12 for 2012 - 12 for 2012 is an ECS “read of the field,” built on our scrutiny of new reports and research, and our analysis of emerging drivers of change. The 12 policy areas do not represent an exhaustive list of the critical issues for the coming year, nor is this report intended to dictate your education policy priorities for 2012. Rather, 12 for 2012 is intended to stimulate thinking around how best to craft the “2.0” of powerful policy across the states. (ECS, 2012)...

Committing to College Completion: A National Agenda to Improve Postsecondary Attainment and Workforce Readiness - Hear what Hilary Pennington had to say about postsecondary completion at the 2011 ECS National Forum on Education Policy. ...

The Progress of Education Reform: Investing in College Completion PDF - This issue of The Progress of Education Reform summarizes recent research that may challenge conventional wisdom on how and where public resources for postsecondary education should be dedicated in an effort to increase college completion rates. Questions to be examined include: 1) How did changes in enrollments and the allocation of resources result in declining college completion rates in the United States? 2) Does shifting enrollments to community colleges save money in the long run? and 3) Can investments in student services rather than instruction increase college completion? (Bruce Vandal, Education Commission of the States, August 2010)...

What Impacts Student Success in College Persistence and Completion? PDF - This Research Review is a compilation of research study summaries that address postsecondary success and completion. The recent studies address topics such as: transfer rates, pathways to degrees, declining completion rates and student engagement. (Molly Ryan, August 2010) ...

Community College Success: Is It a Path to Opportunity? PDF - This issue of the Progress of Education Reform looks at the latest research on student success in community colleges and offers insights on the strategies that show the most promise in promoting greater educational attainment for community college students. (Bruce Vandal, The Progress of Education Reform, vol. 9, no. 5, Education Commission of the States, September 2008)...

College Persistence and Completion: What impacts student success? - Access related research titles from the ECS Research Studies Database. Links embedded in titles will take you to each study's major findings and recommendations....

Postsecondary Education - See the Institute for Education Sciences' What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) for recommendations on postsecondary education. The WWC reviews the research on the different programs, products, practices, and policies in education. Then, by focusing on the results from high-quality research, they try to answer the question “What works in education?” The goal is to provide educators with the information they need to make evidence-based decisions. (WWC, September 2013)...

A Stronger Nation through Higher Education: Visualizing Data to Help Us Achieve a Big Goal for College Attainment - Detailed data arrays describe degree attainment at the national, state and county levels in this annual report. Data for each of the nation's 100 most populous metropolitan regions also are provided along with breakdowns of the attainment data including race and ethnicity. Selective printing advised: over 200 pages.(Lumina, June 2013)...

Community College Penalty and Bachelor's Degree Completion: Fact or Fiction? - Part of a series of reports tracking Illinois college students' postsecondary outcomes longitudinally from 2003 through 2010, this study matched students who transferred from Illinois community colleges to students who entered and matriculated through Illinois four-year institutions to determine if there was a disadvantage for transfer students in terms of bachelor's degree completion. Policy implications with regards to community college transfer students and the Illinois longitudinal data system are presented. (Eric J. Lichtenberger and Cecile Dietrich, Illinois Education Research Council, May 2013)...

Cost of College Attrition at Four-Year Colleges & Universities - Here is a first-time look at the relationship between attrition and lost revenues of 1,669 four-year public, private and for-profit colleges and universities. Each time a student leaves, school revenue from tuition is lost. Collectively, these institutions of higher learning lose close to $16.5 billion annually. Publicly assisted colleges and universities averaged $13,267,214. Surveyed students gave four reasons for leaving which accounted for 84% of attrition: college doesn't care, poor service and treatment, not worth it, and schedule (not being able to find courses at times that fit their needs). All 1,669 institutions are listed with attrition rates and amounts of lost revenue. Caution! Study is 269 pages long. Readers should look online for the attrition rates of colleges that interest them. (Neal Raisman, Educational Policy Institute, February 2013)...

