A recent study found that one in three Americans between the ages of 16 and 65 lack the skills needed to succeed in middle school math, let alone math at the high school or college level. In some instances, states or colleges have raised standards for developmental courses and routed students who score below the minimum skill level for…

The Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA) is designed as a set of appropriate measures to determine how well community colleges are serving students. Lack of commonly accepted, appropriate performance measures has often led to misperceptions and frequently an underestimation of community college effectiveness and contributions. It has also…

Inferencing skills uniquely contribute to the reading comprehension skills of older grade-school and college students. Evidence also suggests that children's reading component skills, such as decoding and language comprehension, differentially contribute to various reading comprehension assessments. However, additional research is needed to…

Sexually active college students in the United States have alarming rates of unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Varying degrees of sexual health knowledge and attitudes among college students are an outcome of sexuality education in the K-12 school systems with abstinence-only or comprehensive focus. Community college…

Rising employer demand for skilled workers has driven efforts to better align occupational training programs to industry needs. Yet, even as the demand for skilled workers increases, less than half of students who enter occupational training programs receive a credential within six years. Community colleges are working to find faster and more…

Rising employer demand for skilled workers has driven efforts to better align occupational training programs to industry needs. Yet, even as the demand for skilled workers increases, less than half of students who enter occupational training programs receive a credential within six years. Community colleges are working to find faster and more…

Rising employer demand for skilled workers has driven efforts to better align occupational training programs to industry needs. Yet, even as the demand for skilled workers increases, less than half of students who enter occupational training programs receive a credential within six years. Community colleges are working to find faster and more…

There is an urgent need to increase K-12 science knowledge and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) preparedness for college. State and national data suggest a strong correlation between student performance in STEM subjects and student socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity. Queensborough Community College (QCC) is situated…

Pearson sought to explore whether the use of MyLab Foundational Skills, a mastery and competency-based online platform designed to assess and remediate a selection of skills to prepare students for college and careers, is related to students' course grades. This Research Report presents findings from two research studies: one comparative study…

Many students enter community college underprepared for college-level math and are placed into developmental elementary algebra without consideration if the algebra will provide a foundation for their needed college-level math course. Large percentages of those students are unable to succeed in the developmental course and, therefore, are unable…

While elementary teachers encourage students to monitor their own reading and give them strategies to comprehend the text and build their vocabulary, middle school teachers stop modeling and encouraging these strategies but still expect that students are cognizant of metacognition and strategies. As a result, more students are entering college…

Objective: This study examines the characteristics, course enrollment patterns, and academic outcomes of students who started their college careers in noncredit courses. Method: Drawing upon a rich dataset that includes transcript and demographic information on both for-credit and noncredit students in multiple institutions, this study explores…

In the United States, a student's educational attainment is associated with nearly every social outcome we care about: income, employment, life-expectancy, and more. For this reason, it is important to understand how students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) perform on key milestones of educational attainment, including high school graduation,…

This report describes the implementation and early impacts of the Washington State Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program at three colleges: Bellingham Technical College, Everett Community College, and Whatcom Community College. I-BEST is a nationally known program that aims to increase access to and completion of…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "School Holding Power." Contents include: (1) Texas Higher Education Law Aims to…