ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
A Decade of Action and Insights from Bayview&apos;s Youth and Schools. PLUS Leadership Initiative Fellows Report 2018-2019
Author: Wing, Terren
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Partnerships in Education,Community Development,Public Housing,African Americans,Poverty,Educational Improvement,Community Schools,Cooperation,Elementary Secondary Education,Safety,Attendance,Social Change,Disadvantaged,Youth

In 2008, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) commissioned UC Berkeley's Center for Cities and Schools (CC+S) to develop a strategy for integrating education into future housing redevelopment in the Bayview. Two years later, HOPE SF was launched in the Bayview at the existing public housing site at Hunters View. CC+S has worked in partnership with a number of stakeholders on the PLUS Leadership (Planning and Learning United for Systems Change) and YPLAN (Youth - Plan, Learn, Act, Now!) initiatives working in complement to HOPE SF to demonstrate how schools and young people are a positive force in this future redevelopment. The work of the past decade in the Bayview has not been comprehensively assessed nor viewed holistically, underlying the challenges of fragmentation in processes with so many stakeholders. The goal of this report is to lift up the work and partnership of the past decade to examine how this work to engage youth and schools in comprehensive housing development in the Bayview can inform future work. This analysis relies on existing evaluations, reports, and analyses of this work, a comprehensive education and HOPE SF literature review, and stakeholder interviews.
Reading Difficulties among EFL Learners in Saudi Arabia
Author: Alotaibi, Ahmed M.
Date: 2022-06-05
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Reading Comprehension,Reading Strategies,Reading Difficulties,Reading Aloud to Others,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Reading Skills,Barriers

Saudi EFL students experience similar difficulties as other language learners do when learning English. One of the most crucial disciplines of foreign language (FL) method study is the employment of reading strategies by speakers of EFL. Students who actively employ their reading comprehension techniques are able to comprehend and remember more of what they read as well as develop better levels of language competence. In this review paper, researchers find out the challenges that EFL learners face in reading in the Saudi Arabian context are: limited vocabulary, Lack of self-study exercises and difficulty grasping the meaning of the text, spelling of words and pronunciation problems; limited discussion among the class and group work; not reading widely enough and reading fluency. The strategies suggested for improving EFL reading skills are: hearing the teacher read aloud to the class; and scaffolding. The findings of this review study found that effective reading methods are essential for raising reading skills in EFL students in Saudi Arabia.
The Emergence and Growth of For-Profit Independent Schools in the Swedish Nation-Wide Voucher System. Working Paper No. 10
Author: Henrekson, Ebba
Date: 2022-08-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Vouchers,School Choice,Proprietary Schools,Equal Education,Grade Inflation,International Schools,Public Opinion,Private Schools,Geographic Regions,Public Schools,Educational Equity (Finance),Educational History,Educational Change,Educational Finance,Elementary Secondary Education

This report seeks to explore some of the reasons Sweden developed an independent school sector dominated by for-profit schools by drawing on prior scholarship and reports as well interview material from Swedish school entrepreneurs, researchers, and prior public representatives that helped create and implement the Swedish voucher program. This report is based on a descriptive qualitatively-oriented, research approach drawing on archival material, public data, and information gathered from interviews with key informants. The implementation of the Swedish voucher program appears to have been propelled by an appetite for change, and quest for greater diversity among educational providers, that had taken root in political parties on both the left and right. Today, however, the situation looks rather different as debates regarding inequality, segregation, grade inflation, and the notion of &quot;vinster i välfärden&quot; (profits in welfare services) have shifted the perception and opinions regarding school vouchers, and for-profit voucher schools in particular. We do not want to speculate what is going to happen, but it seems feasible to assume that future for-profit school entrepreneurs will have to operate, and be willing to accept, a very different public and political climate when it comes to the role of for-profit providers in the Swedish school sector. If the U.S. desires to increase the number of for-profit school entrepreneurs it will require substantial revisions of many formal as well as informal institutions. The current formal institutions in most U.S. voucher systems, which typically limits who can participate combined with lower per-pupil voucher payments, would need to be altered in order make this calculus attainable and attractive enough to spur action. The following are appended: (1) Methodology; and (2) About the authors.
Large Language Models and Text Generators: An Overview for Educators
Author: Morrison, Ryan
Date: 2022-09-01
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Models,Mathematics,Automation,Natural Language Processing,Technology Uses in Education,Prompting,Plagiarism,Ethics,Paragraph Composition,Sentences,Essays

