Search

This paper examines the impact, characteristics, and entrepreneurial proclivities of foreign-born college graduates in the United States. A significant body of research has found that immigrants are more likely to start businesses than those born in the U.S., and the propensity of international students to concentrate in STEM fields indicates enormous potential for economic contributions and innovation. Yet the static nature of the immigration system, with visa pathways and restrictions that discourage business creation, hamper the nation's ability to take full advantage of the benefits immigrants can provide. In fact, this study finds that the U.S. immigration system likely delays foreign-born graduates from creating incorporated firms by as many as five years. The authors estimate that the creation of 150,000 incorporated firms and 580,000 jobs were delayed between 2013 and 2021. Without reform, the U.S. will continue to depress high-value firm creation by international students and cease to be the primary destination of global talent.

In this brief, the authors examine changes in enrollments at the Los Angeles Community College District between fall 2017 and summer 2023 to document the extent of pandemic-era enrollment declines overall and across student populations.

We study changes to teacher working conditions from 2016-17 to 2022-23, covering school years before, during, and after the COVID pandemic. We show working conditions were improving leading into the pandemic but declined when the pandemic arrived. Perhaps more surprisingly, the pandemic was not a low point: teacher working conditions have continued to decline during the post-pandemic period. Teachers report worsening working conditions along many dimensions including the level of classroom disruptions, student responsibility, and safety, among others. They also report declines in trust between themselves and principals, parents, and other teachers. Trends in working conditions since the pandemic are similar in schools serving more and less socioeconomically advantaged students. However, schools in districts where online learning was the predominant mode of instruction during the 2020-21 school year have experienced larger declines than other schools.

The data presented in this report provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. The level of commitment to education varies on a state-by-state basis. National Education Association (NEA) Research offers this report to its state and local affiliates as well as to researchers, policymakers, and the public as a tool to examine public education programs and services. Part I of this report -- Rankings 2023 -- provides state-level data on an array of topics relevant to the complex enterprise of public education. Part II of this report -- Estimates 2024 -- is in its 80th year of production. Estimates provides data tables projecting public school enrollment, employment and compensation of personnel, and finances, as reported by individual state departments of education. Part III of this report -- National Trends 2015-24 -- presents summary data of national trends in student enrollment and attendance, staff salaries, sources of school funding, and levels of educational expenditures in the previous 10 years. [For "Rankings of the States 2022 and Estimates of School Statistics 2023. NEA Research," see ED628838.]

The Campaign for College Opportunity has always been a champion of ensuring equal and equitable treatment of all students in higher education. The Campaign for College Opportunity recognizes the value and necessity of understanding the experience of diverse learners by disaggregating data to explore trends, opportunities, and challenges. More importantly, it seeks to bring attention to the expertise, assets, and strengths of Americans from all backgrounds, while ensuring that solutions are targeted to support these same students. This is the first of four briefs within the Campaign for College Opportunity's national initiative that highlight specific practices to support American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN), Latinx, Black, Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) students more equitably. This brief is tailored and informed by experts, best practices, and an authentic commitment to ensure that all American Indian and Alaska Native students can go to college and succeed without sacrificing or leaving their cultural assets behind. [Additional funding for this series of briefs was provided by Eileen and Harold Brown.]

Most selective colleges implemented test-optional admissions during the pandemic, making college entrance exam scores optional for applicants. We draw on descriptive, two-way fixed effects, and event study methods to examine variation in test-optional implementation during the pandemic and how implementation relates to selectivity and enrollment. For "test-optional" colleges during the pandemic, we found substantial variation in policy type (e.g., test optional, test free) and whether the policy extended to all applicants and scholarship consideration. Findings suggest test-optional implementation related to increases in Black student enrollment, mostly at moderately selective colleges and when policies extended to all applicants and scholarships. At highly selective colleges, findings suggest test-optional implementation related to an increase in applications but not consistent gains in enrollment.

