ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Collaborating to Create Change: How El Paso Community College Improved the Readiness of Its Incoming Students through Achieving the Dream. Culture of Evidence Series, Report No. 4
Author: Kerrigan, Monica Reid
Date: 2010-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Community Colleges,National Programs,Educational Change,School Readiness,College Preparation,Minority Groups,Low Income Groups,College Bound Students,Two Year College Students,College School Cooperation,High Schools,Outcomes of Education,Program Effectiveness,Program Implementation,Stakeholders,School Culture,Educational Improvement,Developmental Studies Programs,Data,Educational Cooperation

Launched in 2003, &quot;Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count&quot; is a multiyear national initiative designed to improve educational outcomes for community college students, particularly students of color and low-income students. Supported by Lumina Foundation for Education and other funders, the initiative has grown to include 98 community colleges and 4 universities in 22 states. This report describes one community college's participation in Achieving the Dream. Along with 26 other colleges that were the first to enter the initiative, El Paso Community College (EPCC) joined Achieving the Dream in the summer of 2004 (colleges have joined the initiative through competitive selection in five rounds, the last of which started in summer 2009). In accord with the design of the Achieving the Dream initiative, EPCC has over the past five years implemented a number of interventions aimed at boosting student success, most of which focus on two interrelated goals. The first goal is to help prospective students improve their readiness for college so that when they do start college at EPCC, they can avoid enrollment in developmental courses and begin immediately taking credit-bearing, college-level offerings. The second goal is to help entering EPCC students who are required to take developmental courses to successfully complete that coursework in a much shorter period of time. The Achieving the Dream initiative is based on a five step improvement process--(1) commit to change; (2) use data to prioritize actions; (3) engage stakeholders; (4) implement, evaluate, improve; and (5) establish a culture of continuous improvement. This report uses that framework to discuss EPCC's participation in the initiative. The authors focus a good deal of attention on how EPCC faculty and staff and especially stakeholders outside the college became involved with these efforts, because the development of strong working relationships among El Paso educators both within and outside the community college is central in understanding the progress EPCC has made over the past several years. In a final section, they sketch out lessons learned by key individuals involved in EPCC's Achieving the Dream work. These lessons may have relevance for other colleges considering similar plans for increasing student success. (Contains 4 figures and 2 footnotes.)
Human Resource Development and Career and Technical Education in American Community Colleges
Author: Zeidenberg, Matthew
Date: 2010-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Community Colleges,Vocational Education,Labor Force Development,Remedial Programs,Dual Enrollment,Economic Development,Electronic Learning,Educational Finance,Academic Persistence,Graduation,Student Characteristics,Two Year College Students,Institutional Mission,College Preparation

With their open access admission policies, low tuition costs, and convenient locations, community colleges are designed to make college accessible to all. They strive to meet three main goals. The first is to teach marketable vocational skills, the second is to provide the first two years of a four-year bachelor's degree program, and the third is to provide continuing education and enrichment for community residents. This paper covers issues that are relevant to the community college mission of helping prepare a skilled workforce for jobs offering reasonable wages. After providing an overview about community colleges and their students, the paper discusses the types of remedial education programs that are most likely to provide the large number of underprepared students enrolled in community colleges with the skills to advance to college-level courses. It considers the growing phenomenon of dual enrollment that enables students to earn both high school and college credit for courses while still in high school. It addresses the ways that community colleges can support local labor markets and regional economic development and their efforts to build career pathways for workers. It describes the growing role of community colleges in online education, and it reviews the financing of community colleges. The paper also discusses issues related to community college persistence and completion, and it cites evidence of the market value of the education and credentials the colleges provide. Finally, it considers the usefulness of the American community college as a model for other countries seeking to develop institutions that serve similar functions.
A Five-Year Evaluation of a Comprehensive High School Civic Engagement Initiative. CIRCLE Working Paper #70
Author: McIntosh, Hugh
Date: 2010-03-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Intervention,Citizenship Education,Grade 12,Citizen Participation,Student Participation,School Activities,Student Attitudes,Social Attitudes,Skill Development,Focus Groups,Interviews,Governance,Cluster Grouping,Grouping (Instructional Purposes),Program Effectiveness,Program Evaluation