Advancing to Completion: Increasing degree attainment by improving graduation rates and closing gaps for African-American students - Some U.S. colleges are making the grade for African-American students. Instead of settling for lower success rates, they are taking responsibility for helping more black students graduate. This report shows that colleges and universities across the country are generating positive outcomes for African Americans. The report outlines strategies used by the colleges making great strides in improving their outcomes for African-American students. (The Education Trust, September 2012)...

Advancing to Completion: Increasing degree attainment by improving graduation rates and closing gaps for Hispanic students - Some U.S. colleges are making the grade for Latino students; instead of settling for lower success rates, they are taking responsibility for helping more Latino students graduate. This study shows that institutions across the country are producing stronger outcomes for Latinos. The report outlines strategies used by the colleges making great strides in improving their outcomes for Latino students. (The Education Trust, September 2012)...

Strategies for Success: Promising Ideas in Adult College Completion - This publication is the first of a series focusing on promising new ideas and innovative practices developed through the Adult College Completion Network. The brief addresses five topics of importance to those working to improve adult college completion: 1) Data availability particular to the returning adult population; 2) Partnerships between employers and higher education institutions; 3) Communications and marketing campaigns to reach and reengage adults with prior college credit; 4) Transfer credits; 5) Prior learning assessment.(WICHE, August 2012)...

Going the Distance in Adult College Completion: Lessons from the Non-traditional No More Project - This report details promising practices at the state and institutional levels aimed at bringing adults with some college but no degree back to complete their degrees. (WICHE, June 2012)...

A Stronger Nation Through Higher Education: How and Why Americans Must Achieve a Big Goal for College Attainment - A special report from the Lumina Foundation provides a report card on the nation’s effort to work toward 60 percent of Americans having a high-quality postsecondary credential by the year 2025. Using the most recent Census data (2010), the authors provide detailed breakdowns of college-attainment data for each state. (Lumina Foundation, March 2012)...

A Matter of Degrees: Promising Practices for Community College Success - Community colleges are increasingly aware of the need to substantially increase the completion of certificates and degrees. But there now is unprecedented urgency for this work because having more successful community college graduates is essential to sustaining our local and national economies as well as maintaining strong communities with engaged citizens. This report describes 13 promising practices in community colleges. (CCCSE, 2012)...

Completing College: Assessing Graduation Rates at Four-Year Institutions - This report on graduate rates from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI; U.S.) reiterates the need to take into account the characteristics of students that enroll in different types of colleges. Previous HERI findings and this current study indicate that a large portion of what predicts graduation in four, five, or six years can be found in the characteristics of the incoming class. (Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, November 2011)...

Pathway to Recovery: Implementing a Back on Track Through College Model - National youth-serving networks, low-income school districts, and community colleges are all on the front lines of helping disconnected youth gain the education and skills they need to contribute to a productive workforce and to rebuild our communities. This paper highlights one such effort to create Back on Track pathways, the Postsecondary Success Initiative, launched in 2008. (Jobs for the Future, November 2011)...

New Measures, New Perspectives: Graduates' Time- and Credits-to-Degree in SREB States - This report introduces the latest new measures on college completion, distinguishes them from graduation rate measures, and reports the first results on time-to-degree and credits-to-degree. It also provides information on the characteristics of graduates, focusing primarily on their beginning status at the institutions from which they graduated. (SREB, Nov 2011)...

A Guide to Major U.S. College Completion Initiatives - Spurred by President Obama’s goal to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020, a large number of organizations have recently adopted a “college completion agenda” and have undertaken a wide variety of initiatives to boost college completion. This paper provides background information on the topic and summarizes 13 major college completion projects. The origins for each completion initiative are briefly discussed, as are the associated funding partners, key goals and objectives, accomplishments achieved and time frame for future plans. (Alene Russell, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, October 2011)...

Crossing the Finish Line: A National Effort to Address Near Completion - In this brief, IHEP lays out a framework through which higher education leaders, federal and state policymakers, institutional administrators, and private sector executives can effectively address near completion as part of the larger call for accomplishing America’s goal to increase the number and diversity of people who complete college. IHEP’s agenda focuses on dealing with four issues that impede the success of near completers: (1) Recruitment, (2) Assessment, (3) Affordability, and (4) Recognition of Completion. (Institute for Higher Education Policy, October 2011)...