This chartbook is the 14th version to be produced for the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). The Chartbook describes the diversity of the Appalachian Region on a host of demographic and economic measures and provides an important annual view of the area and its people. The data contained in the 2018-2022 Chartbook describe how residents in the Appalachian Region were faring before and during the COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020. Nearly half of the years during this time period were pre-pandemic and half were during the pandemic era. Thus, this Chartbook is a blend of these two eras. As future data releases reflect the post-pandemic era, data users will have additional insights on the long-term changes that the pandemic brought to Appalachia's social and economic dynamics. Most of the data shown here come from the 2018-2022 American Community Survey (ACS), a nationwide study collected continuously every year in every county in the United States by the U.S. Census Bureau. The ACS is designed to provide communities with reliable and timely demographic, social, economic, and housing data each year. To provide as much county-level data as possible, we use ACS 5-year data files which provide reliable estimates for geographic areas with fewer than 20,000 people. Since many counties in the Appalachian Region have fewer than 20,000 residents, these data permit comparable statistics for all 423 counties in the Region. The primary purpose of the ACS is to measure the changing characteristics of the U.S. population in a way that is continually updated. The estimates in this Chartbook, therefore, are data collected over the five-year (or 60-month) period from January 2018 through December 2022. These ACS estimates are not averages of monthly or annual values, but rather an aggregation of data collected continuously over that time period.

The fall 2023 and spring 2024 undergraduate enrollment increases, marking the first growth since the COVID-19 pandemic, show signs of a post-pandemic turnaround for higher education. However, a significant share of current undergraduates will eventually disengage from college before earning a degree or other credential. They will join tens of millions of other adult Americans who are Some College, No Credential (SCNC). The SCNC population has been consistently rising over time. Re-engaging those who stop out remains a persistent challenge and a priority for the forty states that have set ambitious postsecondary attainment goals. This report aims to provide timely insights into the SCNC population, offering state leaders and policymakers accurate data on its current status, along with tracking progress and outcome measures for SCNC students. The first section of this report describes who makes up the SCNC population and how it has changed since the last report. In this section, the authors pay particular attention to Recent Stopouts, who joined the SCNC population after being stopped out between January 2021 and July 2022. In the second section, the authors report on SCNC re-enrollment in the 2022-23 academic year as well as first-year credential earning for re-enrollees. The authors also provide new updates on continued enrollment and second-year credential earning for SCNC re-enrollees in the 2021-22 academic year, whom were first reported on last year.

Across the country, as technology continues to advance rapidly, the labor market exhibits a growing need for workers who receive frequent and ongoing skill development. Employers in many fields struggle to find adequately trained workers to meet their needs. Community college noncredit career and technical education (CTE) programs are an important contributor to skill and workforce development and help to close this "skills gap." This brief summarizes early findings from a study of FastForward, which uses a pay-for-performance model to fund noncredit CTE programs at the 23 colleges in the Virginia Community College System. FastForward aims to increase the supply of workers who receive credentials for high-demand occupations in Virginia. The FastForward study is focused on identifying institutional and programmatic factors that may influence learners' academic and labor market outcomes. This brief presents findings on the different approaches used by colleges and programs to deliver training, student and staff experiences in these CTE programs, and students' academic and labor market outcomes.

Statistics Canada releases data on the labour market outcomes of college and university graduates using data from the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP). Statistics Canada has developed the ELMLP in collaboration with the provincial and territorial ministries of education, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), and other stakeholders. The ELMLP allows longitudinal integration of administrative data related to education with other data sources to provide anonymized, customized datasets for analytical purposes. The data used for the calculation of graduate outcome indicators are derived from the Postsecondary Student Information System (PSIS) and selected tax variables from the T1 Family File (T1FF) and the Administrative Personal Income Masterfile (APIM). Using both PSIS and tax data, eleven graduating cohorts from the 2010 to 2020 calendar years were derived for the 2024 release.

This report outlines the results of the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in England. PIRLS is an international comparative study directed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. The aim of PIRLS is to assess and compare the reading performance of pupils in their fourth year of formal schooling across participating countries. 57 countries took part in PIRLS 2021 and this is the national report for England.

"Brown v. Board of Education" held that the educational systems of seventeen states that mandated segregated schools violated the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection. The decision helped set off the civil rights revolution. However, after so many years of backlash, schools of the South are dramatically less segregated than what existed before "Brown." "Brown" brought to a head the conflict between the professed belief in equal opportunity and the reality of clearly inferior schools for Black and Latino children. Many whites saw the desegregation changes that the courts and federal agencies ordered as a threat. From a civil rights perspective, the battle was for connecting young people of color to transformative educational opportunities. Opponents mobilized and they attacked the courts and the law. This report examines the changing patterns of segregation and diversity in U.S. public schools, updating earlier work with contemporary and historical data. At a time when U.S. social and political polarization are severe and race relations are dangerously strained, schools matter even more.

