ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
What Works Clearinghouse Quick Review of the Report &quot;Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City&apos;s New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates&quot;
Author: What Works Clearinghouse (ED)
Date: 2012-01-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Control Groups,Small Schools,High Schools,Graduation Rate,Graduation,Academic Achievement,Credits,Educational Experience,High School Students,School Choice,Admission (School),Urban Schools

&quot;Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City's New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates&quot; examined whether winning an admissions lottery for a small school of choice improved high school students' progress toward graduation and graduation rates. The study analyzed data on more than 21,000 students in New York City who participated in a ninth-grade admissions lottery for a small school of choice. Eighth-grade students who participated in lotteries during the 2004-05 through 2007-08 school years were followed through the 2008-09 school year, resulting in four years of follow-up data for the cohort in the 2004-05 lottery, three years for the cohort in the 2005-06 lottery, and so on. The study found that students who won an admissions lottery for a small school of choice showed the following statistically significant improvements in graduation prospects, relative to students who lost the same admissions lottery: After the first year of high school, lottery winners were more likely than members of the control group to be on track for graduation: 57.9% compared with 50.5%. After the second and third years of high school, lottery winners averaged 1.4 and 1.3 more credits toward graduation than control group members. Four years after their scheduled entry into ninth grade, 68.1% of lottery winners graduated compared with 63.8% of control group members. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has reservations about these results because carrying out the lotteries using the method described in the report may have resulted in nonrandom differences between the study groups. (Contains 3 footnotes.) [The following study is reviewed in this What Works Clearinghouse Quick Review: &quot;Transforming the High School Experience: How New York City's New Small Schools Are Boosting Student Achievement and Graduation Rates.&quot; To access this report, see ED511106.]
The Louisiana Recovery School District: Lessons for the Buckeye State
Author: Smith, Nelson
Date: 2012-01-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Charter Schools,Academic Achievement,School Districts,Change Strategies,Educational Policy,Governance,Legal Responsibility,Instructional Leadership,Educational Facilities,Human Capital,Politics of Education,Educational Change,Public Education,Natural Disasters,Achievement Gains,Educational Finance,Nonprofit Organizations

Is it time for Ohio to take bolder steps toward turning around its most troubled schools and districts? If so, what might the alternatives look like? Options for rebooting these troubled schools have come in the form of mayoral control, state takeovers, market competition through charter schools and other choice programs, as well as millions of federal dollars spent on &quot;school turnaround&quot;, yet it seems that it might be time to try something new in Ohio. In looking for alternatives to simply doing more of the same, Ohio policymakers are looking to the experiences of other states. Among the boldest and most interesting of these is Louisiana's Recovery School District (RSD), which is accomplishing both significant gains in student achievement and consequential impacts on district-level standards. In this recent report by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute author Nelson Smith asks if and how the RSD concept might be a model for Ohio. (Contains 35 endnotes.) [Foreword by Terry Ryan and Emmy Partin.]
The Policy Choices of Effective Principals
Author: Cannon, Sarah R.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Principals,Administrator Role,Administrator Effectiveness,School Policy,Change,Instructional Leadership,School Surveys

A vast literature has investigated the efficacy of school leadership. Most of the extant research has been based on teacher perceptions of school leadership, rather than on more direct measures of student performance. A detailed review of the literature on principals through the mid-1990s is provided by Hallinger and Heck (1998). Within the last couple of years, however, researchers have begun to exploit longitudinal data on student test scores to evaluate the impact of principals on student achievement and how that impact varies with the characteristics of principals. Rather than look at the relationship between personal characteristics and principal efficacy, the authors instead focus on the policies that are adopted by effective principals. In particular, they consider how school policies change when there is a change in school leadership and which policy changes are associated with new schools leaders who have been previously effective. While still very preliminary, this paper provides new evidence of the role that principals play in shaping school policies. Using survey data on school policies in three time periods matched with principal value-added measures based on student test scores, the authors are able to determine the relationship between principal effectiveness and the policies of the schools that principals lead. Principals with stronger prior performance appear to systematically reduce focus on teacher incentives and concentrate more on other types of policies aimed at improving the performance of low-performing teachers and students--and principals who are measured as strong independent of the quality of their teachers apparently also focus more resources on teachers. Although much more analysis needs to be done, the authors' initial findings highlight the role of principals in shaping school policy and suggest that policies aimed at recruiting and retaining effective principals are likely to have important effects on school policy. Appendix (1) contains references, and Appendix (2) contains 4 figures and 7 tables. Also included are 3 footnotes.)
Voices of Native Educators: Strategies that Support Success of Native High School Students
Author: Lara, Julia
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: High Schools,School Restructuring,American Indians,American Indian Education,High School Students,Tribes,Educational Change,Alaska Natives,Hawaiians,Educational Improvement,Educational Policy,Change Strategies,College Preparation,Equal Education,Accountability,Academic Achievement,Delivery Systems,Competence,Teacher Qualifications,Administrator Qualifications,Educational Environment,Dropout Prevention