The Road Ahead: A Look at Trends in the Educational Attainment of Community College Students - This brief presents data on educational attainment at community colleges, with an eye toward what the data portend. One extremely positive conclusion can be reached: Educational attainment for all key populations is increasing at community colleges. The investment made in a community college education, by individuals and by society as a whole, is paying off. (Christopher Mullin, American Association of Community Colleges, October 2011)...

The Undereducated American - Following analyses of wage data for the past thirty years, this report confirms that policies that promote access to postsecondary education and encourage completion of college are essential for our economic future. Moreover, the undersupply of college-educated workers has led to the dramatic rise in income inequality over the last thirty years. (Anthony Carnevale and Stephen Rose, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, June 2011)...

Developing 20/20 Vision on the 2020 Degree Attainment Goal: The Threat of Income-Based Inequality in Education - To achieve the Obama Administration’s 2020 goal of once again becoming the nation with the largest share of college-educated citizens, federal education policy must focus with clarity --that is develop “20/20 vision”-- on the challenges that poverty has on the educational pursuits of our youth. (Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, May 2011)...

College Completion Tool Kit - The College Completion Toolkit provides information that governors and other state leaders can use to help colleges in their state increase their completion rates. It highlights key strategies and offers models to learn from, as well as other useful resources. (U.S. Department of Education, March 2011)...

Opening Doors to Student Success: A Synthesis of Findings From An Evaluation at Six Community Colleges - This report discusses strategies that colleges use to expand their programs while working to improve their quality. (MDRC, March 2011)...

Shining a Light on College Remediation in Colorado: The Predictive Utility of the ACT for Colorado and the Colorado Student Assessment Program - These findings suggest that a strategy of targeting efforts to improve all students' academic skills across all subgroups (ethnicity, socioeconomic status, students with disabilities) before they graduate from high school and enter postsecondary institutions, the workforce or the military could potentially reduce the amount of remediation required in postsecondary institutions. (Colorado Department of Education, March 2011)...

Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2009; Graduation Rates, 2003 and 2006 Cohorts; and Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2009--First Look - This First Look report presents findings from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System spring 2010 data collection. This collection included five components: (1) Student Financial Aid for full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students for the 2009-10 academic year; (2) Enrollment for fall 2009; (3) Graduation Rates within 150% of normal program completion time for full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students beginning college in 2003 at 4-year institutions or in 2006 at less-than-4-year institutions; (4) Graduation Rates within 200% of normal program completion time for full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students beginning college in 2001 at 4-year institutions or in 2005 at less-than-4-year institutions; and (5) Finance for fiscal year 2009. (Laura Knapp, Janice Kelly-Reid and Scott Ginder, National Center for Education Statistics,...

Effective Basic Skills Instruction: The Case for Contextualized Developmental Math - Recent research on students entering California community colleges found that less than 10% of students entering at the basic arithmetic or pre-algebra math level successfully complete college-level math. Overall, fewer than 20% complete a college-level math course, earn a certificate, degree or transfer to a four-year university within six years. In 2006 regulations were changed to strengthen the core curriculum for the California community colleges associate degree. Many occupationally-focused and "contextualized" math courses were eliminated. These integrated courses often focus on the mathematics required in specific occupations, starting with basic arithmetic or pre-algebra and progressing into intermediate algebra, and have significantly higher success rates than traditional math courses. Unfortunately, these contextualized courses were eliminated as they no longer meet the requirements for the associate degree. But the low success rates that are common in remedial math courses in the academic model mean that few students will be able to acquire the occupational skills necessary to complete an advanced occupational course, certificate or degree. (PACE, January 2011)...

