ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Explaining Cross-Racial Differences in the Educational Gender Gap. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1220
Author: Aucejo, Esteban
Date: 2013-05-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Racial Differences,Gender Differences,Enrollment Rate,College Bound Students,African American Students,Educational Attainment,Family Characteristics,Cognitive Ability,Evidence,Models,Measurement Techniques,Measurement Objectives,Maximum Likelihood Statistics,Skill Analysis,Statistical Distributions,Factor Analysis,Achievement Gap,College Students,Least Squares Statistics,Statistical Analysis

The sizable gender gap in college enrolment, especially among African Americans, constitutes a puzzling empirical regularity that may have serious consequences on marriage markets, male labor force participation and the diversity of college campuses. For instance, only 35.7 percent of all African American undergraduate students were men in 2004. Reduced form results show that, while family background covariates cannot account for the observed gap, proxy measures for non-cognitive skills are crucial to explain it. Moreover, a sequential model of educational attainment indicates that males have actually higher preferences for education than females after controlling for latent factors (i.e. cognitive and non-cognitive skills). The model also shows that cognitive skills strongly affect the decision to move from one school level to the next, especially after finishing high school, but cannot account for disparities between genders. On the contrary, the substantial differences in the distribution of non-cognitive skills between males and females make these abilities critical to explain the gender gap in educational attainment across and within races. Appendices present 12 tables and 1 figure.
University Differences in the Graduation of Minorities in STEM Fields: Evidence from California. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1223
Author: Arcidiacono, Peter
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: STEM Education,Institutional Characteristics,Universities,Minority Group Students,Evidence,College Graduates,Majors (Students),Student Records,Graduation Rate,Racial Distribution,Scores,Achievement Rating,Academic Persistence,Academic Ability,Student Characteristics,Costs,Computation,Statistical Analysis,Campuses,Educational Environment,Statistical Data,Statistical Distributions,Nonmajors

The low number of college graduates with science degrees--particularly among underrepresented minorities--is of growing concern. We examine differences across universities in graduating students in different fields. Using student-level data on the University of California system during a period in which racial preferences were in place, we show significant sorting into majors based on academic preparation, with science majors at each campus having on average stronger credentials than their non-science counterparts. Students with relatively weaker academic preparation are significantly more likely to leave the sciences and take longer to graduate at each campus. We show the vast majority of minority students would be more likely to graduate with a science degree and graduate in less time had they attended a lower ranked university. Similar results do not apply for non-minority students.
Affirmative Action and University Fit: Evidence from Proposition 209. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1224
Author: Arcidiacono, Peter
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Affirmative Action,Admission Criteria,Public Colleges,Data Analysis,Student Records,Enrollment Trends,College Applicants,Graduation Rate,Statistical Distributions,Institutional Characteristics,Minority Group Students,State Legislation,Student Characteristics,Racial Distribution,Whites,Mathematical Formulas,Policy Analysis,School Holding Power,Academic Persistence,Student Placement,Prediction,School Policy

Proposition 209 banned the use of racial preferences in admissions at public colleges in California. We analyze unique data for all applicants and enrollees within the University of California (UC) system before and after Prop 209. After Prop 209, graduation rates increased by 4.4%. We present evidence that certain institutions are better at graduating more-prepared students while other institutions are better at graduating less-prepared students and that these matching effects are particularly important for the bottom tail of the qualification distribution. We find that Prop 209 led to a more efficient sorting of minority students and the sorting effects explain over 20% of the graduation rate increase. Further, universities appear to have responded to Prop 209 by investing more in their students, explaining between 30-45% of the graduation rate increase. An appendix contains: (1) Table 9: Characteristics of UC Applicants, Admits, and Enrollees by Race, Pre-Prop 209 and Change Post Prop 209; and (2) Table 10: Estimates Using the Baseline Method for Under-Represented Minorities, Whites and Asian Americans.
The Importance of Rank Position. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1241
Author: Murphy, Richard
Date: 2013-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Class Rank,Progress Monitoring,Effect Size,Robustness (Statistics),Statistical Significance,Academic Achievement,Achievement Gains,Achievement Rating,Matched Groups,Self Concept,Models,Behavior Theories,Measurement Techniques,Ability Identification,Peer Influence,Error of Measurement,Self Concept Measures,Student Records,Data Analysis,Gender Differences,Family Income,Environmental Influences,Competition,Parent Influence,Elementary Secondary Education,Longitudinal Studies,Statistical Analysis

