ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Robust Implementation of MDC: Teacher Perceptions of Tool Use and Outcomes. Brief Three
Author: Lawrence, Nancy
Date: 2012-09-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Learner Engagement,Mathematics Education,Formative Evaluation,Educational Change,Secondary School Teachers,Teacher Surveys,Mixed Methods Research,Theories,Teaching Methods,State Standards,Core Curriculum,Curriculum Implementation,Secondary School Mathematics,Mathematics Instruction,Lesson Plans,Inservice Teacher Education,Educational Policy,State Policy,Program Implementation,Program Effectiveness,Program Evaluation,Outcome Measures,Qualitative Research,Interviews,Observation,Statistical Analysis,Philanthropic Foundations,Sustainability,Mathematics Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Role

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in the development and dissemination of high-quality instructional and formative assessment tools to support teachers' incorporation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) into their classroom instruction. Lessons from the first generation of standards-based reforms suggest that intense attention to high quality instructional tasks (City, Elmore, Fairman, & Teitel, 2010; Hiebert and Carpenter, 1992; Hiebert and Wearne, 1993; Jones et al, 1994) and use of formative assessments embedded in those tasks (Black et al, 2004; Clarke and Shinn, 2004; Fuchs, 2004; Tunstall, 1996) are essential if teachers are to meet the demands of the CCSS. Experts from the Shell Centre have developed a set of Formative Assessment Lessons (Lessons) for secondary mathematics teachers to facilitate CCSS-based student mathematics learning and provide teachers with feedback about student understanding and mastery. The tools are designed to target the "instructional core" by: (1) Raising the level of content; (2) Enhancing teachers' skill and knowledge about instruction, content and formative assessment; (3) Catalyzing student engagement in their learning so that they will achieve at high levels (Elmore, 2010). These tools have been in use for two years (2010-2011 and 2011-2012 schools years). This brief highlights and assesses the status of elements of robust implementation of the MDC tools, which are represented by the small blue circles in the Theory of Action. These six indicators, which fall into two main categories--Teacher Beliefs and Knowledge and Classroom Changes--are instrumental in understanding teachers' disposition towards the tools and their perceptions of how their instruction and student learning have changed as a result of their participation in the MDC initiative. Robust implementation should lead to several intermediate and long-term outcomes, among them Broad and Deep Instructional Change. The authors present their findings for this outcome as well. They provide a brief overview of data sources and then examine: (1) the three indicators of robust implementation related to teacher beliefs and knowledge; (2) the three indicators of robust implementation related to classroom changes; and (3) signs of broad and deep instructional change. Brief 3 closes with recommendations and questions. (Contains 22 figures and 3 footnotes.)
Full Stomachs--Full Minds: How New Mexico Public Schools Can Feed More Children for Less Money, Summer 2009
Author: Appleseed
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Lunch Programs,School Districts,Hunger,Financial Support,Public Schools,Budgeting,Budgets,Costs,Certification,Eligibility,Enrollment,Parent School Relationship,Interpersonal Relationship,English (Second Language),Internet,Federal Aid

Every day in New Mexico, student achievement and nutrition are in states of emergency. With families losing jobs and wages, more and more children are going to school malnourished, some having eaten nothing at all. School districts struggle to educate and support their students with fewer available resources. Slashed budgets mean frustrated teachers, less money for books and supplies, and little capacity to subsidize a federal lunch program that already falls short of the school districts' costs for each lunch served. No expensive study is necessary to show that hungry children cannot pay attention in class. Nor is one necessary to show that New Mexico's school districts are in dire need of financial support and help to accomplish their goals. This report evaluates options available to school, district and state administrators that will help to feed more children at a lesser cost, thereby reducing hunger and the toll it exacts both socially and academically. New Mexico Appleseed's recommendations point to increased profitability for schools and decreased hunger and food insecurity for children. (Contains 176 footnotes.)
Making It Clear: How Federal Law, Parent Involvement, and Free Tutoring for Students in Struggling Schools Go Together
Author: Appleseed
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Tutoring,Low Income Groups,Parent Participation,Federal Legislation,Parent School Relationship,Educational Legislation,Supplementary Education

Federal law requires schools that have fallen short of state learning standards for three years or more to pay for any low-income student in that school to receive &quot;supplemental educational services,&quot; or free academic tutoring! Supplemental educational services (SES) are, simply, free tutoring services that some schools must offer to low-income students. Students receive SES &quot;in addition&quot; to regular teaching during the school day. A federal law called &quot;No Child Left Behind&quot; (&quot;NCLB,&quot; for short) requires schools to meet certain &quot;progress goals&quot; every year. A school's goals for making progress are based on learning standards set by the state. To reach its progress goals every year, a school must show that its students are meeting the state learning standards. If students do not meet standards and the school fails to reach its goals for three years in a row, the school district must pay for low-income students to receive SES. Parents should get actively involved when their schools fail to meet their goals. If the school tells parents that it has not met its goals for two years in a row, parents should contact the school and district officials and ask: (1) Does the school have a plan to meet its goals?; (2) What can parents do to help?; and (3) What is the school's plan for telling parents about free tutoring if the school fails to meet its goals for a third year? If parents know that their school is required to offer free tutoring: (1) Make sure their school lets parents know about SES in clear and understandable language, and (2) Spread the word and tell other parents about free tutoring. (Contains 11 endnotes.)
The Same Starting Line: How School Boards Can Erase the Opportunity Gap between Poor and Middle-Class Children
Author: Darden, Edwin
Date: 2011-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Achievement Gap,Standardized Tests,Public Schools,Boards of Education,Scores,Poverty,Economically Disadvantaged,Middle Class,Students,Test Results,Superintendents,Parent Participation,Neighborhoods,Teacher Attendance

This project focuses on the policies and practices of school boards (or mayors or others who govern public schools), and how their priorities can make a tangible difference in the academic success of kids living in poor communities. Instead of focusing on deficits of poverty, the researchers wanted to stress school board action as an effective supplement that can give all students an equal opportunity to succeed. That led them to examine learning-related education resources (aside from direct dollars) and how they are distributed by neighborhood. Appleseed's &quot;The Same Starting Line&quot; report invites school board members, educators, communities and policymakers to shift the conversation about public schools from what kids lack to what schools and school boards, superintendents and other key decision-makers must provide. Constant talk of an achievement gap emphasizes standardized test results as the premiere measure of academic prowess and future potential. It also invokes class differences. Poverty is frequently cited as the central reason for test score disparities. Experts attest that children from economically struggling homes arrive at school with a smaller vocabulary, fewer world-expanding experiences, less math and science away from school, and an unfortunate environment where survival sometimes trumps high educational ambitions. The researchers thus recommend ways to spot differences between educational offerings in middle-class and high-poverty neighborhoods and discuss how that awareness can help reverse the discernable pattern in which decent schools are located in well-off areas and a lesser education awaits students in poverty. Appended are: (1) Methodology and Scope of Work Profiles of Districts in the Appleseed Study; and (2) Basic Resource Equity Assessment Document. (Contains 8 figures and 38 endnotes.) [This paper was written with assistance from Craig Baab, Vaughn Branch, John Pickens, Jesse Abrams-Morley, Malcolm Rich, Michael C. D'Agostino, Claire Howard, Robert Kettle, Sharon Hill, Rob Rhodes, Adam Sparks, Adrian Pedroza, Jennifer Ramo, and Javier Martinez Villanueva.]
Unaccompanied, Unidentified and Uncounted: Developing Strategies to Meet the Needs of America's Homeless Youth. Issue Brief on the Education of Unaccompanied Homeless Youth
Author: Appleseed
Date: 2012-02-15
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Homeless People,Advocacy,Data Collection,Federal Programs,State Programs,Public Policy,Federal Legislation,Access to Education,Disadvantaged Youth,Student Needs

Unaccompanied homeless youth appear to be one of the fastest growing and most vulnerable segments of the larger homeless population, but flawed information-gathering by government entities makes it impossible to be sure. This issue brief examines reasons why the plight of unaccompanied homeless youth is not fully captured through current models of identification and data collection, and how this failure of information adversely affects society's ability to help this vulnerable population. While points made and conclusions drawn are applicable nationwide, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the touchstone for many of the examples. This brief consists of a menu of findings and recommendations meant to spur advocacy, additional research, and ultimately, meaningful improvements in the lives of these children. The goal is to inspire and empower lawmakers, policy drafters, service-providers and advocates to use this information and these recommendations to develop a suite of reforms that improve the support structure for unaccompanied homeless youth around the nation. (Contains 64 endnotes.)
It Takes a Parent: Transforming Education in the Wake of the No Child Left Behind Act. Recommendations Regarding the Vital Role of Parents and Guardians in Achieving Student and School Success
Author: Appleseed
Date: 2007-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Testing,Secondary Schools,Public Schools,Parent Role,Parent Participation,Federal Legislation,Parent School Relationship,Accountability,Educational Legislation,Partnerships in Education,Parents,Elementary Schools,Elementary Secondary Education,Disclosure,Poverty,School Choice,Language Proficiency,Barriers,Cultural Influences

Testing and accountability have commanded almost constant attention since the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) became federal law four years ago. What is frequently overlooked is the special power of parents to lift their children to new academic heights. The partnership helps to achieve the primary aims of that law. Without better informed and involved parents, all of the testing and data becomes, for some, the proverbial fallen tree in the forest that no one hears. Thus, NCLB should be understood, embraced, and ultimately evaluated, in part, on its success in educating and engaging parents. NCLB says plainly that parents should be two things: (1) Informed of the academic progress of their children and the performance of their schools; and (2) Involved in meaningful ways as a partner with school officials. This report looks at how parental involvement works in public elementary and secondary schools and what still needs to be done. While the findings and recommendations are based on research in six states and eighteen school districts, the results are symbolic of what is occurring at the more than 90,000 elementary and secondary public school buildings in the 50 states. A Toolkit for Districts, Schools, and Parents is appended. (Contains 38 endnotes.)
Making It Clear: Federal Law and Opportunities for Parent Involvement during Public School Restructuring
Author: Appleseed
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Educational Indicators,Federal Programs,Educational Improvement,School Restructuring,Parent Participation,Federal Legislation,Parent School Relationship,Educational Legislation,Public Schools,Elementary Secondary Education,School Turnaround,Transfer Students,Charter Schools,Teachers,Students,Principals

Every child deserves a great school. When kids fail or schools fail, parents must engage and help restore them to the path of success. That assistance is especially called-for during a process called &quot;Restructuring&quot;--a status in federal law that requires schools to make major changes due to dreadful student test scores year-after-year. An increasing number of schools find themselves on the brink of Restructuring--and struggling with the dramatic overhauls required by the No Child Left Behind Act (&quot;NCLB,&quot; for short). Here is the background: NCLB/ESEA requires every school in the country to make &quot;adequate yearly progress,&quot; otherwise known as &quot;AYP.&quot; The AYP target means a majority of each school's students must have at least the minimum acceptable score on state exams. If that doesn't happen, schools must make changes. If a school fails to meet expectations for five years in a row, then Restructuring is the penalty. This background brief will help parents understand what Restructuring is, what they should know about it, and what they can do about it. Congress will likely be making changes to the law before the end of 2010, but for now, this is what applies. (Contains 26 endnotes.)
A Proposal to Strengthen Family and Community Engagement within the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: An Implementation Guide
Author: Sprick, Briana
Date: 2010-08-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Academic Achievement,School Administration,Principals,Community Organizations,Elementary Secondary Education,School Culture,Parent Participation,Family School Relationship,School Community Relationship,Parent School Relationship,Partnerships in Education,Administrator Role,Program Implementation,Disclosure

This guide is intended for school leaders who want to create partnerships with families and community members in their schools. There are many reasons to want to increase family and community engagement. First and foremost, family and community engagement helps students achieve. In addition, creating partnerships allows for the pooling of resources so the school has access to more services, creates a stronger community, and improves school practices. This guide is directed at school leaders because, though any parent, member of the school community, or community organization can initiate a partnership, principals play a key role in the success of school partnerships. Principals have the power to set the tone of the school; if a principal is not invested in engaging families and the community, the teachers and school staff will not exert much effort to do so. Any major school culture shift will have trouble succeeding without the support of the school administration, and effective partnerships require a committed school culture. Partnerships involve more than just inviting families and community members to participate at the school. They require sharing power and responsibility, not to mention resources, to achieve a common goal: the academic achievement and developmental growth of students. (Contains 22 footnotes and 6 resources.)
Capturing Young American Trust in National Databases
Author: Menard, Lauren A.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Trust (Psychology),Young Adults,Age Groups,Age Differences,Educational Attainment,College Graduates,Citizen Participation,National Surveys,Regression (Statistics),Comparative Analysis

