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Latest Research: "To a Culture of No Excuses"
High school graduation ceremonies are fast approaching. In the next few weeks over 6,700 Charlotte-Mecklenburg seniors will receive their diplomas and this should signal they are prepared to successfully enter postsecondary education or in work. But are they?
If past trends continue, about 2,350 of these seniors will enroll in one of the schools within the University of North Carolina system. Of these, only a little over 1,300 (or 56%) will actually graduate by Spring, 2014.
It is costly to not complete a college degree -- costly to students and parents and costly to North Carolina Taxpayers. In fact, North Carolina tax payers contribute over $12,500 per year for each in-state undergraduate in the UNC system, or approximately $50,000 for a student's four years of college. If it takes a student longer than four years, it is costly to the taxpayers. Yet if the student does not graduate at all, his or her earning power diminishes significantly meaning tax revenues received from that individual will be much lower than if he or she had obtained that degree.
But more importantly, the student pays the price in not being able to achieve what he or she envisioned as a high school senior. |
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Why do they not graduate in five years? Are our students adequately prepared for the rigors of higher education? Or do they have to enroll in remedial classes before they can take college-level classes? Are they even able to survive their freshmen year and return for their second year?
How does CMS student success rate in the universities compare to that of students from other urban districts in North Carolina and to that of students throughout the UNC system? Does the high school he or she attended make a difference? Do all our students have equal opportunity for success in colleges and universities?
To begin answering these questions, the Public Education Research Institute at Queens has just completed a 2-part study looking at the performance of the 2006-07 UNC system freshmen. (May, 2009)
Executive Summary of Report
Part I: To a Culture of No Excuses
Part II: To a Culture of No Excuses
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What Is the Public Education Research Institute at Queens
Often theoretical solutions simply will not work. Instead, practical data-driven answers to real issues in our public schools are needed. The Public Education Research Institute at Queens (PERIQ), a component of the Wayland H. Cato, Jr. School of Education, has been created to provide just that.
What's the Mission and Vision of PERIQ?
Established to be a resource for the community, PERIQ is dedicated to improving educational outcomes in public schools through excellence in research and analysis.
Within the community, PERIQ seeks to be known as a highly respected, trusted source of accurate, relevant, and objective research necessary to provide effective, efficient public education resulting in students prepared for productive lives in the 21st century.
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What PERIQ Does?
PERIQ's major role is to be:
- The Community Resource for Reliable and Trusted K-12 Education Research – a learning organization that provides accurate data and objective analysis for leaders in the community seeking information needed to find solutions for real-world issues in public education
PERIQ also seeks to be:
- The University Resource for the Wayland H. Cato, Jr. School of Education – a learning organization that provides assistance to the School of Education about best practices in programs designed to prepare effective, highly qualified individuals to serve as visionary teachers and educational leaders
- The University Resource for Scholarly Research in K-12 Education – a learning organization that can be counted on to provide assistance to faculty and students as they conduct primary and secondary research focused on improving public education
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What Makes PERIQ Different?
PERIQ can help by providing research and analysis needed to find practical, timely solutions to meet today’s real challenges in public education.
PERIQ is positioned to:
- Partner with you to ensure understanding of the real-world issue that needs a solution and to help develop the right research question that addresses the issue
- Assemble the right resources to answer the question – multidisciplinary approach
- Manage the entire project, including performing needed research and analysis – 1-stop service
- Present back to you in an easily understood way the key findings, conclusions, and if needed recommendations based upon the research
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What Guides PERIQ's Work?
PERI is guided by five key principles:
- Integrity – we adhere to nationally accepted standards for research methodology and all our work will be data-driven and objective; we will conduct our work in a culture of independence, impartiality, and non-partisanship
- Excellence – we are committed to being the very best in what we do and in providing excellence in research, service, and teaching
- Relevancy– we are solution-oriented for issues that are real; we seek up-to-date information; we make recommendations for solutions that are timely, able to be implemented, sustainable, and have great positive impact on public education
- Innovation – we honor ingenuity and creativity in making data-driven recommendations; we value fresh perspectives in looking for new, effective solutions
- Collaboration – we work as a collaborative, supportive partner in all research needed to find answers to real issues in public education
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For more information, contact Cheryl Pulliam, Director of the Public Education Research Institute at Queens.
704.337.2373 (voice) 704.688.2770 (fax)
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