The Condition of Education 2010 report released last week by the National Center for Education Statistics is an annual compilation of data and analyses that detail trends in student enrollment, learner outcomes, educational progress, demographics and school environments from early education to postsecondary levels.

Each year the report includes a special analysis section, this year focused on high poverty public schools. The report indicates that one in six public school students is now enrolled in a high-poverty school and “students who attend high-poverty schools perform persistently lower in math and reading achievement and are less likely to attend four-year colleges when compared to their peers in low-poverty schools.”

This report is full of data snapshots, charts, and graphs that give the reader a sense of how students in our public education systems are faring today. Some of the results that may be of interest include:

Secondary

• Public elementary and secondary enrollment is projected to increase from 49 to 52 million students from 2007-08 through 2019-20. The South is projected to increase its share of enrollment to 40 percent over that period.
• The number of students enrolled in charter schools has nearly quadrupled, from 340,000 to 1.3 million students from 1999 to 2008.
• Among public high school students in the class of 2006–07, the averaged freshman graduation rate was 73.9 percent, or 2.9 million students graduating on time.
• Primary goals cited by secondary school counselors included: helping students with their academic achievement (48 percent), help students plan and prepare for postsecondary schooling (26 percent), help them with personal growth and development (17 percent), and help them plan and prepare for their work roles after high school (8 percent).

Postsecondary

• From 2000 to 2008, undergraduate enrollment increased by 24 percent to 16.4 million students, and is projected to increase further, reaching 19.0 million students in 2019.
• At 2-year institutions, undergraduate enrollment increased from 5.9 to 7.0 million students from 2000 to 2008 and is expected to reach 8.2 million students by 2019. Full-time enrollment increased from 2.2 to 2.8 million students (28 percent), while part-time enrollment increased from 3.7 to 4.1 million students (11 percent).
• One-half of the undergraduates who start at a public 2-year institution with the intention of obtaining a bachelor’s degree and about one-fourth of those who start with an associate’s degree goal transfer to a 4-year institution within 6 years.
• Between 1997–98 and 2007–08, the number of degrees earned increased by 34 percent for associate’s degrees, by 32 percent for bachelor’s degrees, and by 45 percent for master’s degrees.
• Of the 750,200 associate’s degrees earned in 2007–08, 55 percent were awarded in two broad areas of study: liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities (34 percent) and health professions and related clinical sciences (21 percent). Several fields experienced a decline in the number of associate’s degrees awarded: associate’s degrees in engineering and engineering technologies decreased by 8 percent from 2007–08 to 1997–98.

Tags: community colleges, Data, postsecondary, Secondary

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 10:06 am and is filed under Publications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.