This First Look report provides selected findings from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) Postsecondary Education Administrative Records Collection (PEAR). HSLS:09 follows a nationally representative sample of students who were ninth-graders in fall 2009 from high school into postsecondary education and the workforce. The PEAR data collection was conducted in 2021, approximately 8 years after high school graduation for most of the cohort. These data provide information on whether fall 2009 ninth-graders enrolled in postsecondary education by June 2021, and allow researchers to examine enrollment characteristics, degree completion, and financial aid awards for the subset of fall 2009 ninth-graders who enrolled in postsecondary education.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted nearly every aspect of the social and economic lives of individuals, families, and communities. It also highlighted and deepened existing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. Education, too, was negatively impacted by the pandemic. Research has provided ample evidence about the challenges related to learning loss, access, and mental health among students in elementary and secondary schools. Students' achievement, attendance, and grade-level progression declined substantially more than expected during the pandemic (Fuller et al. 2023; Strunk et al. 2023). And students of color, low-income students, and those who attended high-poverty schools experienced substantially slower growth in their test scores during the pandemic as compared to their pre-COVID growth (Peters et al. 2023). This report builds on this emerging evidence, focusing on trends in Rhode Island and bringing granular, longitudinal, student-level administrative data to bear on the following questions: (1) How has postsecondary enrollment and persistence changed during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) Did students change the kinds of institutions in which they enrolled? (3) How do trends in enrollment and persistence compare across student subgroups (for instance, by race and socioeconomic status) and by institution type? and (4) How do students' high school experiences shape their postsecondary pathways?

The Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund had two main purposes: (1) to ensure that colleges could continue to provide education to students in the wake of the pandemic and (2) to provide emergency financial assistance through colleges directly to students. Four years after the onset of the pandemic, this ARCC Network brief uses college financial data--including data recently released for fiscal year 2022--to look at what happened to college finances and to assess the importance of HEER funding for the financial solvency of community colleges over the course of the pandemic. The authors find that during the peak years of the pandemic (2020-2022), community colleges lost huge numbers of students: On average, colleges lost 580 full-time-equivalent (FTE) students or 15% of pre-pandemic year-on-year enrollment, whereas college enrollments typically fluctuate by +/-2% each year. The authors also find that federal HEER funding saved community colleges from massive losses in tuition revenue during the pandemic. Instead of losing revenue, HEER funding increased total revenue per college from $81 million to $84 million, covering lost tuition and offsetting new costs associated with the pandemic. HEER funding also provided $4 million in student aid per college, on average, making up for lost resources students experienced during the pandemic. The authors--who also wrote an associated blog post that includes an interactive dashboard on this topic--contend that community colleges are confronting new fiscal challenges post-pandemic. As HEER funding has ended, many community colleges are faced with a difficult fiscal outlook, with increased costs due to inflation and decreased overall enrollments relative to pre-pandemic levels. Navigating these new fiscal realities will be extremely challenging for community colleges, raising new concerns about the viability of many colleges in the post-pandemic era. [This report was written with the Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges (ARCC) Network.]

Efforts to strengthen the pipeline to college degree completion have focused on improving college access and providing academic, social, and financial supports to students post-enrollment. This paper explores one facet of postsecondary education that has served as a barrier to both college access and success--developmental education--which has proven to exacerbate racial inequities in academic progress in higher education and has effectively decreased college access for low-income students and students of color. After more than a decade of trying to tackle the developmental education problem indirectly through basic skills-related initiatives, task forces, and success initiatives, the California state legislature passed Assembly Bill 705 (AB705) in 2017, which directed colleges to replace standardized placement tests with multiple measures of high school performance to determine college readiness. In this paper, the authors describe the research that prompted developmental education reform approaches nationally and in California, describe the efforts in California that led to the passing of AB705, and summarize research on its implementation and outcomes. Building on analysis of the research, the paper concludes with five key practice and policy recommendations for California community college leaders as they move toward realizing a civil rights agenda for college access and success in the next 25 years: (1) Address faculty and practitioners' beliefs; (2) Move from structural to instructional reform; (3) Improve data accessibility, reporting, and accountability; (4) Expand equitable college access opportunities for students in high school; and (5) Address barriers facing English learners.

