ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Cracks in the Ivory Tower? The Views of Education Professors Circa 2010
Author: Farkas, Steve
Date: 2010-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Schools of Education,School Restructuring,Elementary Secondary Education,Federal Legislation,National Standards,Certification,Alternative Teacher Certification,Teacher Educators,College Faculty,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Role,Accountability,Tenure,National Surveys,Teacher Effectiveness,Educational Improvement,Change Agents,Educational Philosophy,Classroom Techniques,Criticism

The American K-12 education system is under fire--and schools of education are no exception. Even the U.S. Secretary of Education and the presidents and deans of many teachers colleges and education schools themselves number among the critics. Alternative certification programs are blossoming in every corner of the land, competing for the bread and butter of these once-dominant institutions. Even as efforts to improve the teaching profession stretch beyond the walls of education schools, professors who teach within those walls have a clear stake in the policies that will affect their students. This report, therefore, goes to the source--the nation's teacher educators, responsible for preparing most of the children's classroom teachers--and asks for their perspectives on the pressing questions surrounding teacher education and school reform today. How do they view their own roles and those of their institutions? How do they respond to criticism? What do they think about the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), teacher tenure, state and national standards, measures of accountability, and alternative certification programs--their competition? Results show that education professors hold divided views on many issues. Balanced against a remarkable willingness to criticize their own preparation programs is a fair degree of defensiveness. In several areas, the views of teacher educators conflict with the policies that school districts and states pursue in today's public schools--and with the express needs of teachers themselves. Many attitudes have shifted since an original iteration of this study in 1997, even as other attitudes have barely budged. Two particular subsets within the professoriate are so intensely different that the authors have named them Reformers and Defenders. Appendices include: (1) Methodology; and (2) National Survey of Education Professors: Final Data. (Contains 25 footnotes and 17 figures. The foreword was written by Chester E. Finn, Jr., Michael J. Petrilli, and Janie Scull.)
American Academic: A National Survey of Part-time/Adjunct Faculty. Volume 2
Author: AFT Higher Education
Date: 2010-03-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Unions,College Faculty,Compensation (Remuneration),Job Satisfaction,Educational Trends,College Instruction,Faculty Workload,College Environment,Work Environment,Part Time Faculty,Employment Opportunities,Occupational Surveys,National Surveys,Telephone Surveys,Interviews,Teacher Role,Teacher Characteristics,Teacher Attitudes,Adjunct Faculty

Plainly, part-time/adjunct faculty members now play a vital role in educating the nation's college students. Even so, the data and research on part-time/adjunct faculty members have tended to be pretty spotty. This survey, conducted by Hart Research Associates on behalf of the American Federation of Teachers, is one of the first nationwide attempts to really understand the role of part-time/adjunct faculty. Telephone interviews were conducted on a national sample of part-time/adjunct faculty employed in two- and four-year public and private nonprofit higher education institutions. The survey results address three fundamental questions: (1) Who are part-time/adjunct faculty members?; (2) Under what conditions do they work?; and (3) How do they view their work and the challenges they face on campus? The survey reveals that part-time/adjunct instructors are generally pleased to have teaching jobs and enjoy teaching. Part-time/adjunct faculty members vary considerably in the extent of their participation in the institution as well as their ambitions to teach on a full-time basis. The survey highlights serious shortcomings in the financial and professional support received by part-time/adjunct instructors, and reveals widespread concern in the ranks about bread-and-butter conditions. This report has five sections. Section I provides a demographic overview of part-time and adjunct faculty. Section II examines faculty's attitudes toward part-time employment. Section III explores job satisfaction and faculty's assessment of various employment conditions. Section IV reports on the compensation and benefits received by faculty. Finally, section V reviews professional support and advancement opportunities.
Postsecondary Education: Many States Collect Graduates' Employment Information, but Clearer Guidance on Student Privacy Requirements Is Needed. Report to Congressional Committees. GAO-10-927
Author: Iritani, Katherine M.
Date: 2010-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Postsecondary Education,College Graduates,Employment,Student Records,Privacy,Compliance (Legal),Data Collection,Alignment (Education),National Surveys,Foreign Countries

