In this dissertation, I examine various factors shaping students' trajectories and opportunities later in life. In Chapter 1, I explore the role of grade retention policies. Grade retention as a remedial policy is controversial because the benefits of extra instruction time may not outweigh its costs. Previous research has primarily examined…

Community colleges serve the most diverse student populations in higher education yet have some of the lowest levels of faculty diversity in higher education. Retaining community college student cohorts through transfer/graduation is a goal, yet attaining this goal has been elusive, particularly for underrepresented minority (URM) community…

The Virginia Board of Education's Regulations Establishing Standards for Accrediting Public Schools in Virginia (also referred to as the "Standards of Accreditation") are designed to ensure that an effective educational program is established and maintained in all of Virginia's public schools. The Standards of Accreditation: (1) Provide…

Section 29.182 of the Texas Education Code (TEC) makes provision for all students in the State of Texas to participate in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. CTE programs incorporate competencies that lead to the attainment of academic and technical skills, industry recognized certificates, licenses, and credentials for employment as…

National data from Monitoring the Future were used to examine patterns and predictors of college attendance. Samples of American 12th-grade students from 1977 to 2003 were followed for 7 years (modal ages 18-25; N = 10,020). College attendance and graduation patterns varied considerably over historical time and based on family background.…

The objective of this study was to identify the characteristics of effective graduation coaches (GCs) and credit recovery programs and explain the influence of a GC and a credit recovery program on Grade 9 students at risk of dropping out. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a high school GC and enrollment in a credit recovery…

Background/Context: Efforts to improve student achievement should increase graduation rates. However, work investigating the effects of student-level accountability has consistently demonstrated that increases in the standards for high school graduation are correlated with increases in dropout rates. The most favored explanation for this finding…

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has released a new publication titled "High School Graduation: State Policies Driving Transparency and Success." The report describes recent state actions aimed at ensuring all students graduate from high school college-and career-ready, and policy issues such as graduation rate…

During his 2012 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama offered several recommendations on education policy, including one specifying that all states increase the age of compulsory school attendance to 18. Approximately 25 percent of public school students in the U.S. don't obtain a regular high school diploma, a tragedy for them and a…

This article features Worcester (MA) Technical High School, a school that has achieved significant gains in Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores. The school opened as Worcester Boys' Trade High School on February 9, 1910, with 52 student ironworkers and woodworkers attending on weekdays and Saturday mornings--the beginning…

Warren Easton Charter High School in New Orleans, Louisiana, has weathered changes of many types, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005. After having to close for the 2005-2006 school year, the school reopened as a charter school with a board and stepped up its efforts to raise student achievement. Now the school is receiving attention for the…

If the U.S. is to increase the number of college graduates and boost our national competitiveness, we must redouble our efforts to ensure all students graduate from high school prepared for postsecondary learning and careers. This means creating comprehensive education systems that provide learning options that enable a range of pathways to…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Building a Grad Nation": New Report Finds More than Half of States Increased High School Graduation Rate, Number of "Dropout…

Findings are presented from studies of the academic and language achievement of 1,307 young immigrant students whose educational history was traced from their arrival in Canada and entry into primary education in the early 1990s until their graduation from secondary schools. Five major findings are reported: school mobility, disappearance and…

High dropout rates and low on-time graduation rates across the United States suggest that for many students proper transitioning is not taking place from middle schools to high schools. This study was designed to examine what measure perceptions and expectations held by students, faculty, and parents dealing with transition from middle school to…