For students pursuing a postsecondary education, where they go is as important as whether they go. National College Attainment Network ("NCAN") member programs and college access programs more broadly often inform students about their likelihood of completing a degree at their prospective postsecondary destinations as part of the…

This report contains three parts: the "Graduation Pathway Options Report" with Foreword by the State Board, "Washington Graduation Pathway Options: Stakeholder Feedback Project Year 3, Volume I," and "Washington Graduation Pathway Options: Stakeholder Feedback Project Year 3, Volume II." The graduation pathway is one…

Utilizing a lottery-based natural experiment, this study assessed the longer-term impact of early colleges on postsecondary degree attainment. It found that early colleges significantly increased the overall degree completion and associate degree completion rates within 10 years of expected high school graduation. While the impact on bachelor's…

For the United States to regain the top ranking in the world for college degree attainment, Latinos will need to earn 6.2 million degrees by 2030. To reach the Latino degree attainment goal by 2030, the United States can close the degree completion gap by accelerating Latino completion while increasing for all students and scale up programs and…

A college degree typically helps graduates earn more when they enter the labor force and is a key driver of economic mobility. However, many students who enroll in college do not finish, reflecting numerous academic, financial, and social emotional barriers students may face to succeeding in college and completing a degree, from being…

Recent research suggests that dual enrollment programs are a useful recruiting tool for colleges and universities as many high school students remain at their dual enrollment institution after high school graduation. Students staying enrolled at their dual enrollment institution for college may be beneficial for institutions, but is it beneficial…

Acting on data about both part-time and full-time students is essential to moving the needle on college completion. It also is an equity issue. Part-time student attainment rates severely lag behind those of their full-time counterparts, regardless of sector or timeframe. And part-time students are disproportionately BILPOC (Black, Indigenous,…

Many states use high-school exit examinations to assess students' career and college readiness in core subjects. We find meaningful consequences of barely passing the mathematics examination in Massachusetts, as opposed to just failing it. However, these impacts operate at different educational attainment margins for low-income and higher-income…

Noncognitive constructs such as self-efficacy, social awareness, and academic engagement are widely acknowledged as critical components of human capital, but systematic data collection on such skills in school systems is complicated by conceptual ambiguities, measurement challenges and resource constraints. This study addresses this issue by…

Community colleges in the United States, which serve a disproportionate number of students from low-income backgrounds, can provide a valuable pathway toward well-paying careers. However, graduation rates at community colleges are very low--among first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who enter public two-year schools, only 29 percent…

In Chicago, despite an increase in high school graduates and college enrollment, only one in four community college students graduate within three years. COVID-19 exacerbated longstanding barriers to college success faced by students from low-income backgrounds, as well as for Black, Latino, and Indigenous students. Without proactive interventions…

This report analyzes the descriptive outcomes for students with disabilities (SWDs) from schools overseen by the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) who enrolled in postsecondary institutions. Data provided by USBE, the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE), and the Department of Workforce Services (DWS) allowed for the examination of metrics…

Charter high schools largely serving low-income, first-generation, Black and Hispanic students have long boasted of the comparatively high proportions of their students who graduate and go to college. But as these schools and their alumni grow older, charters also are looking at their rates of degree attainment, which remain lower than they'd…

The Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) is the nation's largest network of public charter schools. KIPP began as a network of charter middle schools designed to serve underserved communities, with the goal of closing achievement gaps and preparing students to succeed in college. KIPP has since expanded its model to include elementary and high…

Degree completion rates have recently dominated national debates regarding the value of higher education (Gagliardi et al., 2018). Inherent in this debate is the issue of how to utilize institutional data to evaluate student performance (Hubbard et al., 2020). This process, known as data-driven decision-making (DDDM), has been studied at four-year…