Redesigning Community Colleges for Completion: Lessons from Research on High-Performance Organizations - This paper examines available research on the practices of high-performance organizations and goes on to assess the extent to which community colleges follow these practices. The paper evaluates current reform efforts in light of models of organizational effectiveness that emerge from the research literature. Jenkins goes on to look at research on strategies for engaging faculty and staff in organizational innovation. Finally, the last section recommends concrete steps community college leaders can take to redesign how they manage programs and services to increase rates of student completion. (Davis Jenkins, Community College Research Center, January 2011)...

More is Less: Extra Time Does Little to Boost College Grad Rates - Since 1991, the federal government has requires colleges to track and report graduation rates for first-time, full-time degree- or certificate-seeking students. In 2008, the federal government moved to extend the graduation time frame to 200 percent of time enrolled. Despite the addition of as many as two years to the measurement window, institutions overall showed only modest increases in their graduation rate. Two-year institutions showed the greatest gain (31.4% to 36.7%) Four-year institutions registered the smallest gains (a change of only 2.8%). (Education Sector, December 2010)...

Strengthening College Opportunity and Performance: Federal, State and Institutional Leadership - This policy report from the Dela Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, NCHEMS and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education argues that the lofty college completion goal that has emerged as the closest thing to a national higher education strategy will not succeed without much more aggressive leadership than national, state and higher education leaders have shown so far. The paper provides action steps. (National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, December 2010)...

Winning by Degrees: The Strategies of Highly Productive Higher Education Institutions - Increasing the number of adults in this country with higher education degrees is critical to creating opportunities for individuals and for sustaining the country's economic growth. McKinsey's new research shows that it is possible to achieve significant increases in college attainment if the nation can apply five winning strategies already implemented by highly productive colleges and universities in the country: (1) systematically enabling students to reach graduation; (2) reducing nonproductive credits; (3) redesigning the delivery of instruction; (4) redesigning core support services; and (5) optimizing non-core services and other operations. All of which contribute to reducing cost per student. (McKinsey & Company, November 2010)...

Bringing Adults Back to College: Designing and Implementing a Statewide Concierge Model - A ready adult (or reentry) concierge is a single-point of contact at a college or university who helps returning adult students navigate the application, enrollment, and registration processes and overcome barriers to college success. To better understand the barriers faced by students in the reenrollment process and how the Concierge Model can help potential students reengage and earn a degree, WICHE collaborated with the Nevada System of Higher Education to convene a meeting of staff from each of the seven public institutions who serve as the campus concierge. This brief highlights effective strategies of ready adult concierges and provides a framework for those interested in implementing this model. (WICHE, November 2010)...

Immigrants and Visible Minorities: Post-Secondary Education Experiences - Among low-income college students, visible minority immigrants have a dropout rate in the first or second year of 17.1%, as compared to 25.5% (or almost 50% higher in relative terms) for non-immigrant, non-"vismin" students. The authors also find that despite their successes in postsecondary education, visible minorities--whether immigrant or not--are less likely than others to agree that "their faculty is helpful and sympathetic" and fewer say "their school is a place where they feel they belong". (Ross Finnie, Stephen Childs and Andrew Wismer, The MESA Project, November 2010)...

College Persistence and Completion Strategies: Opportunities for Scaling Up - An examination of academic literature, state policies and specific campus-based initiatives regarding higher education access and completion suggests that a great deal of work remains to be done to ensure broad-based academic success. The authors concluded that access is not enough —we need a new commitment to address persistence. Among their recommendations are expanding financial assistance, building on the Twenty-first Century Scholars Program, and targeting at-risk students. (Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, Fall 2010)...

No Time to Waste--Policy Recommendations for Increasing College Completion - This report challenges states to become national leaders in increasing college completion. The authors include ten major policy recommendations for states to pursue including setting specific goals for awarding more of each degree type and raising graduation rates; more attention to college costs and targeted financial aid; improving high school students’ readiness for college; new institutional practices to help more students succeed; greater efficiency in institutions’ operations and in students’ paths to degrees; bringing many more adults back to finish college; and more. (Southern Regional Education Board, September 2010)...

