Urban public school districts in the U.S. vary in quality. Educational policies, distribution of resources, and the challenges that students bring to the classroom differ substantially across localities. Little surprise, then, that academic outcomes--such as high school graduation rates and average school performance on standardized…

Stagnation or promise? The third and final installment of "Quality Counts 2019" offers evidence for both in an annual summing up of the nation's K-12 system. The Education Week Research Center analyzed dozens of factors ranging from the academic to the socioeconomic in coming up with its all-inclusive state rankings and A-F grades. The…

The 2019 edition of "The State We're In" measures Illinois' educational performance from early childhood through postsecondary. It tracks how students have performed over the past decade and how that performance compares with students in other states. To assess how well Illinois educates its students, the report tracks roughly 80 metrics…

The My Brother's Keeper (MBK) Challenge developed by President Obama supports communities that promote civic initiatives designed to improve the educational and economic opportunities specifically for young men of color. In Oakland, California, the MBK educational initiative features the African American Male Achievement (AAMA) program. The AAMA…

The Young Women's Preparatory Network (YWPN) is a private foundation that supports single-sex, college preparatory schools throughout Texas. Over the past fifteen years, the organization has worked through public-private partnerships to establish and support public, all-girls secondary schools in districts across Texas. This study evaluated the…

The Guam Department of Education (GDOE) is a single unified and accredited school district consisting of Kindergarten through 12th grade which administers Head Start, pre-Kindergarten GATE programs, and is piloting pre-Kindergarten classes at selected schools. Their 26 elementary, 8 middle, 6 high and 1 alternative schools serve about 30,000…

We examine the effect of admission to 16 stand-alone technical high schools within the Connecticut Technical High School System (CTHSS) on student educational and labor market outcomes. To identify the causal effect of admission on student outcomes, we exploit the fact that CTHSS utilizes a score-based admissions system and identify the effect of…

This paper provides the first causal evidence on the impact of college advisor quality on student outcomes. To do so, we exploit a unique setting where students are randomly assigned to faculty advisors during their first year of college. We find that higher advisor value-added (VA) substantially improves freshman year GPA, time to complete…

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) prepares an annual report on graduates and dropouts in Texas public secondary schools. This report includes state summaries of the annual dropout rate, longitudinal graduation and dropout rates, and state attrition rates. In addition to statewide statistics, the report provides historical information about dropout…

Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) conducted original research on an often-overlooked group of students--parents with children--as they struggle to make ends meet while pursuing academic degrees and certificates. Student parents often face enormous financial barriers to academic success. They report high financial insecurity including…

This data book profiles noteworthy academic events, trends and outcomes at the state and complex-area level. It includes tables, figures and narrative sections related to demographic, financial and educational performance. A list of references and resources is provided. [For "Hawaii Department of Education Data Book, 2021. 32nd Annual…

TransferBOOST (Bachelor's Opportunity Options that are Straightforward and Transparent) is a multi-year state-level initiative developed to provide students with affordable, quality, well-supported two- to four-year pathways. For every 100 students who enroll in community colleges, 31 students transfer to a four-year institution. Of those, only 15…

Our 2022-23 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report shares our work during the last school year, overseeing thirteen schools that served approximately 6,000 students in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati and Portsmouth, Ohio. We value this opportunity to keep stakeholders and the public informed about our efforts, provide information on each of the schools we…

The "South Carolina Higher Education Statistical Abstract" is a comprehensive, single-source compilation of tables and graphs which report data frequently requested by the governor, legislators, college and university staff, other state government officials, and the general public. The 2023 edition of the Statistical Abstract marks the…

The past three decades have seen charter schools emerge as a prominent and controversial alternative to traditional public schools. This policy brief examines "Thirty Years of Charter Schools: What Does Lottery-Based Research Tell Us?" which summarizes 40 studies that have used lottery research designs to analyze how charter schools…