This report summarizes a conversation that took place in April of 2010 in Washington, DC regarding high school reform and Native American, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian students. The meeting was co-sponsored by the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) and the National Education Association (NEA). The meeting was attended by a broad sector of Native educators representing various tribes across the U.S. mainland, Alaska and Hawaii. The purpose of the meeting was to elicit ideas from the participants regarding best practices for improving the success of Native students enrolled in the nation's high schools. The conceptual framework that organized the meeting and this report was provided by the Campaign for High School Equity in a report titled "A Plan for Success." In this document six policy directives were outlined that are intended to support the transformation of secondary schools. The task for the participants of the NIEA/NEA meeting was to support the policy directives with examples from Native communities. A core belief of the convening organizations was that the best practices implemented in Native communities as they work towards increasing opportunities for Indian adolescents are of value to non-Indian educators, and to Native educators that have not yet experienced success at the secondary school level. This report highlights such practices in an attempt to promote meaningful conversations across communities engaged in secondary school renewal. This report highlights strategies presented by the educators attending the meeting cited. The intent of this document is to describe how these Native educators are addressing a myriad of challenges in their communities and are succeeding in creating opportunities for Native high school students. The document focuses not on the challenges, but on solutions. It highlights strategies and interventions that are successful for Native students. The practices presented herein are offered from the perspective of Native educators who are deeply engaged with these students and know the communities in which the students live. [This report was written with assistance from Shelley Hartford.
The Costs of Online Learning. Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning: A Working Paper Series from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Author: Battaglino, Tamara Butler
Date: 2012-01-10
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Expertise,Electronic Learning,Costs,Online Courses,Web Based Instruction,Virtual Classrooms,Blended Learning,Educational Policy,Educational Finance,Interviews,Vendors,School Organization,Comparative Analysis,Conventional Instruction,Cost Effectiveness,Expenditure per Student,Models,Resource Allocation,School District Spending,Labor,School Personnel,Instructional Materials,Instructional Design,Computer System Design,Operating Expenses,Academic Support Services,Pupil Personnel Services,Influence of Technology,Teacher Education,Educational Trends

The latest installment of the Fordham Institute's &quot;Creating Sound Policy for Digital Learning&quot;  series investigates one of the more controversial aspects of digital learning: How much does it cost? In this paper, the Parthenon Group uses interviews with more than fifty vendors and online-schooling experts to estimate today's average per-pupil cost for a variety of schooling models, traditional and online, and presents a nuanced analysis of the important variance in cost between different school designs. These ranges--from $5,100 to $7,700 for full-time virtual schools, and $7,600 to $10,200 for the blended version--highlight both the potential for low-cost online schooling and the need for better data on costs and outcomes in order for policymakers to reach confident conclusions related to the productivity and efficiency of these promising new models. (Contains 2 figures and 4 endnotes.)
Using a New Reading Comprehension Assessment to Measure Discourse Representations and Identify Types of Comprehenders
Author: Carlson, Sarah
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Reading Tests,Reading Comprehension,Psychometrics,Test Reliability,Test Validity,Correlation,Elementary School Students,Reading Ability

Many researchers focus on assessing the cognitive components of reading comprehension. However, researchers are challenged to find the best way to measure the cognitive components of reading comprehension because many reading comprehension assessments differ in terms of format (i.e., cloze, multiple-chose, open-ended); presentation (i.e., print); and type of cognitive components of reading the assessment is measuring (i.e., inferential processes) (Eason &amp; Cutting, 2009). Additionally, most measures of reading comprehension are collected &quot;after&quot; reading (i.e., offline); yet, to comprehend a text, readers need to also build coherent mental representations &quot;during&quot; reading (i.e., online) (Graesser, Singer, &amp; Trabasso, 1994). Finally, few traditional assessments are designed to diagnose specific comprehension difficulties or to identify types of comprehenders. Such information would be useful for teachers to plan instruction that addresses students' specific needs. Given the critiques of traditional reading comprehension assessments, the purpose of this study is to discuss findings for a new reading comprehension assessment. The development of this assessment was based on the benefits of Multiple-choice, Open-ended, and Cloze Comprehension Assessments (MOCCA). MOCCA measures reading comprehension at the discourse level, rather than at a word integration level, and may help identify readers with different reading comprehension abilities because each alternative choice has been developed with an inference type in mind. The purpose of this study addresses the following questions: (1) What are the psychometric characteristics of this new reading comprehension assessment; (2) To what extent does this new reading comprehension assessment correlate with other reading measures; (3) To what extent does this new reading comprehension assessment distinguish among readers with different comprehension abilities; and (4) Does this new reading comprehension assessment distinguish between subgroups of struggling comprehenders? In this study, a total of 501 3rd-5th grade students participated in two study phases. The results of this study show that findings from the MOCCA produce reliable and criterion-valid scores. In addition, the authors feel this test provides support for identifying different types of cognitive components comprehenders use during reading, as measured by the types of choices provided to complete each text. Teachers can use such information to plan instruction that addresses students' specific needs. (Contains 1 table.)
Improving Students' Problem Solving in a Virtual Chemistry Simulation through Metacognitive Messages
Author: Beal, Carole R.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Feedback (Response),Chemistry,Problem Solving,Educational Technology,Virtual Classrooms,Grade 9,Science Instruction,Computer Simulation,Metacognition,Instructional Design,Web Based Instruction,Computer Software,Tutoring,Instructional Effectiveness,Educational Strategies,Markov Processes

Recent assessments indicate that American students do not score well on tests of scientific problem solving, relative to students in other nations. IMMEX is a web-based virtual environment that provides students with opportunities to solve science problems by viewing information resources through a suite of menu options, developing a hypothesis and submitting the hypothesis for feedback. Students' patterns of search through the information sources are automatically classified by the IMMEX software using Hidden Markov Models, producing a quantitative measure of strategic efficiency. Prior work has found that many students do not use effective strategies in IMMEX and that they tend to retain poor strategies over time (Stevens, Beal &amp; Sprang, 2009). That is, practice alone does not lead to better problem solving. The goal of the study was to learn if students' problem solving could be improved through the addition of metacognitive messages into the IMMEX simulation for chemistry. Prior work on the techniques used by effective human tutors indicates that they discuss how to approach a problem, how to monitor one's progress and how to manage information resources effectively while solving a problem. The study question was whether messages based on a model of effective human tutoring could be integrated into the simulation and improve students' strategic effectiveness. The study included Grade 9 students in chemistry classes who participated as part of their classroom work. The findings suggest that students can be assisted to adopt better problem solving strategies through relatively simple changes to a technology-based learning environment. The addition of messages designed to encourage students to think about their actions, set goals and monitor progress, engage in appropriate help-seeking and tolerate a certain amount of frustration during problem solving appeared to be beneficial, especially for students who were not doing particularly well in the activity.
The Accountability Plateau
Author: Schneider, Mark
Date: 2011-12-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Federal Legislation,National Competency Tests,Accountability,Principals,Data Analysis,Scores,Mathematics Achievement,Mathematics Tests,Grade 4,Grade 8,High Achievement,Reading Achievement,High Stakes Tests,Low Achievement,Achievement Gains,Hispanic American Students,African American Students

With the tenth anniversary of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) fast approaching, that law's legacy continues to be fiercely contested. This new analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress scores--focusing on Texas and on the entire nation--by former National Center for Education Statistics commissioner Mark Schneider finds that solid gains in math achievement coincided with the advent of &quot;consequential accountability,&quot; first in the trailblazing Lone Star State and a few other pioneer states, then across the land with the implementation of NCLB. But Schneider warns that the recent plateau in Texas math scores may foreshadow a coming stagnation in the country's performance. Has the testing-and-accountability movement as we know it run out of steam? How else might we rekindle our nation's education progress? (Contains 12 figures and 8 footnotes.) [Foreword by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli.]
The State of State Science Standards, 2012
Author: Lerner, Lawrence S.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,National Competency Tests,Science Education,Academic Standards,Evolution,Inquiry,State Standards,National Standards,Science Curriculum,Physical Sciences,Physics,Chemistry,Earth Science,Space Sciences,Biological Sciences

This report examines K-12 science standards for fifty states and the District of Columbia, as well as the science assessment framework of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The reviewers' aim is to evaluate them for their intrinsic clarity, completeness, and scientific correctness. Their earlier evaluations, as well as those evaluations conducted by others, have made it clear that too many state science standards are mediocre to poor. In particular, there are four areas where they most frequently fail to measure up. These are: (1) An Undermining of Evolution; (2) A Propensity to be Vague;   (3) Poor Integration of Scientific Inquiry; and (4) Where Did All the Numbers Go? Appended are: (1) Methods, Criteria, and Grading Metric; and (2) Detailed Grades, 2012. (Contains 17 footnotes and 1 table.) [Foreword by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Kathleen Porter-Magee.]
Using a Scientific Process for Curriculum Development and Formative Evaluation: Project FUSION
Author: Doabler, Christian
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Curriculum Development,Suburban Schools,Intervention,Feasibility Studies,Formative Evaluation,State Standards,Academic Achievement,Numbers,Number Concepts,Grade 1,At Risk Students,Learning Disabilities,Mathematics Instruction,Instructional Design,Curriculum Implementation,Curriculum Evaluation,Instructional Effectiveness,Federal Aid,Response to Intervention,Program Descriptions,Fidelity,Teacher Attitudes,Inservice Teacher Education,Measures (Individuals),Classroom Observation Techniques,Observation,Lesson Observation Criteria,Classroom Research,Design

Given the vital importance of using a scientific approach for curriculum development, the authors employed a design experiment methodology (Brown, 1992; Shavelson et al., 2003) to develop and evaluate, FUSION, a first grade mathematics intervention intended for students with or at-risk for mathematics disabilities. FUSION, funded through IES (Baker, Clarke, &amp; Fien, 2008), targets students' understanding of whole number concepts and skills and is being designed as a Tier 2 intervention for schools that use a multi-tiered service delivery model, such as Response to Intervention (RtI). In developing this intervention, the authors have drawn extensively from the converging knowledge base of effective math instruction (Gersten et al., 2009; National Math Advisory Panel, [NMAP] 2008) and the critical content areas of first grade mathematics recognized by national bodies (Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, [CCSS-M] 2010). Guiding the FUSION project are three primary objectives: (1) develop a 60-lesson intervention program that fosters students' procedural fluency and conceptual understanding of whole number concepts, (2) assess the feasibility of the FUSION intervention and (3) assess the potential efficacy of the intervention in a subsequent randomized efficacy trial. This presentation focuses on FUSION's initial feasibility study. The feasibility study took place in seven schools in two suburban school districts located in the northwest. Eight teachers (1 male) with varying experience levels participated in the feasibility study. Preliminary analyses indicate that teachers are meeting acceptable levels of implementation fidelity. Overall, teachers have expressed encouraging views of FUSION. Anecdotal records from classroom visits and professional development sessions indicate that teachers are satisfied with FUSION's overall structure and comfortable with lesson implementation. Teachers report that students are benefiting from the program and in particular building conceptual knowledge and procedural fluency in whole numbers. For student performance data, the authors plan to investigate student gains across the academic year. They expect to find strong relationships between FUSION and changes in CBM and ProFusion scores. These preliminary findings would serve as promise of FUSION for positively influencing student math outcomes. Analyses are currently underway. (Contains 2 figures.)
Does Linking Mixed-Format Tests Using a Multiple-Choice Anchor Produce Comparable Results for Male and Female Subgroups? Research Report. ETS RR-11-44
Author: Kim, Sooyeon
Date: 2011-12-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Test Format,Multiple Choice Tests,Test Items,Gender Differences,Licensing Examinations (Professions),Mathematics Tests,Science Tests,Language Tests,Social Studies,Correlation,Raw Scores,Cutting Scores

This study examines the use of subpopulation invariance indices to evaluate the appropriateness of using a multiple-choice (MC) item anchor in mixed-format tests, which include both MC and constructed-response (CR) items. Linking functions were derived in the nonequivalent groups with anchor test (NEAT) design using an MC-only anchor set for 4 mixed-format licensure tests. For each of those licensure tests, the linking functions were also derived separately for males and females, and those subpopulation functions were compared to the total group function. The mathematics, social studies, and science tests each produced acceptable differences between each of the subpopulation functions and the total group function within the cut-score region, leading to consistent pass/fail designations for the examinees. The English test, which had a low correlation between MC and CR components (indicative of multidimensionality), produced the largest differences, casting doubt on the effectiveness of the MC-only anchor. (Contains 11 figures, 4 tables and 3 notes.)