This new Iowa Kids Count data book, "Iowa Kids Count 2008: Trends in the Well-Being of Iowa Children," is the latest annually produced book containing data on 18 different indicators of child and family well-being for the United States, Iowa and its 99 counties. The 18 indicators provide a wealth of health, education, welfare and…

This research is a follow up to a similar study published by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania in 2003 in which researchers examined alternative education policies and practices among Pennsylvania school districts. The current study extended the previous research to include information on the perceptions of administrators and teachers on the…

When this research report was first conceived, the current economic crisis was only just on the verge of revealing its full extent. Economic crisis or no economic crisis, over the years funding for PK-12 education has been a constant struggle. While all schools continue to face difficulties, for various reasons rural schools have different and…

Education policy discussions often assume that public school teachers are poorly paid. Typically absent in these discussions about teacher pay, however, is any reference to systematic data on how much public school teachers are actually paid, especially relative to other occupations. Because discussions about teacher pay rarely reference these…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Bill Gates Testifies Before Senate Committee: Microsoft Chairman Pushes for High School Reform, Says Every Child…

The Council on Postsecondary Education is directed by statute to provide the Governor and the members of the General Assembly an annual accountability report on Kentucky's postsecondary education system. The report documents system-wide and institutional progress in advancing the Public Agenda and the mandates of the Kentucky Postsecondary…

This report identifies the number of students that transition to public post-secondary within four years after high school graduation. The report also considers the effect on transition rates of academic GPA, post-secondary programs of study, completion rates, attendance patterns and student retention and movement within the public post-secondary…

This report provides data and information relating to the Palmetto Fellows, LIFE, and SC HOPE Scholarships, and the Lottery Tuition Assistance and the SC Need-based Grant Programs. The primary purpose of the Palmetto Fellows Scholarship is to recognize the most academically talented high school seniors in South Carolina and to encourage them to…

The "No Child Left Behind Act", a sequel to "Goals 2000", is designed to enact the theories of standards-based education reform which is predicated on the belief that high expectations and setting of goals will result in success for all students. This article highlights the major provisions provided in the framework of…

Supplemental instruction classes have been shown in many studies to enhance performance in the supported courses and even to improve graduation rates. Generally, there has been little evidence of a differential impact on students from different ethnic/racial backgrounds. At San Francisco State University, however, supplemental instruction in the…

Background/Context: Although increasing numbers of scholars have begun to focus on student experiences, research on the history of underrepresented populations' transition to college is still in its formative stage. The classic histories of higher education have tended to focus on university infrastructure and intellectual life rather than on…

Background: There is an emerging corpus of work on the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on education in sub-Saharan Africa. This mainly employs demographic models to make projections of student enrolments and teacher requirements. However, there is a paucity of research in basic schools to examine the experiences of AIDS-affected teachers and…

NCES (1996) reported that almost one-third of all students entering colleges and universities are unprepared for college coursework and therefore required to enroll in developmental courses. This study focused on developmental and regular mathematics courses at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Using final mathematics grades from the…

Every year, across the country, a dangerously high percentage of students--disproportionately poor and minority--disappear from the educational pipeline before graduating from high school. Nationally, only about 68% of all students who enter 9th grade will graduate "on time" with regular diplomas in 12th grade. While the graduation rate…

The National Governors' Association is urging states to develop a standardized cohort graduation rate definition and to develop data systems with quality data that can in turn be used to produce a reliable indicator. This paper is an examination of one state's graduation rate using the cohort method. The statistics generated are compared to a…