ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
For Whom the Pell Tolls: How Financial Aid Policies Widen the Opportunity Gap
Author: Tarasawa, Beth
Date: 2013-02-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Student Financial Aid,Educational Opportunities,Achievement Gap,Access to Education,Equal Education,Poverty,Grants,Merit Scholarships,Researchers,Academic Achievement,Middle School Students,Grade 8,Eligibility,College Entrance Examinations,Grade Point Average

This report describes the findings from a series of descriptive analyses seeking to understand the potential relationship between college access and school poverty for high-achieving middle school students, focusing specifically on potential access to state merit-based grant funding. Researchers monitored the academic achievement of more than 17,000 high-achieving middle school students from 31 states across the country, using their eighth grade performance on a nationally administered assessment of academic achievement to make projections about their likely status to meet Pell Grant eligibility criteria four years later. Of particular interest are comparisons that examined the differences in likely eligibility rates between high- and low-poverty schools. The achievement gaps between high achievers in low- and high-poverty schools are likely to have a significant effect on college access. The findings in this report demonstrate that students attending high-poverty schools had far lower rates of scholarship eligibility than the students attending low-poverty schools, and the gaps in eligibility generally increased as the ACT[R] eligibility score was raised. The manner in which merit-based eligibility criteria are currently applied reduces the likelihood that high achievers from high-poverty schools will enjoy college access. Consequently, there is need to revise or augment these eligibility criteria to narrow the access gaps between high achieving students who attend high- and low-poverty schools. Moving merit-scholarship eligibility from fixed criteria based on college entrance exams and GPA to criteria that recognize high achievement in one's own school setting would be a large step toward improving equity and access for the top tenth percentile that come from low-income schools. [See the companion report: &quot;A Level Playing Field? How College Readiness Standards Change the Accountability Game&quot; in ERIC at ED556243.]
Title IX Resource Guide
Author: Office for Civil Rights (ED)
Date: 2015-04-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Gender Discrimination,Sex Fairness,Equal Education,Legal Responsibility,Compliance (Legal),Public Schools,Federal Aid,Grievance Procedures,Recruitment,Admission (School),Counseling,Student Financial Aid,Athletics,Student Interests,Public Colleges,Sexual Harassment,Pregnancy,Early Parenthood,Discipline,Single Sex Schools,Single Sex Classes,Extracurricular Activities,Employment Level,Equal Opportunities (Jobs),Data Collection

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities in federally funded schools at all levels. If any part of a school district or college receives any Federal funds for any purpose, all of the operations of the district or college are covered by Title IX. The essence of Title IX is that an institution may not exclude, separate, deny benefits to, or otherwise treat differently any person on the basis of sex unless expressly authorized to do so under Title IX or the Department's implementing regulations. When a recipient is considering relying on one of the exceptions to this general rule, Title IX coordinators should be involved at every stage and work with school officials and legal counsel to help determine whether the exception is applicable and, if so, properly executed. This guide describes the following: (1) the scope of Title IX; (2) the responsibilities and authority of a Title IX coordinator; (3) Title IX's administrative requirements; (4) application of Title IX to various issues; and (5) information collection and reporting.
Spring 2013 International Comparisons
Author: Northwest Evaluation Association
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: International Schools,Achievement Tests,Comparative Analysis,Statistical Analysis,Academic Achievement,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Scores

This report is an aggregated statistical analysis of Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) data from international schools. The report provides a consistent means of comparisons of specific sub-groups by subject and grade, which allows partners to compare their MAP® results with other schools within their region or membership organization. There is an important statistical difference between the way the international data is compiled and the way USA norms are compiled. In developing these norms, large representative samples of test data are selected to assure that demographic groups and geographic regions in the USA are equally represented in the data set. Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) uses approximately 5 million test results for this kind of study. Employing this method ensures the means, standard deviations, and growth targets are not skewed by over representation of any one group or region. Norms are used to describe what the likely data would be if all students in the United States were tested. The International Comparisons are not statistical constructs like norms, but are an accurate reflection of the students who actually tested. The International Comparisons can be used to compare schools to other schools within a region, across regions, or across membership organizations. Another use of these comparisons is to compare these international students to similarly performing students from the USA norms and use the growth data available in the USA norms to compare the rate of student growth, and set growth targets. This summary report is produced twice per school year after the end of the fall and spring testing windows.
Roll Call: The Importance of Teacher Attendance
Author: Joseph, Nithya
Date: 2014-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teacher Attendance,Teacher Influence,Public School Teachers,Employee Absenteeism,Teacher Behavior,Correlation,Poverty,School Districts,Board of Education Policy,Metropolitan Areas,Personnel Policy,Teacher Employment Benefits,Attendance Patterns,Incentives

