In July 2012, the executive doctoral class of 2013 from the University of Pennsylvania's Higher Education Management Program in the Graduate School of Education conducted a study of higher education in Ireland. The international study, an important component of the executive doctoral program, mirrored and built on research completed by Joni Finney…

This study presents longitudinal description of the association between college readiness--as measured by college readiness benchmarks set by the ACT--and a series of postsecondary outcomes of the Illinois High School Class of 2003. In addition to describing how college readiness is distributed among the cohort, this study establishes the college…

This study investigates the relationship between participating in a high school debate program on college-readiness in the Chicago Public School district over a 10-year period. At-risk school students were identified using an index including 8th grade achievement, poverty status, and enrollment in special education. Regression analyses were used…

School choice reforms have been proposed as ways to enhance efficiency, equity, and effectiveness in education. This study examines the consequences of participating in public high school choice in Chicago, a city with a wide variety of choice programs, including career academies, charter schools, magnet schools, and selective test-based college…

This booklet is addressed to beginning high school students, discussing what many researchers consider the most important year of high school, perhaps the most important year of school so far. Freshman year will set the stage for whether a student graduates and whether he or she will be ready for college. Citing years of study, the Consortium on…

In 2001, Illinois began administering the ACT (American College Testing) test to all 11th graders in Illinois public schools as part of the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE). For the first time, ACT scores and background information were available for most public-school students who would be completing high school one year later, rather than…