The vast disparities in college attendance and graduation rates between students from different class backgrounds is a growing social concern. "Economic Inequality and Higher Education" investigates the connection between income inequality and unequal access to higher education, and proposes solutions that the state and federal governments and…

What accounts for the differences in retention and graduation rates among large public colleges and universities that serve high numbers of low-income students? To answer this question, the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education has conducted two studies to examine the institutional characteristics, practices, and policies…

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education's report,"Measuring Up 2006: The National Report Card on Higher Education" found that among 27 industrialized nations, the United States has fallen to fifth in the percentage of young adults enrolled in college and has dropped to sixteenth in the proportion of those students…

This compendium of narrative and statistical information is an overview of the Oregon University System (OUS) and is produced every two years. The introduction includes a mission and vision statement, a listing of OUS campuses and centers, a history of the institutions, OUS degree partnership programs, and distance education degree programs, OUS…

One of the most pressing issues facing American universities is the number of students who fail to graduate. Nearly one out of five four-year institutions graduate fewer than one-third of its first-time, full-time degree-seeking first-year students within six years. Although there are various explanations for attrition, students often leave for…

As a nation, Kenya hopes to achieve Education for All (EFA) by the year 2015. This is an uphill task given the various challenges in the education sector. The year 2015 is also significant globally because it is the target year for the fulfillment of the eight-millennium goals. Kenya looks forward to have her people achieve the millennium goals…

High school dropout rates in many major urban settings in the United States have remained above 50% for more than three decades. This dropout crisis should now be considered evidence of an endemic lack of appreciation for formal education in city locales. United States federal policy initiatives have concentrated the nation on notions of teacher…

As Harold Lasswell and his colleagues observed of the rhetoric of power (Language of Politics, 1965), some words become magic, with "inexplicable powers" attributed to them. "Access" has become such a word in the discourse of higher education. The sloganistic use of the term implies that someone, somewhere, is preventing somebody from doing…

Graduation rates of the fall semester freshman classes that entered the Bloomington campus of Indiana University between 1980 and 1974 were studied. By examining the percentage of students completing a baccalaureate degree within four years of their matriculation, it was found that the graduation rate from the Bloomington campus significantly…

The issue of retention is a persistent problem in higher education. For the past 100 years, the institutional graduation rate has stubbornly held at the 50 percent mark: half of all students entering higher education fail to realize their dreams and aspirations based on earning a certificate or degree. For students of color in particular, the…

The Arizona Department of Education, as part of compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, provides this state report card for parents. Arizona is committed to achieving the best possible academic education for its children. This includes an emphasis on accountability, discipline and character initiatives, help for schools in delivering…

The consequences of not graduating from high school are increasingly serious for both individuals and society as a whole. As a result, state and federal accountability systems now require reporting of more detailed graduation and dropout data. The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires states to report disaggregated…

Though metropolitan Boston is still one of the nation's whitest metropolitan areas, its growth is increasingly non-white and multiracial. Given the demographic trends and the high fragmentation that characterizes the metropolitan area, students are most segregated in regions where they are highly concentrated: black students in Boston, Latino and…

This publication is a pocket-sized compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from kindergarten through graduate school. It includes selections of data from many government sources, especially drawing on results of surveys and activities carried out by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).…

Four schools in the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) district now have appeared on the state's list of schools needing improvement for four years in a row. After four years on the list, schools are required under federal law to take corrective action, which could include restructuring the internal organization of the school, replacing staff,…