Large Language Models (LLM) -- powerful algorithms that can generate and transform text -- are set to disrupt language learning education and text-based assessments as they allow for automation of text that can meet certain outcomes of many traditional assessments such as essays. While there is no way to definitively identify text created by this technology, there are patterns that educators can use to adapt assessments to minimize the impact that these tools will have on academic integrity. This document provides an overview of the technology and how it is being utilized by publicly available platforms, some of which are targeting education; samples and analysis of the idiosyncrasies of text generated and transformed by LLM platforms; and suggestions on how educators can adjust their approach to language and text-based assessments to better meet the needs of students in a world where LLM tools become ubiquitous. [Written with a Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT-2 &amp; GPT-3).]
Educational Leadership in Crisis: Reflections from a Pandemic. Policy and Practice Brief
Author: O'Day, Jennifer
Date: 2022-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,Elementary Secondary Education,Leadership Responsibility,Instructional Leadership,School Districts,Superintendents,School Closing,Leadership Styles,Safety,Well Being,Food,Interpersonal Communication,Interpersonal Relationship,Distance Education,Internet,Innovation

In the nearly 2 years since the SARS-CoV-2 virus burst on the American scene, more than 850,000 Americans have died, and elections have literally been won or lost on public officials' positions and actions in response to COVID-19. Nowhere have the tensions and leadership demands been more visible than in the school systems that serve elementary and secondary school children, their parents, and communities. Educational Leadership in Crisis: Reflections From a Pandemic, explores how some California district leaders have responded to the initial and continuing COVID-19 crisis, using the reflections of superintendents in the California Collaborative on District Reform to reveal patterns, themes, and lessons. The brief also considers the impact that the pandemic and school closures have had on the leaders themselves and the implications of that impact for the future. The authors conclude by applying the principles of high reliability organizations to suggest how local districts and their leaders might capitalize on the work to date, not only to navigate the continuing challenges of the current pandemic and recovery but also to prepare for the inevitable crises of the future.
The Demand Side of Alternative Education Products
Author: McShane, Michael
Date: 2022-03-02
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Small Schools,Home Schooling,Community Organizations,Educational Innovation,COVID-19,Pandemics,Tutoring,National Surveys,Parent Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Costs,Elementary Secondary Education,Adolescent Attitudes,Minority Groups,Low Income

Data on the popularity of alternative educational models like &quot;pandemic pods,&quot; homeschooling, &quot;hybrid&quot; homeschooling, and tutoring has been anecdotal, episodic, and parochial. Journalistic accounts of new learning communities in some cities and some states have profiled schools, the educators that teach in them, and the families that attend them, but collecting reliable, nationwide data has proved challenging. We at EdChoice have been surveying a nationally representative sample of Americans every month since early 2020, with an oversample of school parents starting in September 2020. This has allowed us to measure the nationwide sentiment around learning pods, homeschooling, hybrid homeschooling, tutoring, and the like. We have also surveyed a nationally representative sample of teachers every quarter and have put three polls of the nation's teenagers in the field in August of 2020, February of 2021, and September of 2021. Our survey results show there is potentially a robust market for learning pods, or similar arrangements such as microschools, hybrid homeschools, and homeschool cooperatives, and that this market could include large numbers of Black, Hispanic, and lower-income families.
Lessons for Improving Curriculum from the COVID-19 Pandemic
Author: Polikoff, Morgan S.
Date: 2022-03-02
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Curriculum Development,COVID-19,Pandemics,Decision Making,Instructional Materials,Core Curriculum,Distance Education,Parent Participation

There have been countless challenges faced by American families with school-aged children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the many challenges specifically relating to education has been ensuring children had access to a challenging academic curriculum. Whether children have been educated remotely or in hybrid settings, or whether they have been in a pod or homeschool, there have been barriers to the provision of a quality curriculum, such as: (1) Whether the school's curriculum materials (if there were any) are suitable for remote, homeschool, or pod instruction; (2) Whether teachers (whether regular certified teachers, homeschooling parents, or pod teachers) have the knowledge and skill to select and implement needed core and supplementary curriculum materials; and (3) Whether and how teachers are supplementing the core curriculum materials with enrichment activities and activities matched to student needs. This paper examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the ways curriculum materials were used and identify lessons that could help improve access to quality curriculum and instruction moving forward, whether children are being educated in school, remotely, or in a homeschool/pod setting.
The Crisis and Renaissance of Curriculum Studies: A Reflection on the Positions of Wraga and Hlebowitsh
Author: Worku, Mulugeta Yayeh
Date: 2017-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Research,Educational Change,Curriculum Research,National Curriculum,State of the Art Reviews,Curriculum Development,Theory Practice Relationship,Educational Philosophy,Educational Theories