While policymakers have been directing considerable attention to teacher effectiveness, one basic aspect of effectiveness has received relatively little attention: teacher attendance. No matter how engaging or talented teachers may be, they can only have an impact on student learning if they are in the classroom. This paper asks a simple question: How often are teachers in the classroom and what factors influence their attendance? Using school district data for 40 of the country's largest metropolitan areas for the 2012-2013 school year, the following was found: (1) On average, public school teachers were in the classroom 94 percent of the school year, missing nearly 11 days out of a 186-day school year (the average school year length). Teachers used slightly less than all of the short-term leave offered by the district, an average of 13 days in the 40 districts; (2) 16 percent of all teachers were classified as chronically absent teachers because they missed 18 days or more in the school year, accounting for almost a third of all absences; (3) In spite of previous research to the contrary, this study did not find a relationship between teacher absence and the poverty levels of the children in the school building; and (4) Districts with formal policies in place to discourage teacher absenteeism did not appear to have better attendance rates than those without such policies, suggesting that the most common policies are not particularly effective. The following are appended: (1) Districts included; (2) Methodology; and (3) Findings by district. A Technical Appendix is also included.
Difficulties in Defining Social-Emotional Intelligence, Competences and Skills--A Theoretical Analysis and Structural Suggestion
Author: Moana, Monnier
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Emotional Intelligence,Interpersonal Competence,Self Control,Educational Environment,Definitions,Interpersonal Relationship,Standards,Curriculum,Foreign Countries,Theories,Comparative Analysis,Teaching Methods,Measures (Individuals),Questionnaires,Measurement

Demands related to the frequency of and time required for interactional tasks in everyday occupational routines are continuously growing. When it comes to qualifying a person's ability to interact with others, two prototypical concepts are often used: social competences and emotional intelligence. In connection to discussions about curriculum standards in Germany, these are viewed as important attributes that should be taught, supported and if possible assessed in educational pathways toward an occupation (KMK, 2007). However, in looking for a generally approved and widely used definition, many problems arise on the inter-conceptual and intra-conceptual level, triggering implementation difficulties in educational curricula. This article highlights these difficulties by selecting five well-established key theories and comparing their communalities and differences. Analyzing definitions of intelligence, competences and skills, taking an action regulation perspective and highlighting the interdependence of social and emotional aspects, a structural system to facilitate the transfer into the educational context is proposed.
Qualification of Adult Educators in Europe: Insights from the Portuguese Case
Author: Paulos, Catarina
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Adult Educators,Adult Education,Teacher Qualifications,Educational Policy,Foreign Countries,Guidelines,Educational Practices,Prior Learning,Politics of Education,Lifelong Learning,Qualitative Research,Interviews,Teacher Education,Educational Quality,Teacher Characteristics

This article explores the role of the European Union in defining an adult education policy and the way European countries appropriate those guidelines and implement them in their realities. These policies have been widening and diversifying adult education, creating the necessity of qualifying educational professionals. With the implementation of some adult education political measures, new educational practices were developed and new professional activities were born. To discuss some of these issues, the data used are from research integrated in a PhD I'm working towards in Education, with a specialisation in adult training. This investigation is about the qualification of adult educators working in the processes of recognition of prior learning.
Formation of Apprenticeships in the Swedish Education System: Different Stakeholder Perspectives
Author: Andersson, Ingela
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Apprenticeships,Secondary Education,Educational Change,Government Role,Vocational Education,Curriculum Development,Policy Formation,Labor Market,Labor Force Development,Skill Development,Stakeholders

The article explores the major features of the Swedish Government's new initiative--a school based Upper Secondary Apprenticeship model. The analyses are guided by activity theory. The analysed texts are part of the parliamentary reform-making process of the 2011 Upper Secondary School reform. The analyses unfold how the Government, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (SN) construct Upper Secondary Apprenticeship as an activity in the 21st century. The conclusion highlights how three traditional aspects of Swedish initial vocational education and training (IVET) collide in the formation of Upper Secondary Apprenticeship--a curriculum of labour market based apprenticeships, a curriculum of school based IVET, and ill-defined curriculums of school based apprenticeships. The emerging Upper Secondary Apprenticeship curriculum foreshadows multifaceted educational trajectories where the learning targets, and not the responsibility for the student's learning are displaced from the school to the workplace setting.
Governing American Education: Why This Dry Subject May Hold the Key to Advances in American Education
Author: Tucker, Marc S.
Date: 2013-05-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Governance,Politics of Education,Educational Change,Educational Policy,State Agencies,Agency Role,Government Role,Accountability,Barriers,Unions,School Districts,Institutional Autonomy,Professional Autonomy,Public Education

The fundamental changes taking place in the global economy pose an existential threat for high-wage economies like the United States. Countries with high-wage economies will either figure out how to convert their mass education systems into systems that can educate virtually all their students to the standards formerly reserved for their elites, or these nations will see their standard of living decline until it meets the now much lower standard of living of countries that are producing large numbers of high school graduates as well or better educated than those who charge much less for their labor. Many high-wage countries have in fact been busy completely redesigning their education systems with this goal in mind and are now in fighting trim. The United States, however, is not among them. The United States is hobbled by a design for education governance that reflects a distrust of government, a naïve belief that it is possible to get education out of politics, and a conviction that the best education decisions are those that are made closest to the community. This paper looks at the governance issue from a decidedly transnational perspective. This is because it is very hard to get a perspective on education governance as practiced in the United States only by looking at the United States. Different states in the United States have decidedly different policy preferences, but the governance system is pretty much the same across the country. It is only when one looks at the way the education systems of other countries are governed that one realizes that there are other ways to govern education systems, that the U.S. system of governance is an international outlier, and that governance structures can enlarge or limit the possibilities of change and improvement in education systems in crucially important ways.
Training Our Future Teachers: Easy A's and What's behind Them
Author: Putman, Hannah
Date: 2014-11-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Education Programs,Preservice Teachers,Grading,Readiness,Teacher Competencies,Grades (Scholastic),Assignments,Instructional Design,Academic Standards,Statistical Analysis,Criterion Referenced Tests,Teacher Qualifications,Grade Inflation,Honors Curriculum,Majors (Students),Academic Achievement,Feedback (Response),Public Colleges

Using evidence from more than 500 colleges and universities producing nearly half of the nation's new teachers annually, this report answers two questions that go to the heart of whether the demands of teacher preparation are well matched to the demands of the classroom: Are teacher candidates graded too easily, misleading them about their readiness to teach? Are teacher preparation programs providing sufficiently rigorous training, or does the approach to training drive higher grades? [Listed appendices available online for this document: (1) Institutions' scores on the Rigor Standard; (2) Methodology to analyze grade differences as revealed by honors; (3) Methodology to analyze coursework; (4) Converting criterion-deficient assignments to criterion-referenced assignments; (5) Validating the findings on teacher candidates' grades; (6) Statistical relationship between course grades and proportion of grades based on criterion-deficient assignments; and (7) Exploring the effects of high grades. Numerous organizations sponsored this work; the full list can be seen on page 2 of the document.]
Doing the Math on Teacher Pensions: How to Protect Teachers and Taxpayers
Author: Doherty, Kathryn M.
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Teacher Retirement,Retirement Benefits,Geographic Location,Eligibility,Teacher Employment Benefits,Resource Allocation,State Government,Financial Support,State Policy,Sustainability,Taxes,Educational Finance,Planning

Challenging the claims of pension boards and other groups about the cost-effectiveness, fairness and flexibility of the traditional defined benefit pension plans still in place in 38 states, this report includes a report card on each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with a detailed analysis of state teacher pension policies, and grades the states on the extent to which they: (1) Offer teachers the option of a flexible and portable primary pension plan, such as a defined contribution (DC) plan; (2) Ensure that traditional defined benefit (DB) pension plans are portable, flexible, and fair for all teachers; (3) At a minimum, ensure some basic principles of fairness in traditional systems; (4) Shore up pension funding for existing commitments; and (5) Require that pension systems smoothly accrue pension wealth with each year of work. The following are appended: (1) Overview of state teacher pension systems; (2) State retirement eligibility rules; (3) State teacher pension unfunded liabilities, per pupil; (4) Unfunded pension liabilities by state (2014); and (5) State policies on teacher purchase of time.
Redesigning and Expanding School Time to Support Common Core Implementation
Author: Farbman, David A.
Date: 2014-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: School Schedules,State Standards,Program Implementation,Extended School Day,Extended Teacher Education Programs,Faculty Development,Teacher Collaboration,Data Analysis,Expectation,Literacy,Mathematics Achievement,At Risk Students,Achievement Gap,Enrichment Activities,Educational Change,Educational Practices,Educational Strategies,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Improvement

