When the COVID-19 pandemic drove schools online in March 2020, state education leaders were left without access to data needed to understand how best to support students. The pandemic revealed the strengths and limitations of state education data systems while inspiring new strategies for collecting, reporting and using data. In 2021, DataSmith…

Youth and young adults experiencing homelessness face many challenges while pursuing postsecondary credentials. Low education attainment is occurring in higher education institutions across the county, with more than a quarter of first-year college students not returning for their second year in community college. This National Center for Homeless…

Community colleges are under pressure to educate a growing student population while economic resources in higher education are diminishing. One measure of success for colleges is the ability to retain students. Due to the varied nature of the community college population, measuring student retention is challenging. One facet of student retention…

School grades provide an easily understandable metric to measure the performance of a school. Parents and the general public can use the informational baseline school grade and its associated components to understand how well each school is serving its students. The school grades calculation was revised substantially for the 2014-15 school year to…

Developmental education courses in college--defined as classes taken in college that are below college level (Bautsch, 2013)--have come under increased scrutiny in recent years. Concerns focus on the large number of students enrolled in developmental education courses, the high cost of providing them, and the low success rates among students who…