In January 2010, the General Assembly passed the Complete College Tennessee Act (CCTA), a comprehensive reform agenda that seeks to transform public higher education through changes in academic, fiscal and administrative policies at the state and institutional level. At the center of these reforms is the need for more Tennesseans to be better…

The Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) provides a wealth of information from multiple sources about the factors and circumstances related to the performance and social development of American high school sophomores as they enter and leave various levels of the education system. This First Look report draws upon ELS:2002 second…

This report to the leaders of the minority and majority parties of the Illinois state legislature provides data on the number of students with disabilities who are estimated to exit the Illinois public school system after the 1996-97 school year. The data were prepared by averaging the information provided by districts regarding students who were…

As one report in a comprehensive study of Illinois state mandates for elementary and secondary education, this study covers the three major areas in the Illinois compulsory attendance law: students' entrance age, their exit age, and the schools' obligation to enfore truancy regulations. After brief histories of compulsory attendance laws in the…

Serious concerns are being raised by the poor and uneducated underclass in the United States. Four main points are given which expand upon these concerns. (1) The affluent and middle class white U.S. population does not have enough interest and commitment to the poor and undereducated population to pay the price it will take to educate the U.S.…

This study of the persistence behavior of undergraduates at America's 4-year colleges and universities used data from the "High School and Beyond" study, a national survey of 28,000 high-school seniors. "Persistence" is described as the flow of students through college over a 6-year period. Four categories of persistence were…

In response to concern that some community college students were being denied access to courses because others had enrolled in more courses than they really intended to maintain, the California community college finance bill of 1983 mandated that the colleges charge students a $10 fee for each course dropped after the second week of the term (not…

This report is concerned with students who either dropped out or were dismissed from grades 9 through 12 during 1983-84 in 14 school systems in Arkansas. It is intended for use by state government, the State Department of Education, state and local policymakers, school administrators and staffs, parents, and young people. The data presented in…

This 1980-81 survey, which follows up a similar 1979-80 study, explores parents' reasons for transferring their children into or out of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Rockville, Maryland. A total of 277 parents of students leaving MCPS for private schools in Maryland and 281 parents of students entering from private schools in Maryland…

High school dropouts are usually academic underachievers who adjust to social environments with difficulty. When they leave school, they develop even greater behavior problems and have more trouble getting employment than do high school graduates. To prevent dropouts, schools try to find funds for dropout prevention programs, work with agencies…

This report presents the results of a review of course withdrawal and forgiveness policies at public community colleges and state universities in Florida, with a view toward standardizing such policies that impact articulation, the transfer of credit, and credit-hours-to-degree. It recommends that: (1) forgiveness, withdrawal, and incomplete…

The study provides an overview of what national surveys and the literature say about school dropouts, defined as persons who are neither enrolled in school nor high school graduates. For the last decade, the dropout rate for youth age 16-24 has remained roughly the same, about 13-14 percent. Hispanics, Blacks, and economically and educationally…

Data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program Follow-Up Surveys were used to study student retention at four-year colleges and universities. Data used were from the 1985-1988 follow-up surveys of 1981-1984 freshmen. Student data were also requested directly from the institutions themselves, concerning degree earned, number of years…

An analysis is presented of factors and conditions affecting student completion rates in the remedial mathematics program (Mathematics 1403) in the Tarrant County (Texas) Junior College District. Following introductory material on the purposes of the study and the tasks of five project teams, chapter I examines the purpose and historical…

The Regional Review Meeting on the Situation of Education of Girls was attended by participants from eight Asian countries, six of which have low female participation and retention rates. Participants from Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand presented reports based on the findings of national studies,…