College Graduation Rates: Behind the Numbers - This report highlights the complexities of measuring what many policy makers view as a simple compliance metric with the existing national databases. Just because the existing databases used to calculate graduation rates were not designed with the current policy demands in mind does not render them useless. The databases referenced in this report provide valuable information on graduation rates, however users should take care in using them to measure the overall effectiveness of postsecondary education institutions. (Bryan Cook and Natalie Pullaro, American Council on Education, September 2010)...

Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating African-American Students - The authors dug beneath the averages and looked at data from individual institutions in their College Results Online database and found some institutions with horrendous graduation-rate gaps between black and white students. Other institutions have no gaps at all. This is not entirely about preparation and wide gaps are not inevitable. The authors analysis strongly suggests that what colleges do with and for the students they admit matters a great deal. (Mamie Lynch and Jennifer Engle, The Education Trust, August 2010)...

Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating Hispanic Students - This brief calls attention to the colleges and universities that are serving Hispanic students well, as evidenced by small or nonexistent graduation-rate gaps between Hispanic and white students. The authors also shine a necessary light on institutions with particularly large gaps--the institutions that are not serving these students as effectively as they should. (Mamie Lynch and Jennifer Engle, The Education Trust, August 2010)...

Investing in Change: How Much Do Achieving the Dream Colleges Spend--and from What Resources--to Become Data-Driven Institutions? - This report analyzes the experiences of five community colleges and the investments they made in implementing an institution-wide improvement process aimed at increasing student success. The colleges in this study are located in the southeastern and southwestern United States. The report examines how, where, and with what resources these colleges supported their reforms, as well as the key activities driving their overall expenditures. (Elizabeth Zachry and Erin Coghlan, MDRC, June 2010)...

Complete to Compete: Common College Completion Metrics - Increasing degree completion at America's public colleges and universities is pivotal for the nation's economic competitiveness and longterm economic growth. To meet this goal in a time of fiscal strain, policymakers and higher education leaders need comprehensive, consistent performance metrics to shape funding strategies and pinpoint areas for improvement. A Work Group on Common College Completion Metrics was convened by the National Governors Association to make recommendations. (National Governors Association, June 2010)...

The College Completion Agenda: 2010 progress report - This report explains a ten-point plan to increase enrollment and graduation rates in two- and four-year higher institutions. The first of its points is to provide voluntary pre-k education to all three and four year olds from low-income families, defined as those living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. (John Michael Lee Jr. and Anita Rawls, College Board, 2010) ...

Complete to Compete: Common College Completion Metrics - This report provides recommendations on the common higher education measures that states should collect and report publicly. The report identifies multiple outcome metrics (i.e., "time and credits to degree") and progress metrics (i.e., "enrollment in remedial education"). Information on the progress toward, and degree completion of, all students in higher education allows state leaders to gauge whether policies are successful and helps inform future funding decisions. Collecting and reporting metrics at the campus, system and state levels is a necessary first step for states as they seek to improve completion rates and productivity in higher education. (Ryan Reyna, National Governors Association, June 2010)...

Promoting a Culture of Student Success: How Colleges and Universities Are Improving Degree Completion - Colleges improve student graduation by focusing more attention on student success--starting with first-year programs to help get freshmen off to a good start and doing more to meet the individual and group needs of students. The most successful institutions focus intently on continuous improvement. (A. Paul Bradley and Cheryl Blanco, SREB, April 2010)...

Advancing by Degrees: A Framework for Increasing College Completion - This report describes a framework of milestones or intermediate educational achievements that students reach along the path to degree completion, and on-track indicators, or academic and enrollment patterns that are related to a greater likelihood of graduation. Using date from the State University System of Florida and the California Community Colleges to demonstrate how the framework can be used in two- and four-year institutions to diagnose where and why students fall off the path to success and to make changes in policy and practice to increase degree completion. (Jeremy Offenstein, Colleen Moore and Nancy Shulock, Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy, April 2010)...

