This report presents quantitative data from an ongoing longitudinal study, the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, on degree attainment rates at institutions of higher education. The report covers national degree completion data for three time intervals--4, 6, and 9 years--broken down by institutional type, student gender, and student…

This report details the latest findings from the biennial Maryland Adolescent Survey of the extent and trends in alcohol, tobacco, and drug use among students. To permit comparisons with national findings and trends, the form and content of survey items parallel those of the annual national study "Monitoring the Future," conducted by the…

This Kids Count report details county and statewide trends in the well-being of Oklahoma's children. The statistical report is based on eight indicators of child well being: (1) economic distress; (2) percent low birthweight infants; (3) infant mortality rate; (4) births to teens; (5) child abuse and neglect rates; (6) child and teen death rate;…

This report contains seven essays on current issues in higher education and a 1995-96 faculty salary report. "Faculty Salaries, 1995-96" (John B. Lee) provides an overview of faculty salaries, while "Faculty Workload and Productivity: Ethnic and Gender Disparities (Henry L. Allen) examines the ethnic and gender differences in…

The social network characteristics of a culturally and racially diverse group of first-year college students (n=208) and white students (n=84) attending the same college were examined at the time of college entry and at the beginning of the second semester. Relationships between network characteristics and college adjustment in the second semester…

This study compared Chinese-American and Caucasian-American children and families in order to better understand which cultural and family characteristics, parent beliefs, and parent practices operate at the early childhood level to produce the more uniform high level of math achievement among Asian-American children. Forty second-generation…

This study examines the October 1991 exit-level Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) mathematics results of 18,290 11th-grade Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and White non-Hispanic Americans from Texas urban districts. Substantial differences existed in the passing rates of the three ethnic groups. The passing rate for White…

This study focuses on the current status of women in Louisiana, making gender, national, and historical comparisons as data were readily available within the timeframe of this investigation. The research aims to identify: (1) statistical gender differences in available measures of education, employment, and other forms of social participation; (2)…

A brief sketch is presented of the assessment strategies of the College Board in two unique programs, EQUITY 2000 and Pacesetter, both works in progress that attempt to meet the challenges of the new era of equity and excellence in education. EQUITY 2000, launched in 1990, is a multi-faceted approach to closing the gap between college-going rates…

The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72) is the "grandmother" of the longitudinal studies designed and conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, and is probably the richest archive ever assembled on a generation of Americans. Participants were selected as high school seniors in 1972 and…

An explanation of why Asian American students perform better than others in school may lie in the nature of the learning programs they receive at home. The purpose of this paper is to define such programs that account for most of the differences in academic achievement among racial/ethnic groups. Data were used from the National Education…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has measured students' progress toward higher achievement since 1969, assessing students in public and nonpublic schools in various subject areas on a regular basis. The NAEP has also collected background information about students to provide a context for interpreting assessment results and…

A study was done to compare Asian American and Anglo American students' attitudes toward motivation, learning environment, academic self-concept, involvement, affiliation, and parent involvement in the learning of mathematics. Survey data of 1,200 Asian- and 1,200 Anglo-American middle school students were collected. A stratified sampling…

Statewide information concerning the Connecticut eight-grade public school students who particpated in the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) in the spring of 1988 is presented. Over 900 students in 46 schools in 35 school districts, almost evenly divided between males and females, completed cognitive tests and student surveys about…

Test-taking differences between the sexes on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) were studied to determine if girls and boys, both white and African American, had different problem-solving styles that affected their ability to respond correctly on the test. Two studies are described. The first study, "An Investigation of the Performance…