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…

The number of community college degrees and certificates awarded has increased steadily during the time of Performance Based Budgeting in Florida. The vast majority of Community College System awards are one of the following four types: Associate in Arts (AA), Associate in Science (AS), postsecondary vocational certificate (PSVC), and…

This status report documents the postsecondary progress of the 1993-1994 Florida public high school graduating class through the spring term of 2001, or 7 years after high school graduation. The two major outcomes addressed were baccalaureate degree completion and the time/credit hours to baccalaureate degree completion. The study focused on…

Disability carries negative social meaning, and little is known about when (or if), in the process of health decline, persons identify themselves as "disabled." We examine the social and health criteria that older adults use to subjectively rate their own disability status. Using a panel study of older adults (ages 72+), we estimate…

This report provides information about the performance of 2009 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2009 and tested under standard time conditions. This report focuses on: (1) Performance: student test performance in the context of…

Almost 19,000 Dade County Public School students--all the members of the 8th grade cohort in June 1980--were followed across four and a half years in a study of dropouts. Major findings include the following: (1) at the end of the follow-up period, 29.5% of the cohort had dropped out (19% of Asians, 26.4% of Whites, 29.3% of Hispanics, and 33.9%…

Social promotion has long been the normal practice in American schools. Critics of this practice, whereby students are promoted to the next grade regardless of academic preparation, have suggested that students would benefit academically if they were made to repeat a grade. Supporters of social promotion claim that retaining students disrupts them…

This is a statistical survey of children in the South, designed for the use of public policy makers, child advocates, and human service specialists. Section one presents a general demographic overview that includes birth rates, migration and growth trends, and racial distribution. The second section provides statistics on living arrangements,…