What's New for July 2009

Students Who Study Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in Postsecondary Education (July 29, 2009)
This Statistics in Brief focuses on undergraduates who enter STEM programs, examining their characteristics and postsecondary outcomes (persistence and degree completion) several years after beginning postsecondary education. Using data from the 1995-96 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:96/01), the study found that 23 percent of 1995–96 beginning postsecondary students had majored in a STEM field at some point between their initial enrollment in 1995–96 and about 6 years later, as of 2001. STEM entrants generally did better than non-STEM entrants in terms of bachelor’s degree attainment and overall persistence. However, not all STEM entrants stayed in their fields; roughly one-third who entered a STEM field during their first year had switched to a non-STEM field at some point over the next 6 years. Among all STEM entrants between 1995–96 and 2001, some 53 percent persisted in a STEM field by either completing a degree in a STEM field or staying enrolled in a STEM field, and the remaining 47 percent left STEM fields by either switching to a non-STEM field or leaving postsecondary education without earning any credential.

On Track to Complete? A Taxonomy of Beginning Community College Students and Their Outcomes 3 Years After Enrolling: 2003-04 through 2006 (July 28, 2009)
This study uses a classification scheme, the Community College Taxonomy (CCT), to analyze outcomes for beginning community college students according to how "directed" (strongly directed, moderately directed, or not directed) they are toward completing a program of study. Levels of direction are based on factors associated with student persistence and degree attainment, and outcomes examined included institutional retention, student persistence, 4-year transfer rates, enrollment continuity, and first-year attrition. The study is based on data from the 2004/06 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06), a national sample of undergraduates who enrolled in postsecondary institutions for the first time between July 1, 2003, and June 30, 2004; participants were interviewed in 2004 and 2006. This study includes only students who initially enrolled in a community college and were not enrolled concurrently in any other institution.

NCES Statewide Longitudinal Data System Grants Request for Applications 84.384 (FY 2010) (July 24, 2009)
The purpose of grants under this program is to enable State educational agencies to design, develop, and implement statewide, longitudinal data systems to efficiently and accurately manage, analyze, disaggregate, and use individual student data. The long–term goal of the program is to enable all States to create comprehensive P-20 systems that permit the generation and use of accurate and timely data, support analysis and informed decision-making at all levels of the education system, increase the efficiency with which data may be analyzed to support the continuous improvement of education services and outcomes, facilitate research to improve student academic achievement and close achievement gaps, support education accountability systems, and simplify the processes used by State educational agencies to make education data transparent through Federal and public reporting. The grants awarded will support the development and implementation of systems that have the capacity to link individual student data across time and across databases (i.e., are "interoperable"), including the matching of teachers to students, promote the linking of data collected or held by various institutions, agencies, and States, and protect student privacy consistent with applicable privacy protection laws. The submission deadline for the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant is November 19, 2009.

A Profile of Successful Pell Grant Recipients: Time to Bachelor’s Degree and Early Graduate School Enrollment (July 21, 2009)
This report describes characteristics of college graduates who received Pell Grants and compares them to graduates who were not Pell Grant recipients. For both groups of graduates, data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:2000/01) were analyzed to determine the time it took them to complete a bachelor’s degree as well as the percentage who enrolled in graduate school within one year of college graduation.

Achievement Gaps: How Black and White Students in Public Schools Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (July 14, 2009)
The study examines data from all main NAEP mathematics and reading assessments through 2007, supplemented by data from long-term trend NAEP results through 2004. Readers will find context for understanding these gaps, as the report examines both the changes in the performance of Black and White students and the changes in the Black-White achievement gap over time.