I investigate the determinants of high school completion and college attendance, the likelihood of taking science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) courses in the first year of college and the probability of earning a degree in a STEM field. The focus is on women and minorities, who tend to be underrepresented in STEM fields. Tracking four…

Broward County Public Schools' Research Services department uses logistic regression analysis to compute an indicator to predict student enrollment in advanced high school courses, for students entering ninth grade for the first time. This prediction indicator, along with other student characteristics, supports high school guidance staffs in…

According to Florida Law, students must pass the Grade 10 FCAT, among other academic requirements, in order to receive a standard high school diploma. Specifically, students must achieve a "passing" score of 300 or above on both the FCAT SSS Reading and the FCAT SSS Mathematics tests. Technically, students can retake the FCAT as many…

This brief calculates graduation rates for the state of Florida using longitudinal data. The authors describe their measurement strategies and compare them with the state's official measurement procedures. They calculate the diploma and General Education Development (GED) attainment rates of six separate cohorts of Florida 9th graders who began…

Now that all 50 states and the District of Columbia are building statewide longitudinal data systems, the next step is to ensure that the information in these systems is used to improve student learning. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has identified 10 actions that states can take to ensure that the right data are available and accessible and…