This article is mainly a reaction paper that reflects on the views and positions of Wraga and Hlebowitsh (2003) concerning the crisis and renaissance of the curriculum field. In doing so, a brief critical review on the two authors' views with regard to the ups and downs that the curriculum field has passed through, and most importantly the crisis it faced as it went through its formative period. The article also endeavored to show the efforts of different curriculum scholars, including the proposals of these two authors, to rescue the field from its total collapse. Next to this, my reflections on the views and positions of the two authors vis-à-vis the current state of the field and the proposals they presented to solve its crisis are highlighted. The paper also tried to reflect on the current state of the Ethiopian curriculum field based on some personal experiences and observations. Accordingly, it revealed that many of the signs of curriculum crisis are prevalent in contemporary Ethiopia. Finally, concluding remarks and lessons to be learned from this article are included.
&quot;The Most Professionally Satisfied I&apos;ve Been.&quot; How Could the Best Aspects of Learning Pod Staffing Be Scaled Up?
Author: Hassel, Bryan C.
Date: 2022-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Public Schools,Teaching Experience,Pandemics,COVID-19,Academic Achievement,Teacher Attitudes,Job Satisfaction,Classroom Environment,Educational Innovation,Educational Change,Nontraditional Education,Class Size,Teacher Student Ratio,Teacher Role,Change Strategies

Pandemic learning pods revealed teachers and other adults are highly interested in playing more varied roles in children's education. And some pod-like staffing arrangements may continue to exist and grow in out-of-school settings, such as after-school programs. But this report examines a different potential development: &quot;is it possible that the experiences staff had in pods could become much more common in the day-to-day operations of U.S. public schools, at scale?&quot; The answer is a qualified &quot;yes.&quot; Even before COVID, moves were afoot to create a range of new staffing arrangements within public schools that hit many of the same themes as pods, which are described in more detail in this report. Some of these arrangements had already begun to show positive impacts on student learning and educator satisfaction, as well as the ability to spread in different school contexts.
A Comparative Analysis of Learners: Impact of Socio-Economic Background on Motivation for Learning English Language
Author: Buriro, Ghulam Ali
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Second Language Learning,English (Second Language),Socioeconomic Background,Learning Motivation,Social Class,Student Attitudes,Language of Instruction

The present study focuses on finding out the impact of socio-economic background on the motivation to learn English as a second language. To execute this study, two schools of Hyderabad city of Sindh province were selected for study. Rockford Cambridge School (RCS), an English-medium school where most of the students have a very stable and high socio-economic background; and Dr. N. A. Baloch Model School (MS), Sindh University, Hyderabad, a school where most of the students belong to lower and middle class background. Quantitative method of data collection used through a close-ended questionnaire using Likert scale (range 5) comprising 11 items. Four factors of motivation were included to test the motivation level of both groups. Those factors were: (i) instrumental motivation, (ii) international exposure, (iii) intrinsic motivation, and (iv) self-regulated motivation. A total of thirty participants were selected through purposive sampling in order to ensure the representation of participants from both categories i.e. elite and non-elite. Each group consisted of fifteen participants. The data was analysed statistically. The results showed that upper class students were highly motivated and the case with lower and middle class students was the other way round. Major differences were observed in three factors: international exposure, intrinsic motivation and self-regulated motivation. It implied that the higher the socio-economic status of the learners, the more motivated they grow to learn English as a second language.
Blended Learning Offers Promise as a Strategy for Re-Engaging Students. Research Brief
Author: America's Promise Alliance, Center for Promise
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Blended Learning,Learner Engagement,At Risk Students,Dropouts,High School Students,Online Courses,In Person Learning,Young Adults,Dropout Prevention,Educational Technology,Electronic Learning,Program Development,Program Implementation,Quality Assurance,Educational Policy