Postsecondary education plays an important role in producing a skilled workforce able to compete in the global economy. Some stakeholders have suggested that collecting information on graduates' employment outcomes--whether they are employed in their field of study, for example--will provide better information to help assess the impact of a postsecondary education. The Higher Education Opportunity Act directed GAO to study the information that states have on the employment outcomes of postsecondary graduates. This report describes (1) the extent and purposes for which states collect employment-related information and the challenges they faced in doing so, (2) potential approaches to expanding states' collection efforts across states and nationwide, and (3) how selected states and schools collaborate with employers to align education and workforce needs. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed relevant research and interviewed officials from the U.S. Departments of Education (Education) and Labor, as well as postsecondary institutions, state agencies, and employers in seven states and two countries selected based on their data collection capabilities. GAO recommends that Education clarify means by which states can collect and share graduates' employment information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and establish a time frame for doing so. Education agreed with the recommendation. Appended are: (1) Scope and Methodology; (2) Selected Characteristics of States' Postsecondary Student Unit Record Data Systems; (3) Examples of Selected National Surveys of Postsecondary Education Students; (4) Structure of Postsecondary Education in Australia and United Kingdom and Data Collection Methods; (5) Comments from the Department of Education; and (6) GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments. (Contains 2 tables, 1 figure and 33 footnotes.)
Our Documents: A National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Service. Teacher Sourcebook, Volume II
Author: Mazzenga, Maria, Ed.
Date: 2003-00-00
Type: Guides - Classroom - Teacher
Subjects: United States History,Democracy,Civics,Archives,Worksheets,Presidents,History Instruction,Instructional Materials,Primary Sources,Research Tools,Public Agencies,Web Sites,Computer Uses in Education,Teaching Guides,Lesson Plans,Bibliographies,Civil Rights,African American History,Voting,Transcripts (Written Records),Educational Resources,Photography,Visual Aids,Nonprint Media

What do Matthew Brady, Carrie Chapman Catt, Ansel Adams, Orson Welles, and J. Howard Miller have to do with the 100 milestone documents? A few hints: Matthew Brady created the first photographic documentation of a war. Carrie Chapman Catt was the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1920. Orson Welles produced plays for the Federal Theater Project, a program of the Works Progress Administration established during the Depression to relieve unemployment among artists and writers. J. Howard Miller created some of the most memorable posters designed to rally the public for war in the 1940s, including the easily recognizable &quot;Rosie the Riveter&quot; poster calling women to work in the nation's factories as men left for battle overseas. These individuals have left what everyone might view as the &quot;supporting record&quot; of the 100 milestone documents. These supporting materials are the focus of the lessons and activities contained within this volume of the &quot;Our Documents Teacher Sourcebook.&quot; One aim here is to expose the range and variety of materials related to the milestone documents, materials that reveal the depth and character of the documents themselves. Accordingly, the lessons and materials within this volume focus on selected photographs, posters, fliers, print documents and other materials that support the 100 milestone documents themselves. It is the purpose of &quot;Our Documents: A National Initiative on American History, Civics, and Service,&quot; to promote public exploration of how democracy has taken shape over time. &quot;Our Documents&quot; is an initiative of National History Day and The National Archives and Records Administration in cooperation with the USA Freedom Corps. [For the other volumes, see ED477738 (Volume I) and ED511987 (Volume III).]
Child Care and Development Fund: Undercover Tests Show Five State Programs Are Vulnerable to Fraud and Abuse. Report to Congressional Addressees. GAO-10-1062
Author: Kutz, Gregory D.
Date: 2010-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Human Services,State Programs,Criminals,Child Care Centers,Case Studies,Low Income Groups,Child Care,Financial Support,Federal Aid,Prevention,Deception,Interviews,Parent Attitudes,Court Litigation,Records (Forms),Public Agencies,Child Caregivers,Accountability

Through the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) subsidizes child care for low-income families whose parents work or attend education or training programs. In fiscal year 2009, the CCDF budget was $7 billion. States are responsible for determining program priorities and overseeing funds. Providers--who range from child care centers to relatives--bill the state for caring for approved children. Unregulated relatives represent 12 percent of providers in the CCDF program. In response to program fraud and abuse, GAO (1) proactively tested selected states' fraud prevention controls, (2) examined closed case studies of fraud and abuse, and (3) interviewed parents waitlisted for child care about the effect of this lack of assistance on their families. To do this, GAO investigators posed as parents and unregulated relative providers in 10 scenarios in five states with no waiting lists that each received more than $100 million in CCDF funding for fiscal year 2009. These states did not require fingerprint criminal history checks or site visits. For case studies of past program fraud, GAO reviewed criminal court records and interviewed agency officials. GAO spoke with parents on waiting lists in six states for their perspectives on the effect of being unable to obtain childcare. Results cannot be projected beyond these states or unregulated relative providers. Appended are: (1) Scope and Methodology; and (2) GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments. (Contains 5 tables and 38 footnotes.)
Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade: IES Practice Guide. NCEE 2010-4038
Author: Shanahan, Timothy
Date: 2010-09-00
Type: Guides - Classroom - Teacher
Subjects: Reading Comprehension,Beginning Reading,Reading Instruction,Teaching Methods,Primary Education,Kindergarten,Grade 1,Grade 2,Grade 3,Reading Strategies,Text Structure,Discussion (Teaching Technique),Reading Material Selection,Learner Engagement,Student Motivation,Evidence,Educational Research

Strong reading comprehension skills are central not only to academic and professional success, but also to a productive social and civic life. These skills build the capacity to learn independently, to absorb information on a variety of topics, to enjoy reading, and to experience literature more deeply. Despite the growing demand for highly educated workers in today's information- and service-related economies, the proportion of American adults classified as &quot;below basic&quot; readers remained remarkably constant between 1992 and 2003. This guide, developed by a panel of experts, presents a set of evidence-based practices that teachers and other educators can use to successfully teach reading comprehension to young readers. The panel believes that students who read with understanding at an early age gain access to a broader range of texts, knowledge, and educational opportunities, making early reading comprehension instruction particularly critical. The guide also describes the evidence that supports the practices and gives examples of how they can be implemented in the classroom. Appendices include: (1) Postscript from the Institute of Education Sciences; (2) About the Authors; (3) Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest; and (4) Rationale for Evidence Ratings. (Contains 11 tables, 1 figure and 214 endnotes.)
Leadership, Diversity and Succession Planning in Academia. Research & Occasional Papers Series: CSHE 8.10
Author: Gonzalez, Cristina
Date: 2010-05-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Females,Corporations,Leadership,College Faculty,Department Heads,Minority Groups,Deans,Occupational Mobility,College Administration,Diversity (Faculty),Higher Education,Disproportionate Representation,Promotion (Occupational),Personnel Management,Talent,Talent Development

Although academia is becoming more like business in many respects--not all of them positive--it has not borrowed one of the best attributes of business culture: its tradition of developing leadership through succession planning. As a result, much talent is underutilized. This includes, most prominently, that of women and minorities, who tend not to be perceived as leadership material. This paper makes a distinction between two levels of academic administrators: deans and above, who are professional administrators, and department chairs and below, who could be characterized as casual administrators, since all faculty members engage in managerial activities as directors of academic programs, principal investigators of grants, committee members or chairs. In Clark Kerr's terminology, casual administrators are members of the guild, while professional administrators are members of the corporation. At present, women and minorities are having considerable trouble moving from the guild to the corporation. This paper proposes that the connection between the guild and the corporation be strengthened and become more of a two-way street. As William J. Rothwell suggests, people should have dual-career ladders and be able to move back and forth between academic and managerial jobs. Such problems as recency bias, the halo or horn effect, the Pygmalion effect, and pigeonholing must be addressed head on. This will require courage, imagination and training. A bibliography is included.
Science and Its Discontents: An Evolutionary Tale. Research & Occasional Papers Series. CSHE.11.2008
Author: Kennedy, Donald
Date: 2008-05-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Scientific Research,Conflict,National Security,Federal Government,Public Policy,Public Opinion,Political Issues,Research Universities,Religion,Religious Factors,Scientists

This paper analyzes the roots and implications of conflict between the conduct of science and government predilections in the United States, including the security state and neoconservative control of Washington. Three major conflicts are discussed: the emergence of new security and secrecy regimes that seek control of science; religiously derived moral viewpoints that seek to limit scientific research; and the purposeful shaping and censoring of scientific findings for political gain. All three policy issues, argues the author, have their roots in a growing public mistrust of science and its purposes, but also the actions of the current presidential administration. What is needed, he states, is a set of rules rooted in several common understandings or rules. First, policies resting on scientific or technological issues, like all public policies, are decided in the end not  just by experts but by a variety of people and interests. Second, objective scientific results, tested by repeated efforts at confirmation, are necessary (though not sufficient) elements in such policy decisions. Third, if the scientists responsible for those findings are controlled or silenced by particular policy interests, or committed in advance to any particular category of policy outcome, the resulting decisions are likely to be wrong. If adopted in advance of the installation of the next administration, or at the outset, such a set of rules could be seen a forward-looking improvement in governance, rather than as yet another criticism of what has been going on in this one.
The Influence of Academic Values on Scholarly Publication and Communication Practices. Research and Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.13.06
Author: Harley, Diane
Date: 2006-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: College Faculty,Faculty Publishing,Case Studies,Values,Chemical Engineering,Anthropology,Laws,Economics,English Literature,Statistics,Biology,Peer Evaluation,Attitudes,Scholarship,Communication (Thought Transfer),Electronic Publishing,Costs,Information Storage,Librarians,Publishing Industry,Editing,Committees

