The COVID-19 pandemic and protests against systemic racism have shaken the nation in recent months. In addition to presenting an update to the nation on progress and challenge in increasing high school graduation rates on a path to postsecondary and workforce readiness, this report also addresses some of the gaps, barriers, and innovations seen…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides states with tools to strengthen accountability and ensure high-quality educational opportunities for all students, including those served in alternative schools and programs. The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) conducted a review of 38 ESSA state plans to better understand how states are…

The Accountability Plan is an annual report that is closely aligned with the Board of Governors' 2025 System Strategic Plan. This report enhances the System's commitment to accountability and strategic planning by fostering greater coordination between institutional administrators, University Boards of Trustees and the Board of Governors regarding…

High School graduation rates are key indicators of accountability for high schools and school districts in Oregon. Beginning with the 2008-09 school year, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) implemented the cohort method of calculating graduation rates. The cohort method identifies the year the student entered high school for the first time…

On December 10, 2015, President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, legislation to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). ESSA replaces the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the previous version of ESEA, and also supersedes the ESEA waivers created by the U.S. Department of Education to provide states…

As demand for skilled labor increases, policymakers in an increasing number of developing countries have turned toward vocational education and training (VET) to educate and prepare students. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published a 2012 report "acknowledging the need for [VET] to contribute to…

We use a difference-in-differences analytic approach to estimate postsecondary consequences from Maine's mandate that all public school juniors take the SAT®. We find that, overall, the policy increased 4-year college-going rates by 2- to 3-percentage points and that 4-year college-going rates among induced students increased by 10-percentage…

This "Report Card to the Public" is a useful, yet limited, resource for families, communities, and policy makers to determine if Alaska's schools are working as well as they should for all students. Through Alaska's Education Challenge, Alaskans expressed three commitments toward the shared vision for an excellent education for every…

This policy brief is part of a larger research report, "Making ESSA's Equity Promise Real: State Strategies to Close the Opportunity Gap," that describes how states are using opportunities in ESSA [Every Student Succeeds Act] to better support historically underserved students through the thoughtful selection of specific equity measures…

For the past 12 years, the Cowen Institute has published the "State of Public Education in New Orleans" ("SPENO") on a near annual basis. During that time, the purpose, content, and audience of the report have evolved. This edition of the report is a snapshot of public education in the current academic year using aggregated…

The Oregon Statewide Report Card is an annual publication required by law (ORS 329.115), which reports on the state of public schools and their progress towards the goals of the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century. The purpose of the Oregon Statewide Report Card is to monitor trends among school districts and Oregon's progress toward…

In conjunction with the White House Next Gen High School Summit on November 10, a new report finds that the number of high school dropouts decreased from 1 million in 2008 to approximately 750,000 in 2012. The report, released by the Alliance for Excellent Education, America's Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, and Everyone Graduates Center,…

This article examines the impacts of the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC), a statewide college-preparatory curriculum that applies to the high school graduating class of 2011 and later. Our analyses suggest that the higher expectations embodied in the MMC had slight impact on student outcomes. Looking at student performance in the ACT, the only…

Enterprise software implementations are subject to high failure rates. Organizations of higher education can be particularly resistant to technology implementations as they can be perceived as eroding the traditions of the institution. The California State University (CSU) system is moving into a new phase of data-driven accountability for…

As community colleges work to improve completion rates, these institutions are also developing homegrown metrics that better represent how they are really doing--and, in many places, these metrics are driving the reforms necessary to improve. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) defines student success as the number of full-time…