Tracking is widespread in U.S. education. In post-secondary education alone, at least 71% of colleges use a test to track students. However, there are concerns that the most frequently used college placement exams lack validity and reliability, and unnecessarily place students from under-represented groups into remedial courses. While recent…

Textbooks are traditional and useful learning resources for college students, but commercial texts books have been widely criticized for their high costs, restricted access, limited flexibility, and uninspiring learning experiences. Open Education Resources (OER) are an alternative to commercial textbooks that have the potential to increase…

The rise of competency-based education (CBE) has redefined what college looks like for a growing number of students. The basic idea underlying CBE is simple: programs award credit based on demonstrated student competencies rather than on the amount of time a student has spent in a given course. Recent advances in technology, including online…

In American higher education, it has become the accepted standard to measure graduation rates at four-year colleges on a six-year time frame. Evaluations of two-year community colleges are now based on three-year graduation rates. Metrics like these are unacceptable, especially when we consider that students and their families are trying…

The Measurement and Evaluation Center coordinates credit by examination at the University of Texas at Austin. Credit earned by examination is equivalent to credit earned by taking the course, but cannot be counted as credit earned in residence. To receive credit by examination, the student must also meet all other conditions of eligibility…

The relationship between course loads of students and their grade point average (GPA) was studied at the Makkah Campus of Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia. Students from all six departments of the college of Shariah whose course loads were between 13 and 18 credit hours were studied and compared with students from the combined departments of…

The codebook for the Postsecondary Education Transcript File of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72), which is a machine-readable data file containing information on transcripts from NLS-72 senior cohort members who reported attending a postsecondary institution after high school, is presented. Records were…

The Postsecondary Education Transcript File of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72) is a machine-readable data file containing information on transcripts from NLS-72 senior cohort members who reported attending a postsecondary institution after high school. Records were obtained from all types of educational…

Curriculum, in its most common meaning, is a set of requirements that constitute an academic program. This study is concerned with what has been happening to undergraduate education in the United States in terms of curriculum. Phase I of the study examines degree requirements in 1967 and 1974 with regard to the specified minimum number of credit…

The "National Longitudinal Study (NLS) of the High School Class of 1972: Base Year (1972) through Fourth Follow-up (1979)" machine-readable data file (MRDF) is a single merged file of student responses to the original interviews or tests in 1972 and the mail follow-up surveys of 1973, 1974, 1976, and 1979. The 1972 data were gathered by…