This study reports on five disciplinary case studies that explore academic value systems as they influence publishing behavior and attitudes of University of California, Berkeley faculty. The case studies are based on direct interviews with relevant stakeholders--faculty, advancement reviewers, librarians, and editors--in five fields: chemical engineering, anthropology, law and economics, English-language literature, and biostatistics. The results of the study strongly confirm the vital role of peer review in faculty attitudes and actual publishing behavior. There is much more experimentation, however, with regard to means of in-progress communication, where single means of publication and communication are not fixed so deeply in values and tradition as they are for final, archival publication. We conclude that approaches that try to &quot;move&quot; faculty and deeply embedded value systems directly toward new forms of archival, &quot;final&quot; publication are destined largely to failure in the short-term. From our perspective, a more promising route is to (1) examine the needs of scholarly researchers for both final and in-progress communications, and (2) determine how those needs are likely to influence future scenarios in a range of disciplinary areas. (Contains 11 notes.)
Defining the University of California of the Future. Research and Occasional Papers Series: CSHE.11.09
Author: Atkinson, Richard C.
Date: 2009-12-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Higher Education,Demography,Educational Finance,Budgets,Retrenchment,Educational Policy,State Universities,Access to Education,Educational Quality,Quality Control,Costs,Efficiency,Futures (of Society),Educational Trends

With California's public higher education system facing massive funding cuts and an increasingly diverse demography, the University of California recently established a commission to discuss policy options to shape the future of the ten campus system. The University of California Commission on the Future is chaired by UC Board of Regent Russell S. Gould and consists of other board members, faculty, a number of campus Chancellors, and representatives of the students, staff, alumni, and the business and labor communities. The commission will use working groups to reach out to the entire UC community and an array of experts inside and outside the system--including California State University and the state's community colleges--to re-examine key questions, including: How can UC best meet the needs of California and at the same time maintain access, quality and affordability in a time of diminishing resources? What educational delivery models will both maintain quality and improve efficiency for the university's future? What is the appropriate size and shape of the university going forward?; How can traditional and alternative revenue streams be maximized in support of UC's mission? This paper is a version of the presentation provided by UC President Emeritus Richard Atkinson to the commission on November 12, 2009. (Contains 2 footnotes.)
Learning and Academic Engagement in the Multiversity: Student Experience in the   Research University--21st Century (SERU21) Project. Results of the First University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey
Author: Flacks, Richard
Date: 2004-06-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Institutional Research,Research Universities,Student Experience,Learning Experience,Undergraduate Students,Student Surveys,State Colleges,Accreditation (Institutions),Immigrants,Language Usage,Income,Student Attitudes,Social Class,Majors (Students),Leisure Time,Time Factors (Learning),Goal Orientation,Academic Aspiration,Satisfaction,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Student Participation,Grade Point Average,Socioeconomic Status,Scores,Teaching Methods,School Policy,English (Second Language),African Americans,Whites,Hispanic Americans,Asian Americans,Family Income

During the spring of 2002 and 2003, a team of faculty and institutional researchers conducted an innovative web-based survey on the undergraduate experience at all eight undergraduate campuses of the University of California. This report provides the first formal presentation of preliminary findings from that survey and discusses potential areas of relevance to policy for further research. The University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES) is part of a larger collaborative project entitled &quot;The Student Experience in the Research University--21st  Century&quot; (SERU21). SERU21 is based at the Center for Studies in Higher Education on the UC Berkeley campus with collaborators from each of the undergraduate campuses of the University of California and the UC Office of the President. It is intended that this report and subsequent surveys and analysis will stimulate discussion among UC faculty, students, and administrators about: (1) How to improve the undergraduate experience at the University of California; (2) Possible integration of UCUES into accountability and program review processes, such as accreditation; and (3) Further research into the nature and causes of academic engagement and disengagement, and how underlying differences in students' backgrounds affect their learning experience. Appendices include: (1) Research Team and Oversight Committee; and (2) Response Rates. (Contains 51 figures and 2 endnotes.)