High school graduation is a meaningful indicator of student achievement and a stronger predictor of long-term quality of life outcomes compared to student test scores. The existing body of research has been limited on whether charter attendance improves high school graduation and whether charter attendance helps narrow the graduation gap among…

Utilizing a lottery-based natural experiment, this study assessed the longer-term impact of early colleges on postsecondary degree attainment. It found that early colleges significantly increased the overall degree completion and associate degree completion rates within 10 years of expected high school graduation. While the impact on bachelor's…

This report analyzes the descriptive outcomes for students with disabilities (SWDs) from schools overseen by the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) who enrolled in postsecondary institutions. Data provided by USBE, the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE), and the Department of Workforce Services (DWS) allowed for the examination of metrics…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the care crisis in the United States to the fore. Unprecedented closures of child care programs throughout 2020 placed a disproportionate burden on families, and mothers in particular. For parents enrolled in college or considering postsecondary enrollment at the time of the pandemic, the loss of child care services…

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Utah in March 2020, the state's public colleges and universities took steps to mitigate the risk of infection to students and faculty/staff. Utah's degree-granting institutions shifted in-person coursework online in March 2020 for the remainder of the spring 2020 term, with the goal to protect students' health…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires the state to calculate a four-year cohort rate. Utah implemented a federally defined cohort graduation rate in 2008. The graduation rate for the 2021 cohort includes all students who started ninth grade in the 2017-18 school year, plus students who transferred into the Utah public education system…

The general perception of a traditional college career goes as follows: upon high school graduation, a student immediately enrolls the following year in a college or university, attends full-time, and soon thereafter graduates from the same college or university two to four years later. However, recent analysis by the Office of the Commissioner of…

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's (WICHE's) ninth edition of "Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates," published in December 2016 (revised February 2017), quantified how the demographic changes that are underway with America's youth population will be evidenced in the next 15 years of…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires the state to calculate a four-year cohort rate. Utah implemented the federally defined cohort graduation rate in 2008. The graduation rate for the 2019 cohort includes all students who started ninth grade in the 2013-14 school year, plus students who transferred into the Utah public education system…

Utah's population will become increasingly diverse in the coming decades. By 2065, the percent of minorities in Utah (age 18-35) will nearly double. There is already a postsecondary education enrollment and completion gap between minority populations and the white population at colleges and universities in the Utah System of Higher Education. If…

Federal financial aid was established under the Higher Education Act of 1965. Since then, changes to the act have increased funding and expanded eligibility for students accessing federal financial aid. While the distribution of federal financial aid has expanded over the last 60 years, untapped financial resources remain every year because…

This study focuses on quantitative long-term effects of Supplemental Instruction (SI) in terms of graduation and dropout rates. One of the main aims of SI is to introduce students to effective study strategies and techniques. If SI is introduced at an early stage for new students in higher education, it should therefore be expected that this…

Last year, the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) published an issue brief on Utah's Opportunity Gap. The 2019 report focused on the long-range impacts of shifting demographics within Utah's population on enrollments and completions within USHE. What the report failed to do is address the responsibility of the System to evaluate the ways in…

Relying on the data from Utah System of Higher Education (USHE), Utah State Board of Education (USBE), and National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), this report examines college participation rates of Utah high school graduates (cohorts 2008-2017), with a focus on the gap in college participation between Caucasians and minorities. The report also…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires the state to calculate a four-year cohort rate. Utah implemented a federally defined cohort graduation rate in 2008. The graduation rate for the 2018 cohort includes all students who started ninth grade in the 2014-15 school year, plus students who transferred into the Utah public education system…