Students disengage from and leave high school without a diploma for many different reasons: academic struggles, personal and/or familial obligations, unsupportive school environments and imperceptible relevance of school to their lives and futures. The common thread that connects so many young people who leave before graduating is that the traditional high school model simply did not work for them. Blended learning--education programs that combine in-person and online/virtual instruction and supports--has emerged as a potentially promising practice to meet the needs of young adults looking for a viable on-ramp to a high school credential and a pathway to postsecondary education and the workforce. Blended learning takes many forms, but its underlying tenet is that technology can be used to enhance and expand teaching and learning and create student-centered educational environments--that is, learning environments that are tailored to the student instead of students adapting to the learning environment. This paper presents a landscape analysis of how blended learning currently is being used as a strategy to serve young adults 16- to 24-years-old who have re-engaged in education (&quot;re-engaged youth&quot;) in an effort to get a high school diploma or equivalency. The analysis is based on a review of relevant empirical research and interviews with program developers, practitioners and policy makers in the field. While additional, systematic research and evaluation is needed to fully understand the efficacy of blended learning for re-engaged students, this report highlights examples of how blended learning is being used within comprehensive re-engagement strategies to address students' needs. [Funding for this report was provided by Penn Foster.]
Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? An Analysis of Pension Structure and Retirement Timing. Working Paper No. 262-0322
Author: Goldhaber, Dan
Date: 2022-03-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Retirement,Retirement Benefits,Time,Labor Turnover,Simulation,Public School Teachers,Eligibility,Teacher Characteristics,Incentives,Probability,Age Differences

Over the last two decades, twenty-two states have moved away from traditional defined benefit (DB) pension systems and toward pension plan structures like the defined contribution (DC) plans now prevalent in the private sector. Others are considering such a reform as it is seen as a means of limiting future pension funding risk. It is important to understand the implications of such reforms for end-of-career exit patterns and workforce composition. Empirical evidence on the relationship between pension plan structure and retirement timing is currently limited, primarily because, most state pension reforms are so new that few employees enrolled in those alternative plans have reached retirement age. An exception, and the subject of our analysis, is the teacher retirement system in Washington State, which introduced a hybrid DB-DC plan in 1996 and allowed employees in its traditional DB plan to transfer into the new plan. Our analysis focuses on a years-of-service threshold, the crossing of which grants employees early retirement eligibility and, in many cases, a large upward shift in retirement wealth. The financial implications of crossing this threshold are far greater under the state's traditional DB plan than under the hybrid plan. We find that employees are responsive to crossing the yearsof-service threshold, but we fail to find significant evidence that the propensity to exit the workforce varies according to plan enrollment.
BCTF Education Funding Brief 2023: Funding Inclusive and Flourishing Schools
Author: British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) (Canada)
Date: 2022-06-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Finance,Public Education,Inclusion,Financial Support,Teacher Recruitment,Teacher Persistence,Special Education,Elementary Secondary Education,Public School Teachers

Over the past several months, news headlines have been filled with stories that illustrate the realities of an underfunded public education system. All across British Columbia (BC), school districts are facing &quot;tough budget decisions&quot; and gaping budget shortfalls. BC continues to fall behind other provinces in funding. Funding for inclusive education, a key value of our provincial education system, remains woefully inadequate. The lack of investment into teacher recruitment and retention remains a chronic challenge that undermines the foundations of education in BC. To address these compounding challenges, the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) respectfully submits the following three recommendations that are presented in this report for the 2023 provincial budget to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services: (1) Abandon the current path of austerity and increase educational funding to meet the real, identified needs of classrooms, schools, and school districts; (2) Provide dedicated funding for teacher recruitment and retention initiatives across all school districts to address the acute teacher shortage in BC; and (3) That the Ministry of Education terminate the consideration of a prevalence-based model for special education funding and align special education funding with identified special education needs, including targeted funding for early identification and designation of students with special needs and per-student funding amounts for high-incidence designations.
Reducing Chronic Absence: Making Equity Strategies Specific, Adaptive, and Evidence Based
Author: Tozer, Steven E.
Date: 2021-12-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Attendance Patterns,Evidence Based Practice,Influences,Educational Research,Student Attrition,Change Strategies,Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Persistence,Equal Education,Repetition

The UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership (CUEL) brief builds from recent CUEL analysis of schools that have proven most challenging to improve in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). In this research brief, CUEL researchers make the case for &quot;high churn&quot; schools to adopt an evidence-based stance as they seek to address the issue of chronic student absence, one of the key factors that shape the learning experiences of a portion of students in &quot;high churn&quot; schools. [This report was published by the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Education's Center for Urban Education Leadership.]