ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Incentives, Selection, and Teacher Performance: Evidence from IMPACT
Author: Dee, Thomas S.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Comparative Analysis,Incentives,Public School Teachers,Regression (Statistics),Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Evaluation,Teacher Persistence,Urban Schools

Teachers in the United States are compensated largely on the basis of fixed schedules that reward experience and credentials. However, there is a growing interest in whether performance-based incentives based on rigorous teacher evaluations can improve teacher retention and performance. The evidence available to date has been mixed at best. This study presents novel evidence on this topic based on IMPACT, the controversial teacher-evaluation system introduced in the District of Columbia Public Schools by then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee. IMPACT implemented uniquely high-powered incentives linked to multiple measures of teacher performance (i.e., several structured observational measures as well as test performance). We present regression-discontinuity (RD) estimates that compare the retention and performance outcomes among low-performing teachers whose ratings placed them near the threshold that implied a strong dismissal threat. We also compare outcomes among high-performing teachers whose rating placed them near a threshold that implied an unusually large financial incentive. Our RD results indicate that dismissal threats increased the voluntary attrition of low-performing teachers by 11 percentage points (i.e., more than 50 percent) and improved the performance of teachers who remained by 0.27 of a teacher-level standard deviation. We also find evidence that financial incentives further improved the performance of high-performing teachers (effect size = 0.24). [This paper was published in &quot;Journal of Policy Analysis and Management&quot; v34 n2 p267-297 Spr 2015 (EJ1054052).]
Eurasian Higher Education Leaders&apos; Forum: Higher Education and Modernization of the Economy: Innovative and Entrepreneurial Universities. Conference Proceedings (5th, Astana, Kazakhstan, May 26, 2016)
Author: Sagintayeva, Aida, Ed.
Date: 2016-05-26
Type: Collected Works - Proceedings
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Higher Education,Economic Development,Social Change,Educational Change,Educational Innovation,Entrepreneurship,Universities,Conferences (Gatherings),Models,Ecology,Educational Development,Global Approach,Curriculum Development,Online Courses,Research,Human Capital,Social Capital,Knowledge Economy,Developing Nations

This collection of papers introduces the proceedings of the fifth Annual Conference--&quot;Eurasian Higher Education Leaders' Forum&quot; held on the 26th May, 2016 at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. The contributors include university presidents, rectors, deans, directors of professional development and leadership programs, faculty members and graduate students. The compendium offers papers grounded in theoretical argument and empirical research and written to provide debate and discussion among policy makers, university leaders, faculty and students. The theme of this year's Forum is &quot;Higher Education and Modernization of the Economy: Innovative and Entrepreneurial Universities&quot;. The conference proceedings discussing issues of innovative and entrepreneurial universities could not have come at a more appropriate time as policy makers, higher education leaders, faculties, practitioners and other stakeholders are discussing different models of higher education institutions with the &quot;entrepreneurial university&quot; becoming a key focus. The contributions in these proceedings include: (1) Preface (Kairat Kurakbayev and Aida Sagintayeva); (2) Fostering Innovation and Entrepreneurship: the TAU Model (Joseph Klafter); (3) Entrepreneurial Ecosystem at Universities: Formation and Development (Assylbek Kozhakhmetov, Nina Nikiforova and Sholpan Maralbayeva); (4) Internationalizing Curriculum for Innovation: Opportunities and Challenges for Entrepreneurial Universities in Kazakhstan (Sholpan Tazabek); (5) MOOCs and their Implications for Traditional Higher Education Institutions (Abay Zhussupbekov); (6) Linking Research to Kazakhstan's Strategic Priorities: The Case of International Faculty at Nazarbayev University (Aliya Kuzhabekova, Jack Lee and Magzhan Amangazy); (7) Entrepreneurial Universities in the Formation of National Intellectual and Social Capital (Marat Ibatov, Valeriy Biryukov, Gulnar Zhaxybayeva and Gulnaz Mussina); (8) The Institutional Middle-Income Trap (Dennis de Tray). We invite everyone who is interested in reflecting on the continuities and changes in higher education development and taking strategic actions to improve their national and local educational environments. Individual papers contain figures and references. [This publication was produced by Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education. For the 2015 proceedings, see ED565443.]
Federal Investment
Author: Campbell, Sheila
Date: 2013-12-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Federal Government,Federal Aid,Investment,Grants,Research and Development,Education,Expenditures,Budgeting,Accounting,Statistical Data,Military Service,Elementary Secondary Education,Vocational Education,Higher Education,Training,Employment,Transportation,Energy,Natural Resources,Community Development,Veterans,Income,Water

