase the rate at which students graduate. According to the analysis, "serious fault lines" in the current…

This document presents statistics about higher education in Maryland for 2014. The tables in this document are presented according to the following categories: (1) Students; (2) Retention and Graduation; (3) Degrees; (4) Faculty; (5) Revenues & Expenditures; (6) Tuition and Fees; (7) Financial Aid, (8) Private Career Schools, and (9) Distance…

A pair of economists at the College of William and Mary have devised a new way of comparing colleges' graduation rates--a method, borrowed from business analysis, that they believe is fairer and more useful than the techniques used by "U.S. News & World Report" and the Education Trust. That general technique of regression analysis underlies the…

Latino student access to higher education has received significant national attention in recent years. This article describes a theory-based evaluation approach used with ENLACE of Hillsborough, a 5-year project funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for the purpose of increasing Latino student graduation from high school and college. Theory-based…

American higher education absorbs a larger share of GDP than that of other countries, but it has not produced a particularly high proportion of college graduates. College graduation rates are actually worse than the very low benchmark of high school graduation rates, but higher education institutions are not held accountable. The author writes…

This report presents comprehensive and detailed information on grades 7-12 dropout rates and on high school graduation rates in the Central Region. Dropout and graduation rates are presented for the region as a whole and for each state in the region, by gender, race/ethnicity, locale, and grade. The rates provide a comprehensive reference for…

As key players in the school, professional school counselors have many roles and tasks however not all are trained with the same curriculum. In the state of Georgia, school counselor training is becoming more similar than different because all university system programs are mandated by the Board of Regents (BOR) to become accredited by the Council…

South Dakota has many things to be proud of: Its students consistently outperform their peers on national assessments. The state has a high graduation rate, and it ranks among the top states in the nation for students going on to postsecondary. Credit for these achievements goes to the state's local school districts. This annual report covers key…

This paper offers a list of questions and corresponding answers about the 4-year cohort graduation rate. Answers to the following questions are presented: (1) Why don't GED (General Educational Development) students count as graduates?; (2) How does a district code students who have moved out of state? How should a district code a student who…