In September 2003, Hudson High School in Hudson, Massachusetts, launched two new civic development efforts--clustering and schoolwide governance--that provide an opportunity to study the influence of schoolwide democratic deliberation on students' civic knowledge and participation. The intervention involved, in part, organizing the school into clusters of 100 to 150 students that meet for one hour each week to discuss governance and other school-related issues, perform community service, and pursue other cluster-related activities. In 2003 we began collecting data to assess the progress of the clustering and schoolwide governance intervention. The findings to date suggest that the programs have been generally implemented as planned but that changes have been made to address specific issues that have arisen. Because the programs are still evolving, they cannot yet be considered mature. Nevertheless, successive classes of twelfth graders have shown improvements on measures of community service and political knowledge, and the improvements have been widespread in the student population. In addition, these positive changes were relatively larger for disenfranchised youth and other groups of students who initially scored lower than their counterpart groups on these civic measures, indicating that the programs are reaching the students they were designed to reach. Finally, examples from the current study support the idea that adult support, via scaffolding, plays an important role in building youth civic engagement. These findings demonstrate that all students--not just a select few--can and will engage in civic activity in their schools when given appropriate opportunity. A questionnaire used in this report's 21 measures of youth civic development is appended. (Contains 3 footnotes, 4 tables and 4 figures.)
Predicting Civic Engagement in Urban High School Students. CIRCLE Working Paper #69
Author: McIntosh, Hugh
Date: 2009-12-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Urban Schools,Extracurricular Activities,Citizen Participation,Conflict Resolution,Values Education,High School Students,Student Participation,Citizenship Education,Predictor Variables,Community Services,Service Learning,Political Issues,Conservation (Environment),Self Efficacy,Voting,Intention,Problem Solving,Discussion (Teaching Technique),Racial Differences,Whites,African Americans,Hispanic Americans,Family Structure,Athletics,Socioeconomic Status,Gender Differences

The landmark Civic Mission of Schools report of 2003 laid out an argument for the role of schools in promoting youth civic engagement and presented a range of promising ideas and practices to accomplish that. In this study we describe the civic engagement outcomes that Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in Louisville, KY, has chosen to promote in its students. The outcomes constitute a vision of civic engagement that sees youth as well-rounded citizens capable of engaging in civil, political, and problem-solving activities, both individually and socially. In 2007, JCPS revised its annual survey of students to include the above-mentioned civic outcomes and other new measures as part of a whole-child approach to monitoring educational development. Data collected from high school students by this survey in 2008 and 2009 were used to identify and characterize a number of factors which, theory and empirical research suggest, may be important predictors of youth civic engagement. The results show that most of the factors in our models of civic engagement were positively related to youth civic engagement. Using these findings and theoretical considerations, we sorted factors into three levels of importance. Overall, the most important predictors of youth civic engagement in our models were &quot;community service&quot;, &quot;political discussion&quot;, and &quot;environmental conservation&quot;. At an intermediate level of importance were &quot;nonsport extracurricular activities&quot;, &quot;conflict resolution skill&quot;, and &quot;positive character&quot;, as well as &quot;personal efficacy&quot;, &quot;willingness to contact public officials about issues of concern&quot;, and &quot;intention to vote&quot;. Seven other factors were also found to have positive, but somewhat weaker or less-widespread associations with youth civic engagement. Using a large sample in an urban school district, this study reinforces claims that community service, discussion of politics, and nonsport extracurricular activities boost civic engagement. These are three of the &quot;promising practices&quot; recommended for schools in the Civic Mission of Schools report, and this study reinforces the importance of providing them. The findings also provide intriguing evidence of the potential value of environmental conservation, conflict resolution skill, and character education as pathways to civic engagement. (Contains 11 tables.)
Tax Arbitrage by Colleges and Universities. A CBO Study
Author: Congressional Budget Office
Date: 2010-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Educational Finance,Colleges,Universities,Taxes,Debt (Financial),Investment

Colleges and universities enjoy a variety of federal tax preferences that are designed to support a broader public purpose--the advancement of higher education and research. Not only are institutions of higher learning exempt from paying federal income taxes, they also are eligible to receive tax deductible charitable contributions and allowed to use tax exempt debt to finance capital expenditures. This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study focuses on one of those tax advantages, the ability of colleges and universities to borrow funds by issuing tax exempt debt. According to the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the cost of allowing institutions of higher learning to borrow using such debt--measured in terms of the revenues that could have been collected if those institutions had borrowed using taxable debt--will be about $5.5 billion in 2010. The use of proceeds from lower cost tax exempt bonds to directly finance the purchase of higher yield securities--a practice known as tax arbitrage--is prohibited by law. Nevertheless, the law as currently implemented allows many colleges and universities to use tax exempt debt to finance investments in operating assets (buildings and equipment) while, at the same time, they hold investment assets that earn a higher return. (Investment assets are publicly traded and privately held securities, as well as land or buildings held for investment purposes.) To the extent that colleges and universities can earn untaxed returns on investments that are higher than the interest they pay on tax exempt debt, they are benefiting from a form of "indirect" tax arbitrage. The appendix presents alternative calculations of bond holdings that would earn profits from tax arbitrage under a broader definition using no adjustments for misreporting tax-exempt-bond liability or for assets held by supporting organizations. (Contains 4 tables, 3 figures, 1 box and 29 footnotes.)
Costs and Policy Options for Federal Student Loan Programs. A CBO Study
Author: Lucas, Deborah
Date: 2010-03-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Federal Aid,Student Loan Programs,Federal Programs,Politics of Education,Educational Policy,Student Costs,Student Financial Aid,Federal Legislation

The Department of Education oversees various programs to help students pay for the costs of postsecondary education. This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study focuses on the two largest student loan programs created under the authority of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (as amended): (1) The Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, which dates back to the mid-1960s, guarantees student loans made by private-sector lenders; and (2) The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP), which began operating in 1994, makes loans directly to students or their parents. This study--prepared at the request of the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee--compares the budgetary and fair-value costs of the federal student loan programs. It also looks at several options for modifying those programs, including eliminating the guaranteed loan program after July 1, 2010, and expanding direct lending. &quot;Assumptions and Analysis Underlying CBO's Fair-Value Subsidy Estimates&quot; is appended. (Contains 4 tables, 1 box, and 54 footnotes.)
Collaboration: Closing the Effective Teaching Gap
Author: Berry, Barnett
Date: 2009-12-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Economically Disadvantaged,Academic Achievement,Teacher Collaboration,Cooperation,Teaching Experience,Minority Groups,Academic Ability,Mathematics Education,Special Education,Teacher Persistence,Teacher Recruitment,Teacher Placement,Achievement Gap,Teacher Education,Scores,Teacher Certification,Teacher Surveys,Interviews,Urban Schools

Over the last decade, policy and business leaders have come to know what parents have always known: teachers are the largest school-based factor in student achievement. Yet not all schools have equal access to the most effective teachers. High-needs schools that serve large proportions of economically disadvantaged and minority students are more likely to have difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers, particularly in high-demand subjects like math and special education. As a result, they are much more likely to fill those openings with out-of-field, inexperienced, and less well-prepared teachers. Simply put, the student achievement gap is largely explained by an effective teaching gap. The important question is how individuals seek to close that gap. Some pundits and policymakers suggest that effective teachers are born, not made--and that the academic ability and personal traits of new recruits are more important for teaching effectiveness than pedagogical training. However, recent studies have shown that teachers are significantly more effective if they are fully prepared when they enter teaching, are certified in the specific field they teach, have higher scores on their licensing tests, have graduated from a more competitive college, have at least two years teaching experience, and are National Board certified. In addition, a new body of research suggests that teaching experience and pedagogical preparation matters for student achievement when teachers have opportunities to learn from their peers in their schools over time. Working conditions seem to matter a great deal for teacher effectiveness--but which ones? This policy brief offers a powerful perspective on teaching effectiveness and teacher collaboration. Drawing on surveys and interviews of teachers in urban, high-needs schools as well as a broader research literature, the authors offer evidence to show that when teachers are given time and tools to collaborate with their peers, they are more likely to teach effectively and more likely to remain in the high-needs schools that need them most. (Contains 2 figures.)
Preparing to Lead an Effective Classroom: The Role of Teacher Training and Professional Development Programs
Author: Berry, Barnett
Date: 2010-01-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Teacher Effectiveness,Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Persistence,Program Effectiveness,Educational Change,Faculty Development,Classroom Techniques,Teacher Education Curriculum,Teacher Education Programs,Educational Research,Role of Education,Instructional Effectiveness,Beginning Teachers,Labor Force,Teacher Certification,Academic Achievement,Access to Education

