The indicators in this section of The Condition of Education report on the progress students make through the education system. There are 24 indicators in this section: 7, prepared for this year's volume, appear on the following pages, and all 24, including indicators from previous volumes, appear on the Web (see the List of Indicators on The Condition of Education website in the Contents section for a full list of the indicators). Particular attention is paid in this section to how various subgroups in the population proceed through school and attain different levels of education as well as the factors that are associated with their progress along the way.

The indicators in the first two subsections (found on the website) focus on the educational aspirations and effort of students. These indicators include student measures of time spent on homework, preparedness for academic activities, postsecondary education expectations, and patterns of school attendance.

The third subsection traces the progress of students through elementary and secondary education to graduation from high school (or some alternate form of completion). Measures in this volume and on the website include the percentage of students who have ever been retained, the averaged freshman graduation rate, which estimates the on-time graduation rate for students in each state, the percentage of students with disabilities who leave high school with a regular diploma, and the status dropout rate by race/ethnicity and nativity. Dropping out of high school is measured here in two ways: by event rates (the percentage of students in an age range who leave school in a given year) and status rates (the percentage of students in a given age range who are not enrolled in school and who have not completed high school).

The fourth subsection examines students' transition to college. One important measure featured in this volume is the percentage of students who enroll in college within 1 year of completing high school. Another indicator, found on the website, compares the rate of first-time enrollment in postsecondary education in the United States with the rates in other countries.

The fifth subsection concerns the percentage of students entering postsecondary education who earn a credential and the amount of time that they take to do so. This subsection includes indicators that feature relationships between the qualifications and characteristics of students who enter postsecondary education and their success in earning a credential.

An overall measure of the progress of the population through the education system is attainment, which is the highest level of education completed by a certain age. The sixth subsection includes indicators on completion. The Condition of Education annually examines levels of attainment for 25- through 29-year-olds. Other indicators in this subsection explore factors related to educational attainment and showcase the number of postsecondary degrees earned over time by gender and race/ethnicity.

The indicators on student effort and educational progress from previous editions of The Condition of Education, which are not included in this volume, are available at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe.