In September 2012, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 1458, which calls for California's school accountability system to shift from a near-exclusive reliance on state test scores to a broader range of measures demonstrating student achievement. At the high school level, starting in the 2015-16 school year, the Academic Performance…

When the pandemic forced schools to move online, no one was prepared. It was a true crisis, but out of crisis often comes innovation and discovery. That is exactly what a fall 2020 nationally representative survey from the American School District Panel, a collaboration between RAND, CRPE, Chiefs for Change, and Kitamba, found. A RAND report…

Recent high school graduates continue to make up a significant number of postsecondary enrollees, begetting a clear focus by education leaders and state policymakers on strategies that support successful student transitions from high school to college. Of the nation's 3.3 million expected high school graduates for the 2014-15 academic year, a full…

Enrolling more than 6 million students each fall, community colleges carry out a crucial function in higher education by providing access to college, including baccalaureate opportunities, occupational education, remedial education, and other educational services. At the same time, community colleges face great challenges that have elicited calls…

Worker's Faculties, which have been widespread in the Soviet Union up until 1941, combined the two goals of preparing adult workers and peasants for university entrance through the provision of general education, as well as creating a new socialist intelligentsia from among these groups. After World War II, Workers' Faculties were also established…

The challenges for increasing opportunities and college access for black students typically focus on the traditional barriers related to academic preparation, the racial gap in standardized test scores, and dropping out of high school. While these challenges remain, new and emerging challenges to college access are also important to discuss. They…

Researchers and policymakers argue that expanding college access is one way to increase opportunities for students who would become the first in their families to enroll in a postsecondary institution. This article uses measures of educational attainment in the previous two generations to consider whether parents' own histories of educational…

Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, the Rural Innovative Schools (RIS) Project is the first widespread effort to scale up the early college model by implementing it in comprehensive high schools. This paper will present preliminary findings from the evaluation of this project. The impact study uses a quasi-experimental…

Recognizing the educational and economic benefits of a college degree, education policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels have made college preparation a priority. There are many ways to measure college readiness, but one key component is rigorous high school coursework. California has not yet adopted a statewide college readiness…

While developmental education in community colleges has the potential to prepare students for college-level work, its effectiveness and need is often questioned. Further, while Latinx students are overrepresented in developmental courses, there is a dearth of literature on their experiences in such courses and how to effectively serve their needs…

College graduation rates in the United States are low in both real and relative terms. This has left all stakeholders looking for novel solutions while perhaps ignoring extant but underused programs. This article examines the effect of "summer bridge" programs, which have students enroll in coursework prior to beginning their first full…

It is well documented in both the British press and mathematics education literature that many consider A-levels (qualifications for secondary school leavers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) to be insufficient preparation for undergraduate mathematics study in the UK. A-level Mathematics and Further Mathematics are not solely intended for…

This article shares two National Writing Project Teacher Consultants' interest in examining student engagement in writing flash fiction using mentor texts. Our two-week unit centered on two high school freshmen classes (one class identified as "at-risk" and another class identified as "college prep"), and we found the use…

"Minnesota Measures" provides a resource of accurate, timely, and comprehensive facts about higher education in Minnesota. It includes comparisons over time as well as national and peer institution comparisons. Obtaining a postsecondary credential increases economic opportunity, promotes income equality, and prepares the state to meet…

The transition from school or college to university education is an exciting time for most students, but also one that is filled with new challenges. Students are faced with new styles of teaching and learning, and are required to be more independent and acquire new skill sets. For psychology students, there may be an additional challenge in the…