The education research community has spent years debating the value of teacher education and professional development programs and their impact on teaching effectiveness and student achievement. These debates will no doubt intensify as Congress turns its attention this year to reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. School reformers and policy analysts are often at odds over the best means to identify talented teachers and improve teaching effectiveness. Debates rage among analysts as well as researchers over the extent to which teachers are prepared before they enter teaching and what counts in order for a new recruit to be deemed qualified and licensed to teach. However, the overwhelming evidence reveals that high-quality pre-service training increases new teacher retention and improves their effectiveness. Granted, given a more mobile 21st century workforce, teaching must draw on new recruits who enter from multiple pathways and earn their &quot;stripes&quot; on multiple timelines. In the past, both teacher education and professional development has suffered from a one-size-fits-all approach that does not accommodate the difference in knowledge and skills of different recruits and veterans alike. But while individuals might make preparation pathways more accessible, preparation for the teaching profession cannot and should not inherently be an &quot;easier&quot; process unless they want to undercut teacher effectiveness entirely. This policy brief considers the ways in which effective professional learning opportunities lay the groundwork for effective teaching.
Teacher Leadership: Leading the Way to Effective Teaching and Learning
Author: Berry, Barnett
Date: 2010-01-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Teacher Effectiveness,Self Efficacy,Parent Participation,Educational Change,Parent School Relationship,Teacher Leadership,Teaching Methods,Classroom Techniques,Instructional Leadership,Teacher Responsibility,Teacher Student Relationship,Teacher Expectations of Students,Participative Decision Making,Professional Autonomy,Academic Achievement,Teacher Persistence,Career Development

A rich literature--both within education circles and in other kinds of labor markets--links teachers' sense of efficacy and collective responsibility to their teaching effectiveness and improved student achievement. Prior research has found that a teacher's self-efficacy as an instructional leader is strongly and positively associated with soliciting parent involvement, communicating positive expectations for student learning, improving instructional practice, and being willing (and able) to innovate successfully in the classroom. Increased opportunities to lead build on one another and translate into increased success for instructional leaders. Teachers who report more control over the policies in their schools and greater degrees of autonomy in their jobs are more likely to remain in teaching and to feel invested in their careers and schools. However, teachers have few opportunities to lead and influence both policy and programs. In fact, teaching is a traditionally "flat" profession, with few opportunities for teachers to advance professionally without leaving the classroom. If teachers are to be "promoted" within education, such as moving into administration, then they no longer work with students directly. And once they no longer work with students they often lose not only classroom perspective but also credibility with their colleagues as instructional leaders. This policy brief considers the ways in which teacher leadership is key to present-day teaching effectiveness and a healthy future for the teaching profession. The authors draw on surveys and interviews of teachers in urban, high-needs schools as well as a broader research literature to demonstrate that when teachers are empowered as instructional leaders and decision-makers, students and the public schools they attend will benefit. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)
Teacher Effectiveness: The Conditions that Matter Most and a Look to the Future
Author: Berry, Barnett
Date: 2010-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Achievement Gains,Economically Disadvantaged,Academic Achievement,Minority Groups,Teacher Qualifications,Scores,Standardized Tests,Mathematics Education,Special Education,Employment Opportunities,Disadvantaged Schools,Teaching Experience,Teacher Education Programs,Teacher Certification,Teacher Competency Testing,Teacher Placement,Teaching Conditions,Educational Improvement

Over the last decade, policy and business leaders have come to know what parents have always known: teachers make the greatest difference to student achievement. With new statistical and analytical methods used by a wide range of researchers, evidence has been mounting that teacher quality can account for a large share of variance in student test scores. The evidence on the distribution of qualified and effective teachers is also clear--and the findings are not good. Teachers who have met the demanding standards of National Board Certification and those who have generated higher "value-added" student achievement gains are far less likely to teach economically disadvantaged and minority students. As a result, high-poverty schools are more likely to be beset with teaching vacancies in math and special education, and much more likely to staff classrooms with out-of-field, inexperienced and less-prepared teachers. This policy brief focuses on the best practices for preparation programs that ensure teachers are prepared to teach effectively, especially in high-needs schools. (Contains 3 tables.) [This paper was written with Alesha Daughtrey and Alan Wieder.]