The federal government pays for a wide range of goods and services that are expected to be useful some years in the future. Those purchases, called investment, fall into three categories: physical capital, research and development (R&amp;D), and education and training. There are several economic rationales for federal investment. It can provide public goods that the private sector and state and local governments would not provide efficiently, such as national defense and basic scientific research. It can promote long-term economic growth--as education spending does by developing a skilled workforce, as R&amp;D spending does by prompting innovation, or as infrastructure spending does by facilitating commerce. And it can support the work of the federal government by, for instance, providing the structures and equipment necessary to perform federal activities. In 2012, the federal government spent $531 billion on investment, representing 15 percent of federal spending and 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). This report focuses on investment that the federal government makes either directly or through grants. [This report was written with guidance from Joseph Kile and Chad Shirley.]
Self-Regulated Strategy Development. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report
Author: What Works Clearinghouse (ED)
Date: 2017-11-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Intervention,Self Management,Learning Disabilities,Learning Strategies,Goal Orientation,Children,Adolescents,Writing Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Writing Instruction,Teaching Methods,Direct Instruction,Knowledge Level,Skill Development,Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Case Studies

&quot;Self-Regulated Strategy Development&quot; (&quot;SRSD&quot;) is an intervention designed to improve students' academic skills through a six-step process that teaches students specific academic strategies and self-regulation skills. The practice is especially appropriate for students with learning disabilities, the focal population of the current report. The intervention begins with teacher direction and ends with students independently applying the strategy, such as planning and organizing ideas before writing an essay. More specifically, the six steps involve the teacher providing background knowledge, discussing the strategy with the student, modeling the strategy, helping the student memorize the strategy, supporting the strategy, and then watching as the student independently performs the strategy. A key part of the process is teaching self-regulation skills, such as goal-setting and self-monitoring, which aim to help students apply the strategy without guidance. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) identified 10 studies of SRSD that both fall within the scope of the Students With a Specific Learning Disability topic area and meet WWC pilot single-case design standards. No studies meet WWC group design standards. No studies meet pilot single-case design standards without reservations, and 10 studies meet pilot single-case design standards with reservations. Together, these studies included 43 children ages 7 to 16 who had a specific learning disability.
University Technology Transfer and Economic Development: Proposed Cooperative Economic Development Agreements under the Bayh-Dole Act
Author: Hamilton, Clovia
Date: 2003-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Technology Transfer,Economic Development,Economic Impact,Strategic Planning,Knowledge Economy,Federal Legislation,Research and Development,Small Businesses,Entrepreneurship,College Programs,College Role,Success,Job Development,Employment Opportunities

&quot;[I]n difficult economic times, political stakeholders in the technology transfer process usually view success in economic impact terms, and often from short-term and parochial perspectives--how many jobs in my state next year?&quot; Although universities increasingly pressure their technology transfer specialists to become stewards of their regions' economic development, most specialists have no experience in strategic economic development planning, or in forming collaborations that foster local government economic development. Furthermore, current regulations do not provide specialists with much guidance on how to facilitate economic development collaborations between their offices and other nonprofit organizations. This article proposes that Congress amend the Bayh-Dole Act to provide guidance on how universities can enter into newly proposed Cooperative Economic Development Agreements (CEDAs) patterned after the Stevenson-Wydler Act's Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs).
Use of Contextual Information and Prediction by Struggling Adult Readers: Evidence from Reading Times and Event-Related Potentials.
Author: Ng, Shukhan
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Adult Basic Education,Adult Literacy,Adults,Cognitive Measurement,Pacing,Readability,Readability Formulas,Reading,Reading Difficulties,Reading Rate,Sentences

We employed self-paced reading and event-related potential measures to investigate how adults of varying literacy levels use sentence context information when reading. Community-dwelling participants read strongly and weakly constraining sentences that ended with expected or unex- pected target words. Skilled readers showed N400s that were graded by the cloze probability of the targets, with larger N400s for more unexpected words. Moreover, it took these participants longer to read unexpected targets in strongly than weakly constraining sentences, suggesting a pro- cessing cost for revising predictions. Among less skilled readers, a reliable N400 difference was found between expected and unexpected targets only for the strongly constraining sentences. They also took longer when targets were unexpected, regardless of the context. These findings suggest that lower literacy readers could only immediately take advantage of strongly constraining context information to facilitate word processing and that they do not make as much use of predictive processing during comprehension. [This article was published in &quot;Scientific Studies of Reading&quot; (EJ1152116).]
Factors Associated with Accuracy in Prekindergarten Teacher Ratings of Students&apos; Mathematics Skills
Author: Furnari, Emily C.
Date: 2017-07-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Accuracy,Alternative Assessment,Children,Correlation,Ethnicity,Influences,Interpersonal Competence,Longitudinal Studies,Mathematics Skills,Preschool Children,Preschool Teachers,Race,Self Efficacy,Student Characteristics,Student Evaluation,Surveys,Teacher Characteristics,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Student Relationship

