MIE's Successful Leadership in STEM Education

A new report, released by the Institute for Higher Education Policy, and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), profiles an 11-year successful initiative to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) enrollment and graduation rates at select minority-serving institutions. A Model of Success: The Model Institutions for Excellence Program’s Successful Leadership in STEM Education tracks the range of successful strategies utilized at the schools under the program called the Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE). This report offers a brief summary and outlines the strategies, impacts, and lessons learned through the MIE program to ultimately produce a replicable model for other institutions of higher education and synthesize larger policy recommendations.

Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment

Dual enrollment programs enable high school students to enroll in college courses and earn college credit. Once limited to high-achieving students, such programs are increasingly seen as a means to support the postsecondary preparation of average-achieving students. The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment: An Analysis of Student Outcomes in Two States, published by the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE), seeks to answer several questions regarding their effectiveness using rigorous quantitative methods by examining the impact of dual enrollment participation for students in the State of Florida and in New York City. Results indicate that dual enrollment is a useful strat­egy for encouraging postsecondary success for all students, including those in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.

Designing State Community College Data and Performance Measurement Systems

Across higher education, there is a growing interest in strengthening systems that track and make visible student progress and success. This policy brief grew out of a collaborative effort among seven states that are participants in Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count to develop a set of indicators that states can use to more effectively track student performance, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, and learn from the strengths of other community college systems. This guide is intended to help states design and implement performance measurement and data systems to maximize improvement, particularly for students who traditionally have not fared well in college.

Closing the College Achievement Gap

College achievement gaps continue to exist between Americans of varying income levels and ethnic/racial groups. As part of “Access to Success”, a group of 19 public college systems all have agreed to cut in half their own gaps in college-going and college graduation rates for low-income students and those from underrepresented minority groups by 2015. Each system will craft its own plan and begin publicly reporting uniform data on the rate at which low-income and minority students in their states enroll in system institutions and earn degrees. Officials from the participating systems will also work together to share ideas about and attack some of the underlying issues that affect them all.

Transition to College

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics provides selective, nationally representative information about the transition of 2002 high school sophomores to college, including the types of postsecondary institutions at which they are enrolling, whether the attendance rates and institution types very across student characteristics and high school experiences, and their choice of major and other characteristics of their enrollment. Findings include:

• Seventy percent of spring 2002 sophomores had enrolled in a postsecondary institution by 2006 (60 percent with “immediate” enrollment).
• By 2006, 27 percent of spring 2002 sophomores had enrolled in a 4-year public college or university, 13 percent had enrolled in a 4-year private college or university, and 27 percent had enrolled in a 2-year institution.
• The location of the school was the most common reason that spring 2002 sophomores who attended a postsecondary institution gave for choosing their first school.
• The most common reason that spring 2002 sophomores who had enrolled in and left a postsecondary institution by 2006 gave for their exit was financial considerations.

Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Follow-up

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) is the first nationally representative study within the United States to directly assess children’s early mental and physical development, the quality of their early care and education settings, and the contributions of their fathers, as well as their mothers, in their lives. This First Look report provides descriptive information on certain characteristics of this population of children when they were about age four. Findings include:

• Three-quarters of the children in the study were living in two parent households.
• On average, females demonstrated higher receptive vocabulary, and expressive language knowledge and skills than males.
• Children with two-parent families scored higher than children with single-parent families on the overall literacy scale score
• Forty percent of children from lower socioeconomic status families and 87 percent of children in higher socioeconomic status families demonstrated proficiency in numbers and shapes.
• Twenty percent of the children were in no regular early care and education arrangement; 45 percent were in a center-based (non-Head Start) setting; 13 percent were in a Head Start setting; 13 percent were in a home-based relative care setting; and 8 percent were in a home-based non-relative care setting.