Every state has made the college and career readiness of its high school graduates a major priority, but few are doing a good job monitoring how well the education system is delivering on that goal. States mostly rely on high school graduation rates to gauge progress. While there have been signifcant improvements in the high school graduation…

Despite abundant anecdotes and theories suggesting a causal effect of teachers' expectations on student outcomes, documenting its presence and size has been challenging. The reason is simple: positive correlations between what teachers expect and what students ultimately accomplish might simply result from teachers being skilled observers. In…

In today's economy, graduating from high school is more important than ever. The economic consequences of dropping out of high school are more severe than in the past, with diminished job prospects and life-time earnings (Rouse, 2007). There are also substantial social costs associated with high school dropouts such as lower productivity and tax…

Twenty-one US states currently offer some form of merit-based postsecondary financial aid, although the generosity and eligibility requirements of merit aid programs varies from state to state. This article uses nationally representative data from high school students in the early 1990s and the early 2000s to evaluate the relationship between the…

For the 2014 study, "Stand and Deliver: Effects of Boston's Charter High Schools on College Preparation, Entry, and Choice," researchers measured the effects of attending Boston's charter high schools on students' reading and math achievement, high school graduation, and college outcomes. Six Boston charter schools that include one or…

The study reviewed in this paper examined whether winning an admissions lottery to attend a small school of choice (SSC) in New York City improved high school graduation rates, influenced the type of diploma students received, or increased the likelihood of college readiness. An SSC is a small, nonselective public high school emphasizing academic…

Funding agencies and the science education community at large have pursued strategies for increasing K-12 outreach by scientists and for improving instructional practices in higher education classrooms. However, the simultaneous achievement of both goals is generally not a target for single projects or even single programs. A 4-year project…

Gathering high school completer and dropout data and maintaining annual records provides longitudinal information on students which allows a district to observe its unique patterns of school dropouts. That information may assist schools to target prevention and intervention programs and policies that focus on local circumstances and address the…

This paper examines the implications of tuition and need-based financial aid policies for family income--post-secondary (PS) attendance relationships. We first conduct a parallel empirical analysis of the effects of parental income on PS attendance for recent high school cohorts in both the U.S. and Canada using data from the 1997 Cohort of the…

From the Wisconsin status attainment model to rational choice, classical sociological, social-psychological, and economic theories of student educational transitions have assumed that students' expectations are positively related to their ultimate attainment. However, the growth of the college-for-all ethos raises questions about that assumption.…

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…

Recent models of human capital formation represent a synthesis of the human capital approach and a life cycle view of human development that is grounded in neuroscience (Heckman 2007). This model of human development, the stability of the home and parental mental health can have notable impacts on skill development in children that may affect the…

The New Zealand National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is a new qualifications, credit, and assessment system. This report explores the difference the NQF makes for young people. It is the first report of a longitudinal study that will follow two cohorts of students in seven North Island (New Zealand) high schools to see the impact the NQF has on…

Using data from the High School and Beyond survey for 10,188 sophomores and 8,491 seniors, investigates the effect of spacing of births of siblings on high school attrition and postsecondary school attendance. Close spacing increases likelihood of dropping out of high school and decreases odds of attending postsecondary school. (SLD)

In 1986, the New York City Public Schools adopted a cohort methodology for determining dropout and graduation rates. The Class of 1990 was the primary cohort studied in this report; it was the fifth cohort to be studied for at least 4 years using this methodology. Follow-ups are reported for three preceding classes. The 1990 cohort, who entered…