The Federal government is seeking to increase the proportion of Australians with bachelor degrees and to increase the proportion of low SES students in higher education. This will focus attention on degree completion rates for all students, including non-traditional students who have previously been reported as having lower higher education…

The federal role in education will soon be transformed in ways that could produce an even greater society than President Lyndon B. Johnson envisioned. The authors identify underlying principles of this new role and describe how it represents a significant departure from the past. Historically, for example, the federal government has been…

Federal regulations have opened a door that allows schools to get credit under the No Child Left Behind Act for students who take longer than four years to earn a high school diploma. That option worries some education advocates, who fear it could relieve valuable pressure on high schools to graduate students on time. Under the law's…

For the last 25 years, American education has been trying to reform itself. This effort has been noble but only partially successful, and too often defined by an "either-or" dichotomy that has led to publicly defined "wars" over reading and math instruction, and even the very existence of the U.S. Department of Education. All…

This article reports on the central recommendation of the federal task force for a way to better handle dropout and graduation rates. Made up of 10 academics and government statisticians, the panel comprising the Task Force on Graduation, Completion, and Dropout Indicators was formed in the fall of 2003 to advise the U.S. Department of Education's…

In this article, the author discusses the discrepancy in high school dropout rates throughout the U.S. and in national studies because of different measures of the dropout rate. Many states began to use a common dropout definition developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Not included among the 37 states using the NCES…

A recent study by Civic Enterprises for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation examined the views of diverse youth, ages 16-25, who had failed to complete high school. "The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts" lists students' reasons for leaving school and suggests actions that schools, states, and the federal government can take.…