In 2021-2022, Head Start served nearly 790,000 young children, primarily from low-income families. However, the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) estimates that far more children are eligible than can be served due to limited resources, heightening the importance of targeting services effectively. House Report 117-96 includes a provision for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the nationwide distribution of Head Start resources and what could help better align funding with need. This report examines the extent to which: (1) Head Start resources align geographically with child poverty; (2) statutory provisions support aligning resources with need; and (3) Office of Head Start (OHS), uses its grantmaking authority to align resources with need. GAO analyzed Head Start enrollment data from 2022 and Head Start funding and Census child poverty data from 2006 and 2021 (most recent available comparable data), interviewed OHS officials and stakeholder organizations, such as the National Head Start Association; and reviewed relevant federal laws and agency documents.

Transforming education systems to be fit for the 21st century is the common thread for creating inclusive and equitable societies resilient to conflict, climate change and economic crises. Now is the time for increased investment in African education systems. This paper describes: (1) the state of Africa's educational landscape; (2) innovative approaches to increase education financing; and (3) what can be done to put education back at the forefront of Africa's policy agenda while sparking improved outcomes across the entire education spectrum. [Additional collaborators for this paper include the African Development Bank and the African Union.]

In the largest U.S. metropolitan areas, suburban school districts enroll 14.4 million students, far more than the 6 million students enrolled in the same metros' urban districts. In fact, students enrolled in the suburban school districts surrounding the 25 largest metropolitan areas represent roughly 30% of the nation's entire public school enrollment. Suburban growth has occurred alongside the creation of a segregated, metropolitan society through policy, law and practice. Discriminatory loan practices, federal highway construction, site selection for subsidized housing and exclusionary zoning are examples of how racial discrimination permeated to origins suburban society. State and federal governments are dominated politically by those representing suburban constituents too often eager to maintain an exclusionary status quo. As shifting populations change suburban school enrollment, education policy trends formerly confined to urban districts have spread to suburban ones. Many suburban school districts have experienced growth in the charter school sector, as well as a rash of school closures. Suburban schools and districts reflect broader societal problems, paradigms, and possibilities. This paper draws on federal enrollment data from the nation's largest 25 metros from 2011-2020 to descriptively analyze suburban school enrollment and segregation at the school district-level, seeking to understand different district contexts and their relationship to student segregation.

Over the year, Advance CTE and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) tracked state activity, cataloged final state policy actions, and categorized trends based on the policy areas of focus. "State Policies Impacting CTE: 2023 Year in Review" provides an analysis that spans 47 states that enacted 115 policies, which marks the second-highest number of states in the past decade, surpassed only by the landmark year of 2017 when all 50 states implemented CTE-related policies. The policy areas that states focused on in 2023 were similar to previous years with industry partnerships and work-based learning as the top policy area for the second consecutive year.

This report highlights the findings of the sixteenth survey of states conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). It has been administered for more than three decades to collect information from states about the participation and performance of students with disabilities in the assessments that comprise the comprehensive assessment system. Topics addressed included: accessibility and accommodations, alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS), interim assessments, accountability, English learners with disabilities, technology, graduation requirements, State Systemic Improvement Plans (SSIPs)/State-identified Measurable Results (SiMRs), family engagement, and technical assistance needs.

Charter schools are public schools governed by an independent board of directors that come into existence through a contract with an authorized public chartering agency. This report, known as the Illinois Charter School Biennial Report, provides legislators, policymakers, educators, and the general public with information regarding the state of Illinois' charter schools. In compliance with Section 27A-12 of the Charter Schools Law [105 ILCS 5/27A-12], it contains information that: (1) compares the academic performance of charter school students to the performance of their peers in traditional public schools; (2) analyzes whether or not exemption from certain regulations allows charter schools to better meet their stated goals and objectives; and (3) recommends any changes to the Charter Schools Law. This report also includes authorizer-specific information for each school district authorizer in the state, including: (1) the authorizer's strategic vision for chartering and progress toward achieving that vision; (2) the status of each authorizer's charter school portfolio; and (3) the authorizing functions provided by the authorizer to the charter schools under its purview, including its operating costs and expenses. [For the 2019-2020, 2020-2021 report, see ED618454.]