Scaling Up Learning Communities: The Experience of Six Community Colleges - In recent years, a popular response to the quest to help more students achieve their education and career goals by enrolling groups of students together in two or more courses, which are often linked thematically and share assignments. This course structure is called a "learning community." Six community colleges across the country are participating in the Learning Communities Demonstration attempting to answer questions on the development of learning communities. The experiences of these six colleges are the subject of this report. (National Center for Postsecondary Research, March 2010)...

Rising to the Challenge: Hispanic College Graduation Rates as a National Priority - President Barack Obama has called for the United States to reclaim its position as the nation with the highest concentration of adults with postsecondary degrees in the world. Given the changing demographics of the United States, this target cannot be achieved without increasing the rate at which Hispanic students obtain a college degree. In this report, the authors explore the dimensions of this challenge and identify steps that can be taken to help meet this ambitious national goal. (American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, March 2010)...

Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success: A 48-Institution Study of Prior Learning Assessment and Adult Student Outcomes - The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning completed a research study on the academic outcomes of students who earn credit for prior learning. Data was collected from 62,475 students at 48 higher education institutions offering prior learning assessment. The report presents the findings on the comparison of prior learning assessment students with other students in terms of earned degrees, persistence and time to degree. Such a large-scale look at prior learning assessment credit earning and academic outcomes has never before been done. (Rebecca Klein-Collins, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, March 2010)...

Terms of Engagement: Men of Color Discuss Their Experiences in Community College - Over the course of the 2007-08 academic year, a research team led by MDRC conducted qualitative interviews and focus groups with 87 African-American, Hispanic and Native American male students who were enrolled in developmental math classes at four Achieving the Dream colleges in the southeastern and southwestern United States. The students' responses illustrate how their life experiences have shaped their identities, behaviors and choices as individuals and as college students. They offer insights into promising recommendations for programs and policies. (Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks, Herbert Collado, Kasey Martin and Alma Castro, MDRC, March 2010)...

Open-Access Colleges Responsible for Greatest Gains in Graduation Rates - The largest gains in graduation rates over the past decade have been accomplished at open-access or nearly open-access colleges and universities. In addition, states could see even bigger increases if they directed their policies and supports toward improving graduation rates at these non-selective institutions. (William Doyle, National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, February 2010)...

Opportunity Adrift: Our Flagship Universities Are Straying From The Public Mission - The report examines how well the nation’s most prestigious, or flagship, public universities are serving the student populations of their respective states. Its findings suggest that many of the nation's top public universities are giving millions of dollars in financial aid to students from relatively wealthy families, rather than to those who urgently need it. (Kati Haycock, Mary Lynch and Jennifer Engle, The Education Trust, January 2010)...

Calculating Cost-Return for Investments in Student Success - A pilot project funded by the Walmart and Lumina foundations tested whether first-year programs designed to retain students are a cost-effective investment for colleges and universities. The project produced the Cost-Return Calculator, a resource that ties program-level cost data to student outcomes in success programs. (Jobs for the Future and the Delta Cost Project, December 2009) ...

With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them: Myths and Realities About Why So Many Students Fail to Finish College - This is the first of three reports describing young Americans' views on higher education and college completion. Based on a national survey of young adults ages 22 to 30, this research dispels some common myths about why so many students do not graduate and details what kinds of changes might make a difference. (Public Agenda, December 2009)...

Success at Every Step: How 23 Programs Support Youth on the Path to College and Beyond - This compendium describes programs that have been proven to help young people successfully complete high school and be prepared for success in postsecondary education and careers. These programs represent a wide range of interventions, including school-wide reform initiatives, community-based afterschool services, work-based learning opportunities and college access programs. (Sarah Hooker and Betsy Brand, American Youth Policy Forum, October 2009)...

Rewarding Persistence: Effects of a Performance-Based Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents - Two Louisiana community colleges sought to confront some postsecondary completion problems through the use of performance-based scholarships and counseling. This study describes positive short-term findings, including that low-income, mostly single mothers in the program were more likely to register full time, to persist in their studies from semester to semester, to earn higher grades and more credits, and to have better social and psychological outcomes than students in a control group.(Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, Thomas Brock, Allen LeBlanc, Christina Paxson, Cecilia Rouse and Lisa Barrow, MDRC, January 2009)...