A pattern of decreasing trusting proportions in each consecutive decade and increasing trusting proportions with age was revealed in data. Although trust levels were lower in younger adults and the 2000s, findings did not support hypotheses of more rapidly falling trust levels or a college degree procuring less trust in the 2000s. A hypothesis of upswings in trust for young adults following September 11, 2001 was supported. Logistic regression analyses identified the 1990s, not the 2000s, as the decade with the weakest associations between trust and college degree and life stage product term variables. Two exceptions to patterns in the 2000s--no change in the proportion of trusting 25 to 29-year-olds and an increase in the trusting proportion of 18 to 24-year-old college graduates--suggested Putnam (2005) may have cause to look more closely to emerging adults today for a possibility of the next greatest civic generation of Americans. An appendix presents: Differences between GSS [General Social Survey Datafile] and ANES [American National Election Studies] Surveys for Social Trust. (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)
Memberships, Voting, Social Trust, and Online Participation in Emerging Adulthood
Author: Menard, Lauren Ann
Date: 2012-04-15
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Young Adults,Older Adults,Voting,Trust (Psychology),Educational Attainment,College Graduates,Citizen Participation,Group Membership,Internet,Age Differences,Comparative Analysis

American political and civic engagement was examined by life stage and educational  attainment levels in 2008 political data. Engaged proportions of older Americans were larger than young Americans for Memberships, Voting, and Social Trust. A larger proportion of Young Adults (23%) than Older Adults (19%), however, was found for Online Participation (x[superscript]2=8.25, p=0.02). College Degree proportions were larger than No Degree proportions for all measures. Gaps between Older College Graduates and Young College Graduates were smaller than gaps between Older Adults and Young Adults for Memberships and Social Trust. The strong, inverse association between Young Adults and Voting (b= -1.11) was weakened with the product predictor Young College Graduates (b= -1.07). Online Participation and Young College Graduates (b=0.605) was the only positive correlation with ages 18-29 years. Evidence to support notions of new politics and a techno-deterministic transformation of political engagement (Calenda & Meijer, 2009) was found in American data. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.)
Diversity in Engineering Teaching--Views from Future Engineering Faculty. Research Brief
Author: Sattler, Brook
Date: 2007-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Portfolios (Background Materials),Engineering Education,Minority Groups,Engineering,Graduate Students,Workshops,Semi Structured Interviews,Student Diversity,Research Universities,College Faculty,Higher Education,Disproportionate Representation,Minority Group Students,Recruitment,School Holding Power,Females,Sciences

Even though diversity issues have not always been addressed in engineering education, addressing diversity has emerged as an important issue in the engineering education community as the student population in colleges and universities has become increasingly more diverse. Despite these changes in student populations, attrition from engineering programs remains a significant issue across all groups. For underrepresented minority groups, recruitment and retention in the engineering programs is especially critical because significantly fewer engineering degrees were awarded to these students in the last decade. The current number of minorities and women in student populations represented in engineering programs are still well below parity with their distribution within the higher education population. The context of this diversity research was situated within a larger qualitative study of future engineering faculty at a large, public research university on the West Coast. These future engineering educators created teaching portfolios during an 8 session workshop in which they had the opportunity to examine, reflect, and revise their beliefs and goals as teachers through a series of exercises, writing tasks, and group discussions. In the first of two workshop sessions about diversity, graduate students and post-docs were asked to write a diversity statement after a facilitated discussion about diversity issues in engineering education. In the subsequent session, they shared these written statements and discussed them with other workshop participants in a peer review activity. After the conclusion of this workshop, participants underwent semi-structured interviews for an hour about the processes that they used in constructing their teaching portfolios and the outcomes and impacts that creating a teaching portfolio had on them. In this study, the authors focus the analysis on the exit interview data. The core of this analysis was to characterize how these study participants thought about diversity as it relates to engineering education and where and how they formed their ideas. The data suggest that most participants had thought about diversity issues and had formed opinions or strategies for addressing diversity in engineering education. Some participants shared narratives in which they described critical incidents that shaped their attitudes, beliefs, and conceptions of diversity through these personal experiences. All participants were cognizant that diversity issues can be highly sensitive and chose their words carefully when discussing diversity issues.