In this article, the authors sought to discover if participation in formal debate programs translates into better academic achievement and attainment for students. First, individual debaters' reading and math test scores over time were looked at and students were compared to themselves in years when they did and did not participate in debate. The…

Recent state and national achievement exam results, as well as academic progress reports, have underscored how the COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures had a large, negative impact on students' reading and math development. While a great deal is known about the test-based academic impacts of the pandemic such as test scores that provide…

The 11th edition of "Knocking at the College Door" comes at a critical time for the country. Many sectors of the economy face workforce shortages, while higher education faces increasing skepticism about its value. The data and analyses within these pages will likely fuel further concerns for those across higher education as the nation…

Senate Bill 19-129, concerning the regulation of online schools, calls for the Colorado Department of Education's Office of Online and Blended Learning to produce an annual report on the number of students who withdraw from Colorado K-12 online schools after the pupil enrollment count date. This report is required to include the dates on which…

Increasing college attainment offers tremendous promise for increasing social mobility, tackling poverty, and reducing racial and income inequality, aspirations that are more vital than ever as the devastating impact of the pandemic has fallen disproportionately on people of color. Yet for too many policymakers and practitioners, the path to…

As part of the national agenda of accountability, state governments established performance funding policy to hold public institutions accountable for their performance. Accountability allows state policymakers to incentivize institutions to address state demands of increasing graduation rates in return for performance allocations. Although the…

Measurement systems give colleges a structure for collecting, sharing, and acting on data. The guidebook and tools presented here help faculty, staff, college leadership, and policymakers understand and use measurement systems--and specifically use data to improve completion rates, close institutional performance gaps, and facilitate economic…

Senate Bill 19-129, concerning the regulation of online schools, calls for the Colorado Department of Education's Office of Blended and Online Learning to produce an annual report on the number of students who withdraw from Colorado K-12 online schools after the pupil enrollment count date. This report is required to include the dates on which…

In 2019, the Legislature passed House Bill 1599, which established graduation pathways as a requirement for graduation. These pathways must be aligned with a student's postsecondary goals as described in their High School and Beyond Plan. This report includes the unique pathway options, a data summary, and disaggregated pathway completion data for…

This tenth annual High School Benchmarks Report provides updated data on high school graduates' college access, persistence, and completion outcomes. This report was designed with several features particularly tailored to secondary education practitioners and policymakers. First, results presented in this report update last years' findings on high…

The Cowen Institute has published the "State of Public Education in New Orleans" ("SPENO") annually since 2007, with a pause for two years after the March 2020 report because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2022-2023 has marked a return to a more familiar school environment. This report works to capture some of the changes,…

Postsecondary education is vital to thrive, not just survive. Eighty percent of good-paying jobs require postsecondary education, and 56 percent require a bachelor's degree or higher. While the nation's high school graduation rate has reached an all-time high of 85 percent, students are insufficiently prepared for postsecondary education and the…

The 2022 Youth Transition Report underscores the persistent and pernicious gap between youth and young adults with disabilities and those without disabilities on measures of success in education, employment, opportunity, and poverty. While data and reports exist for the working-age adult population and children with disabilities, the Institute for…

Earning a college degree is a major pathway to economic mobility. Although Black women enter college at higher rates than white, Hispanic, and Black men (for example, in 2020, Black women enrolled in college at a 40% rate, compared to 37% for White men, 31% for Black men, and 30% for Hispanic men) they still face barriers to degree completion,…

"Continuous Improvement in High Schools" gives educators and policymakers an accessible, actionable framework to address one of the nation's most important educational priorities: improving high school graduation and postsecondary preparedness rates. Martha Abele Mac Iver and Robert Balfanz, national experts in dropout prevention, apply…