This report measures Illinois' educational performance from early childhood through postsecondary education. It tracks how students have performed during the past decade and how that performance compares with students in other states. The state knows that improvement does not happen overnight. By tracking what happens to students over time,…

In 2005-06 almost half of the pupils in California's public schools were Latinos, but Latinos only received about 15 percent of the BA degrees awarded by public and private colleges in the state. Texas has a comparable Latino population, but does significantly better than California in getting Latino students through college. The implication of…

Many universities grapple with Latino student retention issues. Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, yet they also are the group that has the least amount of formal education. The literature suggests that parental support helps Latinos succeed academically in elementary, middle, and high schools. However,…

Minnesota's Intervention for College Attendance Program (ICAP) is a program of competitive grants awarded to postsecondary institutions, professional organizations and community-based organizations. Funded programs focus on increasing the access and success of groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education by strengthening their…

In 2000, Canada launched the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) in conjunction with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Since then, the 30 000 Canadian students that participated in PISA 2000 have been interviewed every two years to collect information about their…

The pathway to a postsecondary education is challenging for many students, including students from the growing Latino population in the United States. This research project focused on Latino and Caucasian students' academic and non-academic characteristics as predictors of educational outcomes, high school and beyond. The introduction to the…

This article uses administrative data from the University of Texas at Austin to examine whether the number of classmates from the same high school at college entry influences college achievement, measured by grade point average (GPA) and persistence. For each freshman cohort from 1993 through 2003, the authors calculated the number and ethnic…

Public concern about pervasive inequalities in traditional public schools, combined with growing political, parental, and corporate support, has created the expectation that charter schools are the solution for educating minorities, particularly Black youth. There is a paucity of research on the educational attainment of Black youth in privately…

"Rewarding Persistence: Effects of a Performance-Based Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents" examined whether community college students are more likely to persist in school if they are offered financial incentives tied to school performance. The study included 1,019 low-income parents enrolled at two Louisiana community colleges.…

I analyze the longer-run effects of a program that pays both 11th and 12th grade students and teachers for passing scores on Advanced Placement exams. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, I find that affected students attend college in greater numbers, have improved college GPAs, and are more likely to remain in college beyond their…

The overarching goal of the "Supporting Best Practices in Student Success Project" is to create, enhance, or expand successful programs that are replicable and can be scaled to greatly improve the percentage of underserved students who complete postsecondary education. In doing so, National College Access Network (NCAN) aimed to build…

Many adult students struggle to finance their educations, often contending with work and child care expenses in addition to the extra cost of remedial courses. Moreover, there is little need-based grant aid to help. This report presents early findings from an evaluation of a program in New York City targeted to low-income adults (ages 22 to 35)…

The SREB Fact Book on Higher Education includes data on the population and economy, enrollment, degrees, student tuition and financial aid, faculty and administrators, revenue and expenditures. With more than 100 tables of detailed information, the Fact Book is one of the nation's most respected and most comprehensive collections of comparative…

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI) with the primary goal of increasing the opportunity for underserved students to earn a postsecondary credential. To achieve this goal, Early Colleges provide underserved students with exposure to, and support in, college while they are in…

The Hispanic population in the United States is the fastest growing ethnic group. It is also one of the least-educated and poorest groups and one of the least researched nationally. The purpose of the study was to identify the variables that affect the persistence of Hispanic college students who begin their postsecondary educations at community…