Postsecondary education in the US--all formal learning experiences beyond high school, including two- and four-year degree programs and occupational and credential programs--is experiencing a momentous transformation in response to changing conditions and the demands of students, employers, and the economy. Yet public trust in higher education has reached a historic low, and for many in traditional degree programs, rising student debt undermines the return on investment many students expect from their college degree. New thinking and broader pathways are necessary to meet the demands of tomorrow's workforce and society. This Solutions Brief explores the current state of higher education and factors that are leading to this shift away from the traditional model. It considers the modern purpose of postsecondary education and details emerging practices that forge expanded design of and access to career pathways for all. The Brief also outlines recommended strategies to foster a postsecondary ecosystem to meet the needs of the future economy.

The evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) presents an unprecedented opportunity for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to lead in an era characterized by rapid technological advancement and societal transformation. This report explores the integral role HBCUs--with their history of academic excellence and commitment to inclusivity--can play in steering the AI revolution, ensuring that the Black community remains at the forefront of educational, economic, and social progress. Institutional leaders, faculty and instructors, and instructional support staff can benefit from the findings of this report, which is presented in the following sections: (1) Why AI Matters and the Unique Role of HBCUs in the AI Revolution; (2) An AI Policy and Practice Framework for Institutional Development; (3) AI and Curricular Innovation; (4) The Importance of Industry Partnerships and Student Development; and (5) AI at HBCUs: A Path to the Future. [This report was created in collaboration with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.]

This report provides a look at the Fall 2023 term enrollment in categories such as student load, location and demographics of the community college student population. The content and format of this report have been developed through a collaborative effort between the Wyoming Community College Commission (WCCC), the Executive Council, and the Data Governance/Institutional Research Council members representing the seven community colleges. Effective with the Summer 2016 reporting term, data were extracted from the Central Station Instance (CSI) using one report rather than consolidating individual customized reports from all seven colleges.

Facing the persistent challenge of educator turnover in U.S. public school systems, the Kansas Teacher Retention Initiative (KTRI) has been relaunched to delve into the current state of the Kansas educator experience. Building on insights from the inaugural 2021 KTRI study launched in the summer of 2021 in response to a growing teacher shortage, the 2023 KTRI offers a renewed perspective, aiming to amplify educators' voices and examine trends longitudinally. The Kansas Teacher Retention Survey--a comprehensive tool meticulously crafted through extensive research and which aims to explore the critical drivers of teacher engagement and retention--was deployed and administered to all teachers in Kansas. For the 2023 KTRI, a notable surge in participation occurred, with over 24,000 Kansas educators contributing their perspectives, resulting in an overall response rate of 60%. This encompassed 50% of school districts achieving a response rate surpassing 50%, and 61% of districts qualifying for the standard report. The provided insights offer data-driven analysis along with strategic and actionable recommendations for school district leaders. [This report was produced by the Educator Perceptions and Insights Center (EPIC) in partnership with the United School Administrators of Kansas (USA-KS).]

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ban on race-conscious admissions, the pursuit of diversity and equity in higher education is increasingly under threat. While access to higher education has improved overall for historically underrepresented students, the quality of that opportunity remains uneven, particularly along the lines of race/ethnicity and class. Race-conscious affirmative action brought about a modicum of racial and ethnic diversity to selective colleges, and by extension to our social and economic institutions. Yet this still failed to sufficiently increase representation at selective institutions to reflect the growing percentage of underrepresented minority students who are of college age. This report is a retrospective analysis of the changing demographics of selective and open-access institutions from 2009 to 2019, the decade leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Race/ethnicity could still be explicitly considered in the admissions process during that decade. The authors chose to end the analysis with the onset of COVID-19 because the pandemic profoundly altered college enrollment. This report demonstrates that even with race-conscious affirmative action, diversity gains made at the nation's most selective colleges and universities were incremental at best. The US is still a long way from successfully closing equity gaps by race/ethnicity at selective universities, while historically underrepresented students continue to disproportionately enroll in open-access institutions.