When President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002, the U.S. national high school graduation rate was 72.6 percent. Today, the national high school graduation rate has reached an all-time high of 81 percent and the number of low-graduation-rate high schools has declined considerably. While this progress is notable,…

This study examined the high school experiences, graduation rates and post-secondary attendance rates of students who received need-based scholarships to attend private elementary schools from the Children's Scholarship Fund Baltimore (CSFB). CSFB provides funds to students from low-income families in the Baltimore area to attend the private or…

Baltimore City Public Schools (City Schools) has made great strides in its effort to lower the number of high school dropouts and to encourage prior dropouts to return and graduate by providing a broad set of options for students with a diverse set of needs and academic histories. At the same time, City Schools has initiated an effort to foster a…

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) "Special Education at a Glance," which includes a copy of the "Guide to Planning and Assessing School-Based Special Education Programs," provides in a single document, information about the special education population at each Montgomery County public school, including enrollment,…

High dropout rates continue to be a silent epidemic afflicting the nation's schools. Although some measurable progress is being made in some school districts and states to raise high school graduation rates, and federal, state, and local policies and practices are changing to meet the dropout challenge, the nation's progress is too slow and the…

In today's economy, employers increasingly demand that workers have a high school diploma, yet America's graduation rates are unacceptably low, particularly among poor and minority students. Nationally, only about 70 percent of students graduate from high school on time with a regular diploma; for African American and Hispanic students, this…

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) "Special Education at a Glance," which includes a copy of the "Guide to Planning and Assessing School-Based Special Education Programs," provides in a single document, information about the special education population at each Montgomery County (Maryland) public school, including…

Nearly 7,000 students drop out of the nation's public high schools each school day, and 3,000 of them are in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Altogether, an estimated 1.3 million teenagers in the United States abandon high school each year without earning a diploma. In 1,700 of the nation's high schools, less than 60 percent of…

This publication summarizes the status of Maryland public education in 2008 and considers upcoming challenges. Highlights of the report include: (1) Maryland classrooms continue to be comprised of minority-majority enrollment; (2) High school graduation rate tops 85 percent; (3) Scores on the Maryland School Assessment continue to rise; (4)…

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) "Special Education at a Glance," which includes a copy of the "Guide to Planning and Assessing School-Based Special Education Programs," provides in a single document, information about the special education population at each Montgomery County (Maryland) public school, including…

This paper provides information about Maryland's High School Assessment, an end-of-course exam tied to content standards. The purpose of the exam is to: (1) Determine prospective high school graduates' knowledge and skill levels relative to those needed for entry-level employment; (2) Determine prospective high school graduates' knowledge and…

Graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of whether or not the nation's public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society. Since almost 90 percent of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs require some postsecondary education, having a high school diploma and the…

SREB states were among the first in the nation to implement statewide high school exams. Today, these exams are a key component of each state's accountability system. This report identifies which states use comprehensive exams and which use end-of-course exams, how students perform on them, and whether achievement gaps have narrowed. It also…

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) "Special Education at a Glance," which includes a copy of the "Guide to Planning and Assessing School-Based Special Education Programs," provides in a single document, information about the special education population at each Montgomery County (Maryland public school, including…

This report draws on combined sets of data to examine the relationship between students' academic performance and experiences in high school and how well they did in their initial year in college. Specifically, it looks at students who graduated from a Maryland high school in the 2003-2004 school year who enrolled at a Maryland college or…