We find an individual's rank within their reference group has effects on later objective outcomes. To evaluate the impact of local rank, we use a large administrative dataset tracking over two million students in England from primary through to secondary school. Academic rank within primary school has sizable, robust and significant effects on later achievement in secondary school, conditional on national test scores. Moreover we find boys gain four times more in later test scores from being top compared to girls. We provide evidence for a mechanism using matched survey data, which shows that rank affects an individual's self-concept. The paper discusses other potential channels but concludes that malleable non-cognitive skills such as confidence and belief in own ability are most likely to generate these results. We put forward a basic model where rank effects costs and effort allocation when faced with multiple tasks. We believe this is the first large-scale study to show large and robust effects of rank position on objective outcomes of that have consequences in the labour market. The following are appended: (1) Model; (2) Peer Effects; and (3) Measurement Error in Test Scores. Five tables are also included in the appendices.
School Structure, School Autonomy and the Tail. Special Paper No. 29
Author: Machin, Stephen
Date: 2013-03-00
Type: Information Analyses
Subjects: Institutional Autonomy,Foreign Countries,Educational Attainment,Nontraditional Education,School Organization,Low Achievement,Educational Administration,Academic Ability,Charter Schools,Comparative Education,Free Schools,Educational Change

In this paper, we survey the UK-based literature on school structures and school autonomy to identify settings in which alternative and more autonomous school arrangements can improve the educational attainments of pupils in the bottom tail of the achievement distribution. We also present new evidence on the effect of school academies on the age-16 GCSE attainment of students of different abilities up to 2009, before the Coalition Government changed the nature of the Labour academy programme. Within the UK education system, academies enjoy substantial autonomy in terms of management of their staff, taught curriculum, length of the school day and other aspects of their day-to-day functioning. Our results show that schools that converted to academies between 2002 and 2007 improved their overall age-16 GCSEs results by further raising the attainments of students in the top half of the ability distribution, and in particular pupils in the top 20% tail. Conversely, we find little evidence that academies helped pupils in the bottom 10% and 20% of the ability distribution. Finally, we find little evidence that late converters (2008 and 2009) had any beneficial effects on pupils of any ability. We conclude our research by comparing the experience of UK academies to that of US charter schools and Swedish free schools, and by providing some insights into the reasons why UK academies did not serve &quot;the tail&quot; as is the case for some US charter schools. An appendix presents Table 1: Academies and GCSE Performance--Teh Effect of Academy Conversion on Pupils of Different Abilities.
The Effects of Resources across School Phases: A Summary of Recent Evidence. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1226
Author: Gibbons, Stephen
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Information Analyses
Subjects: Educational Resources,Evidence,Outcomes of Education,Intervention,Early Intervention,Expenditures,Expenditure per Student,Early Childhood Education,Elementary Secondary Education,Measurement Techniques,Investment,Comparative Education,Developing Nations,Developed Nations,Educational Research,Research Methodology,Economic Impact,Institutional Characteristics,Benchmarking,Models,Foreign Countries

This report provides an overview and discussion of the past decade of academic evidence on the causal effects of resources in schooling on students' outcomes. Early evidence lacked good strategies for estimating the effects of schools resources, leading many people to conclude that spending more on schools had no effect. More recent evidence using better research designs finds that resources do matter, but the range of estimates of the impacts is quite wide. The review devotes special attention to differences across the early years, primary and secondary phases. Theoretical work has indicated that interventions early in a child's life may be more productive than interventions later on. However, although there are more examples of good quality studies on primary schooling, the existing body of empirical work does not lead to a conclusive case in favour of early interventions. Three appendices present: (1) Differences in characteristics between high and low-resource schools; (2) Benchmarking and Comparing the Size and Strength of Effects Across Different Studies; and (3) An illustration of the theoretical model (one in which events in one period depend on events in previous periods) used by Nobel-laureate, James Heckman in his argument for the efficacy of early investment in children over investment at a later stage. [This work was commissioned by Ofsted as part of the &quot;Access and Achievement in Education--20 Years On&quot; project.]
The Surprisingly Dire Situation of Children&apos;s Education in Rural West Africa: Results from the CREO Study in Guinea-Bissau. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1201
Author: Boone, Peter
Date: 2013-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Rural Education,Literacy,Numeracy,School Effectiveness,Educational Quality,Academic Achievement,Reading Tests,Mathematics Tests,Scores,Family (Sociological Unit),Children,Adolescents,Surveys,Interviews,School Surveys,Teachers,Grade 1,Grade 2,Grade 3,Grade 4,Multivariate Analysis,Outcomes of Education,Disadvantaged Schools,Rural Schools