Creating Change One Step at a Time: Efforts to Improve College Access and Success in Indiana - In just 12 years, Indiana went from 34th to 10th in the nation in percentage of high school graduates who enrolled in college the fall following high school graduation. This report details how they did it, an evolutionary process that involved establishing a statewide student information system, imposing a mandatory, more rigorous high school curriculum, working to expand postsecondary affordability, investing in a community college system and focusing on college students’ success, including addressing the special needs of at-risk student populations. (Wendy Erisman and Melissa Del Rios, Institute for Higher Education Policy, September 2008)...

Opening the Door to the American Dream: Increasing Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants - In this report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy, the issue of immigrants and higher education is analyzed. The authors argue that increasing access into higher education for immigrants would have significant implications for the immigrant population and the country as a whole. (Wendy Erisman and Shannon Looney, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007)...

Demography Is Not Destiny: Increasing the Graduation Rates of Low-Income College Students at Large Public Universities - This report describes differences in institutional policies and practices, as well as commonalities among the higher-performing institutions. The report examines if practices aimed at improving overall graduation rates also work for low-income students and offer recommendations for institutions. (Jennifer Engle and Colleen O’Brien, Council for Opportunity in Education, 2007)...

Placing College Graduation Rates in Context: How 4-Year College Graduation Rates Vary With Selectivity and the Size of Low-Income Enrollment - This report uses data primarily from the 2004 Graduation Rate Survey (GRS), a component of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), to provide a systemwide overview of how graduation rates of comparable four-year institutions vary with institution selectivity and the size of the low-income population enrolled. The report clearly shows that graduation rates dropped systematically as the proportion of low-income students increased, even within the same Carnegie classification and selectivity levels. Variations by gender and race/ethnicity also were evident. Women graduated at higher rates than men, and in general, as the proportion of low-income students increased, so did the gap between female and male graduation rates. The gap in graduation rates between white and Black students and between white and Hispanic students, on the other hand, typically narrowed as the as the proportion of low-income students increased. (Laura Horn, National Center for Education Statistics, November 2006) ...

State of Decline? Gaps in College Access and Achievement Call for Renewed Commitment to Educating Californians - This report is the second in a series of reports analyzing the performance of California higher education in the areas of preparation, participation, completion, affordability and benefits. It presents data related to these categories of performance by region and by race/ethnicity. (Colleen Moore and Nancy Shulock, Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy, October 2006) ...

Degree Completions in Areas of National Need, 1996-97 to 2001-02 - This report describes degree completions in academic programs of national need between the academic years 1996-97 and 2001-02, focusing on institutions that grant awards of associate’s degrees and higher. In particular, it examines the following: the change in the number of degrees completed in areas of national need over the 5-year period; and degree completions in terms of gender and race/ethnicity and how they have changed over the 5-year period. Tables presenting the characteristics of students who completed degrees in areas of national need are included, by degree type, for reference purposes. (Sarah Krichels Goan, Alisa F. Cunningham and C. Dennis Carroll, National Center for Education Statistics, May 2006) ...

The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion from High School Through College - This report, following up on the seminal 1999 Answers in the Toolbox seeks to identify the factors that contribute to an individual's completing a bachelor's degree by his mid-20s, following a national sample of students scheduled to graduate from high school in 1992. The study finds that high school curriculum matters more than any other precollegiate indicator in determining a student's likelihood of finishing a bachelor's degree, and of all precollegiate curriculum indicators, highest level of math completed continues to be key. The report likewise indicates which postsecondary variables – including timing and type of institution entered, first postsecondary year history (curriculum and performance), paying for college in the first years and college attendance patterns among others – are most frequently associated with baccalaureate completion. The author notes that to close gaps in preparation, "the provision of [high school] curriculum issue has to be addressed" and the "math gap" needs to be fixed. Check out the summary in our Research Studies Database.(Clifford Adelman, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education, February 2006)...