The No Child Left Behind Act requires that 95% of students in all public elementary and secondary schools are assessed in mathematics. Unfortunately, direct assessments of young students can be timely, costly, and challenging to administer. Therefore, policy makers have looked to indirect forms of assessment, such as teachers' ratings of student skills, as a substitute. However, prekindergarten teachers' ratings of students' mathematical knowledge and skills are only correlated with direct assessments at the .50 level. Little is known about factors that influence accuracy in teacher ratings. In this study, we examine the influence of student and teacher characteristics on prekindergarten teachers' ratings of students' mathematical skills, controlling for direct assessment of these skills. Results indicate that students' race/ethnicity and social competency, as well as teachers' self-efficacy, are significantly related to prekindergarten teachers' ratings of students' mathematical skills. [This article was published in the &quot;Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment&quot; (EJ1144211).]
Growth Infusion: Embedding Staff Development in a Culture of Learning
Author: Bennett, Betty J.
Date: 2017-10-01
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Accountability,Faculty Development,Best Practices,School Culture,Educational Philosophy,Goal Orientation,Stakeholders,Adult Learning,Leadership,Design,Praxis,Evaluation,Transformational Leadership,Leadership Responsibility

To address increasing accountability demands, instructional leaders must find ways to expand the current reality of faculty development to create a culture where continuous growth and learning are the standard for professional behavior. Growth Infusion is a framework for creating such a culture. The framework is a result of an extensive search for both empirical and theoretically based data and is a response to the new Florida Professional Development Evaluation Protocol. Seven elements are identified and this framework shapes the best practices in these areas into a systemic plan.
Who Is Going to Build the Wall? A Building Trades Crisis in the U.S.A.
Author: Toppin, Ian N.
Date: 2017-10-09
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Construction Industry,Building Trades,Supply and Demand,Labor Market,Undocumented Immigrants,Political Issues,Vocational Education,High Schools,Postsecondary Education,Higher Education,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Technical Education,Females,African Americans,Labor Legislation,Labor Force Development,Apprenticeships

A significant workforce shortage exists in most skilled trades areas in the U.S., but this is especially true in building and construction trades. The number of jobs in the construction industry is expected to grow by almost 20% between 2008 to 2018, while only growing by 11% for all other industries. With the prospect of significant shortages in the building trades, coupled with stronger border security and stiffer immigration enforcement, the question begs to be asked, who is going to build the wall politicians are calling for on the border between the U.S. and Mexico?
Organize Your School for Improvement
Author: Truby, William F.
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Educational Improvement,Organizational Effectiveness,Organizational Climate,Administrative Organization,Organizational Theories,Systems Approach,Social Systems,Performance Factors,Instructional Effectiveness,Organizational Development,Educational Assessment,Systems Analysis

W. Edwards Deming has suggested 96% of organization performance is a function of the organization's structure. He contends only about 4% of an organization's performance is attributable to the people. This is a fundamental difference as most school leaders work with the basic assumption that 80% of a school's performance is related to staff and their weaknesses and that these are the primary drivers of a school's performance. Thus, almost all school artifacts are driven by the assumption it's the teachers' fault. By utilizing a review of the history of organizations, this article purposes to challenge the status quo of thinking on the topic of school improvement. The author emphasizes and correlates important subtopics as Organizations as Machines and how humans do not fit into that mold so readily; the emergence of system thinking; and the move from managing an organization as if it were a machine (mechanical system) to the onset of facilitating the organization as a system (social system). Purposefully, this article confronts the following points with great interest and persuasion. Humans are tool users. American schools all use performance tools. Our schools must rethink their choices of performance tools. In a final analysis, these questions are provided to encourage our present thinking about the education of our children: Are there more effective tools than the ones we currently employ? Is this the best our schools can do? What can we learn from organizational development that will allow us to improve our schools?
Why Doesn&apos;t the &quot;High School Drop Out Rate&quot; Drop?
Author: Truby, William F.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: High School Students,Dropouts,Dropout Rate,Intervention,Models,Error Patterns,Urban Schools,Cost Effectiveness,Educational Practices,Systems Approach,School Districts,Best Practices,Prevention,Program Effectiveness

This article provides information, questions, and answers about current approaches to dropping the dropout rate of our students. For example, our current model of education is based on the mass production or assembly line model promoted by Henry Ford back in early years of the 1900s (1900-1920). This model served both factory production and education well as most innovations do as revealed by initial rapid improvements graphically displayed by the S Curve. All models have built-in error rates. In the case of the Ford Assembly the error rate was approximately 27%, meaning the assembly line, when operated optimally, 27% of the product would be flawed. When this model is applied to education you can expect an error rate (dropout rate) of 27%. Since systems have great difficulty operating optimally the rate in practice will be higher. The environment is a key factor. Knowing what we know about our typical school in America you would expect a dropout rate of about 35-40%. In terms of our inner city schools, one would expect to have a higher error rate of about 40-65%. Key topics that the author covers include the high cost and low return of investment in education; people problems vs. systems problems; group think; gaming the system; and efficiency. The American educational system is challenged as never before. Perhaps it is finally time to consider the concepts of Peter Senge, the MIT author of the seminal work in organization performance, &quot;The Fifth Discipline,&quot; who listed &quot;systems thinking&quot; as the most important of the disciplines in terms of promoting individual and organization performance.
Love and Hate in University Technology Transfer: Examining Faculty and Staff Conflicts and Ethical Issues
Author: Hamilton, Clovia
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Higher Education,College Faculty,Teacher Researchers,Technology Transfer,School Policy,Ethics,Conflict,Conflict Resolution,Values,Teacher Attitudes,Interpersonal Relationship,Research Universities,Literature Reviews

With respect to university technology transfer, the purpose of this paper is to examine the literature focused on the relationship between university research faculty and technology transfer office staff. We attempt to provide greater understanding of how research faculty's personal values and research universities' organization values may differ and why. Faculty researchers and tech transfer office (TTO) staff are perceived to be virtuous agents. When both are meeting each other's needs, a &quot;love&quot; relationship exists. However, when these needs are not met, a &quot;hate&quot; relationship exists that is replete with doubt and uncertainty. This doubt and uncertainty creates tension and subsequent conflicts. There are many accounts where faculty researchers have not followed university policies and expectations, often violating policy and ethical standards. Likewise,faculty report numerous examples of how TTO staff members' negligence in servicing their attempts to be good institutional citizens have failed them. This paper explores this love/hate relationship and reveals numerous conflicts that call into question ethical concerns. It also provides a set of recommendations for reducing and potentially alleviating these concerns. Literature review. Results from a thorough review of the literature on the relationship between faculty and university TTOs reveals that perceived job insecurity is the primary reason that some research faculty members as well as some TTO staff, unethically violate their university policy to disclose invention disclosures and select to not provide full services, respectively. One way to alleviate the conflict between faculty's personal values regarding their inventions and university's organizational values is to enact measures that build trust and reduce insecurity among faculty members and TTO staff. In this paper, we not only examine this faculty/TTO staff ethical conflicts, but we offer a set of recommendations that we believe will reduce the likelihood of unethical behavior while encouraging greater institutional commitment and trust.
The Effects of Context on Processing Words during Sentence Reading among Adults Varying in Age and Literacy Skill
Author: Steen-Baker, Allison A.
Date: 2017-08-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Context Effect,Language Processing,Literacy,Age Differences,Older Adults,Reading Processes,Sentences,Semantics,Eye Movements,Young Adults,Adults,Prediction,Correlation,Aging (Individuals),Regression (Statistics),Cognitive Processes,Psychomotor Skills,Word Recognition,Reading Fluency,Intelligence Tests,Task Analysis,Measures (Individuals),Achievement Tests,Statistical Analysis,Maximum Likelihood Statistics

The facilitation of word processing by sentence context reflects the interaction between the build-up of message-level semantics and lexical processing. Yet, little is known about how this effect varies through adulthood as a function of reading skill. In this study, Participants 18-64 years old with a range of literacy competence read simple sentences as their eye movements were monitored. We manipulated the predictability of a sentence-final target word, operationalized as cloze probability. First fixation durations showed an interaction between age and literacy skill, decreasing with age among more skilled readers but increasing among less skilled readers. This pattern suggests that age-related slowing may impact reading when not buffered by skill, but with continued practice, automatization of reading can continue to develop in adulthood. In absolute terms, readers were sensitive to predictability, regardless of age or literacy, in both early and later measures. Older readers showed differential contextual sensitivity in regression patterns, effects not moderated by literacy skill. Finally, comprehension performance increased with age and literacy skill, but performance among less skilled readers was especially reduced when predictability was low, suggesting that low-literacy adults (regardless of age) struggle when creating mental representations under weaker semantic constraints. Collectively, these findings suggest that aging readers (regardless of reading skill) are more sensitive to context for meaning-integration processes; that less skilled adult readers (regardless of age) depend more on a constrained semantic representation for comprehension; and that the capacity for literacy engagement enables continued development of efficient lexical processing in adult reading development.