We conducted a survey covering 20% of villages with 200-1000 population in rural Guinea-Bissau. We interviewed household heads, care-givers of children, and their teachers and schools. We analysed results from 9,947 children, aged 7-17, tested for literacy and numeracy competency. Only 27% of children were able to add two single digits, and just 19% were able to read and comprehend a simple word. Our unannounced school checks found 72% of enrolled children in grades 1-4 attending their schools, but the schools were poorly equipped. Teachers were present at 86% of schools visited. Despite surveying 351 schools, we found no examples of successful schools where children reached reasonable levels of literacy and numeracy for age. Our evidence suggests that interventions that raise school quality in these villages, rather than those which target enrolment, may be most important to generate very sharp improvements in children's educational outcomes. [Additional financial support for this research was provided by Effective Intervention, a UK charity.]
Education in a Devolved Scotland: A Quantitative Analysis. Report to the Economic and Social Research Council. CEP Special Paper No. 30
Author: Machin, Stephen
Date: 2013-05-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Statistical Analysis,Educational Development,Educational Change,Educational Policy,Public Policy,Comparative Education,Academic Achievement,Achievement Rating,Educational Attainment,Outcomes of Education,Policy Analysis,Equal Education,Evidence,Statistical Data,School Statistics,School Effectiveness,Elementary Secondary Education,Postsecondary Education,Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators

Education is an area that is highly devolved in the UK, and the fact that all four constituent countries have pursued very different policies in the recent past provides a good testing ground to undertake a comparative review of the merits or otherwise of the education reforms that have taken place. There is, of course, an important policy context to such an analysis. Examining the performance of children educated in the devolved Scottish system in comparison to those educated in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has potential to offer a unique and valuable insight into the impact of Scottish devolution in a high profile area of public policy. When deciding whether or not to seek independence from the UK, the Scottish electorate will need to consider how a devolved Scotland has fared in educating its nation under its own terms--and hence how they might fare when taking ownership of other policy areas. In examining the key differences in attainment bearing in mind these differences, this report will help answer this question.
Teachers&apos; Self-Directed Professional Development: Science and Mathematics Teachers&apos; Adoption of ICT as a Professional Development Strategy
Author: Mushayikwa, Emmanuel
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Faculty Development,Science Teachers,Mathematics Teachers,Questionnaires,Decision Making,Models,Teacher Empowerment,Access to Computers,Word Processing,Instructional Materials,Social Networks,Electronic Mail,Demography,Teacher Characteristics,Comparative Analysis,Secondary School Teachers

This paper is part of a larger study that was carried out to investigate the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the self-directed professional development on the self-directed professional development (SDPD) of mathematics and science teachers in Zimbabwe. The educational context provides an example of how teachers compensated for lack of structured government initiatives to support teachers' professional development. This paper focuses on the ways in which these teachers were using ICT resources to further their professional development. The study is based on responses to 259 questionnaires that were circulated to A-level Science and Mathematics teachers in Zimbabwe. Doyle and Ponder (1978)'s practicality ethic and Loucks-Horsely et al.'s Concerns Based Adoption Model provided the theoretical framework for analysing teachers' decision making and led to the development of a model for teacher empowerment with respect to the use of ICT. The study results showed that around 60% of the teachers experienced difficulties in accessing ICT for their professional development. about half of the non ICT users did not access ICT even when it was available at their schools. Some of those who did access ICT used innovative methods to ensure access, including using their own resources, and pooling resources.These findings also show that teachers had three main drivers for using ICT for SDPD, including word processing, for generating instructional materials: accessing web-based learning materials; and emailing for networking with peers and professional organisations. The results of this study demonstrate the great potential that ICT has for teachers' SDPD.
Improving At-Risk Learners&apos; Understanding of Fractions
Author: Fuchs, Lynn S.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: At Risk Students,Elementary School Students,Grade 4,Elementary School Mathematics,Number Concepts,Intervention,Mathematics Skills,Learning Processes,Computation,Short Term Memory,Pretests Posttests,Mathematics Tests,Screening Tests,Student Improvement,Hypothesis Testing,Outcomes of Education,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Comparative Analysis,Listening Comprehension,Cognitive Processes,Attention

The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of an intervention designed to improve at-risk 4th graders' understanding of fractions and to examine the processes by which effects occurred. The intervention focused more on the measurement interpretation of fractions; the control condition focused more on the part-whole interpretation of fractions and on procedures. Intervention was also designed to compensate for at-risk students' limitations in the domain-general abilities associated with fraction learning. At-risk students (n = 259) were randomly assigned to intervention and control. Whole-number calculation skill, domain-general abilities (working memory, attentive behavior, processing speed, listening comprehension), and fraction proficiency were pretested. Intervention occurred for 12 weeks, 3 times per week, 30 min per session, and then fraction performance was reassessed. On each conceptual and procedural fraction outcome, effects favored intervention over control (effect sizes = 0.29 to 2.50), and the gap between at-risk and low-risk students narrowed for the intervention group but not the control group. Improvement in the accuracy of children's measurement interpretation of fractions mediated intervention effects. Also, intervention effects were moderated by domain-general abilities, but not whole-number calculation skill.
Comparative Analysis of National Teacher Surveys
Author: Pressey, Briana
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Comparative Analysis,National Surveys,Teacher Surveys,Teacher Attitudes,Technology Integration,Technology Uses in Education,Teacher Characteristics,Teaching Experience,Low Income Groups,Geographic Location,Educational Benefits,Learning Motivation,Individualized Instruction,Educational Technology,Productivity,Barriers,Professional Development,Alignment (Education)

