As an unprecedented number of colleges and universities close their doors forever while others struggle to survive, a deep pool of prospective students--and the key to accessing them--is hiding in plain sight. Students from rural America attend college at lower rates (59%) than their urban (62%) and suburban (67%) counterparts and comprise only…

We analyze the effect of Colombia's ambitious "Free Housing" program on children's educational outcomes. The program was generous, giving free housing to beneficiaries in desirable areas. We evaluate the program by leveraging housing lotteries and linking applicants to their children. We find that public housing increases high school…

Conferred by businesses, industry groups, and state certifying entities, industry-recognized credentials (IRCs) are intended to signal that students have mastered specific workplace knowledge and skills. This first-of-its-kind study assesses the impact of specific IRCs earned in high school on various employment and postsecondary outcomes for…

In this descriptive study, we use longitudinal student-level administrative records from 4 cohorts of high school graduates in Kentucky to examine the extent to which students persist and attain post-secondary credentials in the CTE fields of concentration they choose in high school. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use student-level…

This study explored the relationship between high school sophomores' purpose orientations and their postsecondary completion a decade later by examining the data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Among four types of purpose (career, interpersonal, altruistic, and self-oriented), career and interpersonal purpose orientations were…

The District has received the FY20 high school graduates' college matriculation data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). The Department of Research & Evaluation (DRE) has performed a preliminary analysis of college enrollment for students who graduated from the District between FY16 and FY202, persistence rate for students who…

In recent years, multiple-measures teaching evaluation systems have become widespread in states and school districts around the United States. Using administrative data from Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) and the National Student Clearinghouse, we examine the relationship between exposure to different ratings of teaching effectiveness in high…

We study the effects of the COVID pandemic on educational attainment. By 2022, entry into two-year colleges was 21 percent lower than before the pandemic, with larger declines in Black- and Hispanic-majority colleges. Four-year college entry declined by only 6 percent and then rebounded 4 percent. High school graduation reached an all-time high in…

This brief is the first in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates. A partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes for Baltimore City Public…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine the spiritual resilience and post-secondary academic success of graduates from a Protestant Christian school serving preschool through secondary. In this case study, the researcher strove to measure the five most recent graduating classes' spiritual resiliency, perceptions of the impact of the…

Through the convergence of collaborative efforts of Stark schools and their partners, significant progress was made toward three high-level objectives: high school graduation, college-going rates and degree attainment. This report provides statistics for Stark County's progress.

This brief is the second in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. BERC established a partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System, which has made it possible to examine both college and…

This brief is the third in Baltimore Education Research Consortium's (BERC's) "Launching into Adulthood" series, which examines the trajectories of Baltimore graduates over six years. A partnership with Baltimore's Promise and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System made it possible to examine both college and earnings outcomes for…

Despite several decades of postsecondary expansion, new research finds youth from northern and rural areas in Canada still experience difficulties making the transition to postsecondary education, and those who do attend take longer to do so. Proximity, we argue, may also have a considerable impact on one's field selection, as many of Canada's…

Taking at least one arts course in high school has been linked to higher school engagement as well as other positive cognitive, behavioral and social outcomes. Many states and local education agencies require arts credits for high school graduation. In 2013, 25 states required that high school students must have completed at least 0.5 credits in…