With the widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards, public education in the United States is poised to take a major step forward in readying the next generation of Americans for success in higher education and the workforce. Gaining a realistic understanding of students' performance levels, meeting students where they currently are, and raising them to new heights are the tasks at hand and will require more intensive and time-consuming teaching and learning than schools commonly provide now. Fortunately, federal and state policies that support efforts to increase the amount of time students spend in school are resulting in new resources--and freeing up formerly restricted resources--to fund the creation of more expanded-time schools. The Center for American Progress and the National Center on Time &amp; Learning believe that &quot;expanded learning time&quot; provides both teachers and students with one of the critical tools that they need to meet the demands of the Common Core State Standards. Of course, the additional learning time must be well planned and intentional, therefore, in this report, the authors offer seven recommendations that should help with meeting the demands associated with the Common Core for teachers and students. High-quality expanded learning time is one of the most far-reaching implementation strategies and can enable students to successfully meet these higher expectations. In addition to an introduction and summary, this report also provides information on the authors, a section on acknowledgments, and a list of endnotes.
2013 State Teacher Policy Yearbook: National Summary
Author: National Council on Teacher Quality
Date: 2014-01-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: State Policy,Educational Policy,Teacher Effectiveness,Educational Improvement,Educational Change,Teacher Evaluation,Teacher Education,Teacher Recruitment,Teacher Persistence,Teacher Dismissal,Grading,Achievement Gains,Performance Based Assessment,Standards,Accountability,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers

The &quot;State Teacher Policy Yearbook&quot; presents the most detailed analysis available of each state's performance against, and progress toward, a set of specific, research-based teacher policy goals aimed at helping states build a comprehensive policy framework in support of teacher effectiveness. In this seventh installment of the &quot;Yearbook,&quot; most states received their highest grades to date. Over the past five years, 37 states have improved their overall teacher policy grades by at least one full grade level because of significant reform, particularly in the areas of teacher evaluation and related teacher effectiveness policies. An overall grade is provided in the State Summaries section, as well as a grade for each of these five areas: (1) Delivering well prepared teachers; (2) Expanding the teaching pool; (3) Identifying effective teachers; (4) Retaining effective teachers; and (5) Exiting ineffective teachers.
Incoherent by Design: What You Should Know about Differences between Undergraduate and Graduate Training of Elementary Teachers
Author: Greenberg, Julie
Date: 2015-02-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Undergraduate Study,Graduate Study,Elementary School Teachers,Teacher Education Programs,Preservice Teachers,Course Content,Program Content,Curriculum,Required Courses,Teacher Certification,Case Studies,Comparative Analysis

This brief quantifies the fundamentally chaotic nature of elementary teacher preparation for initial certification, which is by far the most popular choice of individuals who consider teaching. In order to understand the different approaches taken by programs housed on the same university campus, researchers examined 13 institutions that offer both a graduate and undergraduate program preparing new elementary and/or secondary teachers. While there is overlap in the topics each undergraduate/graduate program pair covers, what's more striking are the different course requirements--even though both programs are offered by the same education school at the same institution. Ideally, teacher candidates in each program pair should receive preparation that is not only consistent, but also high quality in its design. Teacher candidates in elementary programs should begin teacher preparation having demonstrated sufficient mastery of a broad range of content--including literature and composition, history and geography, and the basic sciences--to be able to deliver robust instruction. Their training should address early reading, elementary math, classroom management, assessment and data, and methods and design of instruction. Training for secondary teachers should address methods specific to their subject, adolescent literacy, classroom management, as well as assessment and data. Teacher preparation is likely to only add value when each of these courses is an integral and inseparable part of training focused on specific skills. The following are appended: (1) Examples of courses categorized under topic headings; and (2) Elementary program pairs.