As technologies gain an increasingly strong foothold in the classroom, there are more and more surveys seeking to gauge teachers' interests and attitudes towards integrating devices, software, and tools into their practice. We've noticed that while each of the major surveys that have been announced over the past year and a half offer a unique take on what's going on in classrooms across the United States, there is also a bit of overlap among these studies as well. This QuickReport compares five high-profile surveys of teachers and technology, all released between January 2012 and February 2013. By stitching together findings from across these complementary studies, we gain a more comprehensive view of how teacher practices and attitudes are evolving with respect to technology integration, and a firmer sense of what teachers nationwide need to provide instruction that is relevant, engaging, and effective for all students. These comparisons have also revealed gaps that future survey research should aim to fill. For this analysis we only reviewed national surveys that polled K-12 classroom teachers on their practices around and attitudes toward technology. We did not include surveys that only inventory classroom technologies and broadband access (such as those regularly conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics), focusing instead on surveys that inquired about technology practices and attitudes as well as classroom technology inventories. Based on these criteria, our report features: (1) PBS LearningMedia's Teacher Technology Usage Survey (January 2012); (2) The Gates Foundation's Technology and Effective Teaching in the U.S. (February 2012); (3) The Joan Ganz Cooney Center's National Survey of Teacher Attitudes &amp; Beliefs on Digital Games &amp; Learning (May 2012); (4) Common Sense Media's Children, Teens, and Entertainment Media (Fall 2012); and (5) Pew Research Center's Internet &amp; American Life Project Online Survey of Teachers (February 2013). This report analyzes the survey's goals, dates, and respondent demographics and topline findings of each survey. We then looked across all surveys' toplines for common themes and sub-themes, and subsequently reorganized the findings according to these emergent categories. The Cross-Survey Synthesis--the only section of the report that offers the Cooney Center's original perspectives on this exercise--highlights areas of inquiry that we believe deserve deeper investigation.
Implementing the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: A Comparison of Current District Content in 41 States. Working Paper #32
Author: Cogan, Leland
Date: 2013-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: State Standards,Mathematics Education,Program Implementation,Comparative Analysis,School Districts,Course Content,Content Analysis,State Surveys,Administrator Attitudes,Coordinators,Educational Practices,Intention,Units of Study,Statistical Distributions,Statistical Data,Elementary Secondary Education

Beginning in the spring of 2011 the Center for the Study of Curriculum at Michigan State University conducted a survey of school district curriculum directors/supervisors in the 41 states that had officially adopted the new Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). The Center's goal was to provide baseline information to inform and guide the efforts of states, local districts, and schools as each entity moves toward implementation of the newly adopted CCSSM. The challenge of implementing the world-class and demanding CCSS is likely to vary from state to state depending, for example, on the age and quality of a state's former mathematics standards. Additional factors likely to affect CCSSM implementation include the ability of a state education agency to disseminate information and expectations about the standards to local districts, schools, and teachers. The following are appended: (1) Percent of Districts in the 41 States that Currently Intend Coverage of the Fourth Grade Topic: &quot;Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions; (2) Percent of Districts in the 41 States that Currently Intend Coverage of the Eighth Grade Topic: &quot;Understand congruence and similarity using physical models, transparencies, or geometry software; and (3) Percent of Districts in the 41 States that Currently Intend Coverage of the High School Topic: &quot;Use properties of rational and irrational numbers.
Implementing the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: What Parents Know and Support. Working Paper #34
Author: Cogan, Leland
Date: 2013-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: State Standards,Mathematics Education,Program Implementation,Fidelity,Parent Surveys,Parent Attitudes,Resource Allocation,Familiarity,Relevance (Education),Student Surveys,Student Attitudes,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Improvement

A wide range of actors will be involved in the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM) which has been adopted over the past several years by nearly every state. This represents an unprecedented opportunity to improve U.S. mathematics education and to strengthen the international competitiveness of the American labor force. A set of standards, no matter how outstanding they may be, can only affect the quality of students' education as they are implemented in classrooms. This will require a concerted effort by all stakeholders in the education process including not only education leaders and professionals but students and their parents as well.