ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Federal Student Loans Made through the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program: Terms and Conditions for Borrowers. CRS Report R45931, Version 3
Author: Smole, David P.
Date: 2019-09-24
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Higher Education,Student Loan Programs,Student Financial Aid,Federal Regulation,Eligibility,Credit (Finance),Parents,Debt (Financial),Loan Repayment,Loan Default,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Federal Programs,College Students

The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) program makes several types of federal student loans available to individuals to assist them with financing postsecondary education expenses. This report presents a comprehensive overview of the terms and conditions that apply to federal student loans made through the Direct Loan program. It begins by providing background information on the history of the Direct Loan program. This is followed by a brief description of the various types of loans that are offered through the program. The report then presents a thorough description of the terms and conditions for loans made through the Direct Loan program. In identifying and describing loan terms and conditions, it focuses on provisions applicable to loans that are currently being made or that have been made in recent years. Emphasis is placed on discussing Direct Loan program provisions that are related to borrower eligibility, amounts that may be borrowed, interest rates and fees, procedures for loan repayment, repayment relief, the availability of loan discharge and loan forgiveness benefits, and the consequences of defaulting. The final section of the report provides a summary of the methods that are used to ensure that borrowers are informed about the terms and conditions of the loans they obtain and their obligation to repay them. This report has been prepared as a resource for Members of Congress, congressional committees, and congressional staff to support them in their legislative, oversight, and representational roles related to federal student loan policy. It is intended to provide a thorough, but nonexhaustive, description of loan terms and conditions and borrower benefits. It is not intended to be relied upon by borrowers as a resource for validating individual eligibility for specific borrower benefits.
HISD Prekindergarten Programs Longitudinal Effects Study: 2014-2015 Third Grade STAAR Reading and Mathematics Performance. Research Educational Program Report
Author: Pei, Lai Kwan
Date: 2016-05-06
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: School Districts,Preschool Education,Program Effectiveness,Grade 3,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Reading Tests,Mathematics Tests,Scores,Longitudinal Studies,Economically Disadvantaged,Achievement Gap,Achievement Tests

The goal of HISD [Houston Independent School District] prekindergarten programs is to offer the youngest learners strong foundations built on solid concept, as well as individual and group discovery. The program curriculum focuses on beginning literacy, numeracy, social emotional development as well as supporting the individual linguistic and cultural needs of the children served. The purpose of this report was to investigate the persistence of educational effects of HISD prekindergarten programs on students' performance on the third grade STAAR (English and Spanish) reading and mathematics tests. The findings suggested that economically-disadvantaged students who attended HISD programs obtained higher mean scale scores, and had higher percentages of students who met the 2015 STAAR (English and Spanish) Level II: Satisfactory (Phase-In 1) standard on both third grade reading and mathematics tests than their non-HISD prekindergarten peers in the district. The findings also suggested that the achievement gap between economically-disadvantaged students and non-economically-disadvantaged students in the HISD prekindergarten cohort was smaller than that in the non-HISD prekindergarten cohort on the 2015 third grade STAAR (English) reading and mathematics tests.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as Amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): A Primer. CRS Report R45977, Version 2
Author: Skinner, Rebecca R.
Date: 2019-10-17
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Legislation,Elementary Secondary Education,Federal Legislation,Federal Aid,Disadvantaged Youth,Educational Finance,Budgets,Resource Allocation,Public Schools,Accountability,Grants,Academic Achievement,Educational Assessment,Migrant Education,At Risk Students,Expenditure per Student,Professional Development,English Language Learners,Immigrants,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Charter Schools,Magnet Schools,Family Involvement,Rural Education,Minority Group Students,American Indian Students,Hawaiians,Alaska Natives,Educational Administration

The primary source of federal aid to elementary and secondary education is the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)--particularly its Title I-A program, which authorizes federal aid for the education of disadvantaged students. This report provides a brief overview of major provisions of the ESEA. It is organized by title and part of the act. Annual appropriations for ESEA programs are provided through the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS-ED) Appropriations Act, and are shown in this report based on the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education, Budget Service for FY2017 through FY2019. Table 2 provides ESEA appropriations for FY2016 and FY2017 to depict the transition from the ESEA as amended by the NCLB to the ESEA as amended by the ESSA. Table 3 provides authorizations of appropriations included in the ESEA as amended by the ESSA. The Appendix provides a list of selected acronyms used in the report.
Houston Real Men Read: What Was the Experience of Mentors and Students during the Fifth Year of the Real Men Read Program, 2013? Evaluation Brief. Volume 7, Issue 2
Author: Muñiz, Deborah L.
Date: 2013-08-13
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Mentors,Males,School Community Programs,Grade 2,Grade 5,Grade 7,Reading Programs,Reading Motivation,Program Effectiveness,Age Differences,Community Involvement,Volunteers,Role Models,Books,Reading Material Selection,Program Attitudes

Houston Real Men Read, chaired by Texas District XIII Senator Rodney Ellis and spearheaded by Houston Independent School District (HISD) IV Board Trustee Paula M. Harris, is a mentoring program in which men from the Houston community committed one hour of their time, once a month, to read to second, fifth, and seventh-grade students. The reading dates were November 15 and December 20, 2012, as well as January 17, February 21, and May 16, 2013. This program reinforced three fundamental principles: reading is fun, the community cares, and a commitment to education can ensure success. An estimated 318 mentors were assigned to 47 participating schools. This brief was designed to summarize the results from the Houston Real Men Read mentor and student surveys. Responses indicated that overall mentors and students enjoyed participating in the program. The responses of mentors and students also indicated that the book selection could be improved. Program personnel may want to consider the types of books that students indicated they liked reading the most in the book selection process for the upcoming school year.
Houston Real Men Read: What Was the Experience of Mentors during the Sixth Year of the Program, 2014? Evaluation Report. Volume 8, Issue 1
Author: Muñiz, Deborah L.
Date: 2014-08-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Mentors,Males,School Community Programs,Grade 2,Grade 5,Grade 7,Reading Programs,Reading Motivation,Program Effectiveness,Reading Achievement,Age Differences,Community Involvement,Volunteers,Standardized Tests,Achievement Tests,Role Models,Books,Reading Material Selection,Program Attitudes

Houston Real Men Read is chaired by Texas Senator Rodney Ellis and spearheaded by the Houston Independent School District (HISD) Board Trustee Paula M. Harris. Houston Real Men Read is a mentoring program in which men from the Houston community committed one hour, once a month, to read to second, fifth, and seventh-grade students. The program reinforced three fundamental principles: reading is fun, the community cares, and a commitment to education can ensure success. An estimated 200 mentors were assigned to 48 participating schools. This brief was designed to summarize the results from the Houston Real Men Read mentor survey. Responses indicated that overall mentors enjoyed participating in the program. Also, the reading performance of participating schools was higher than the district at second and seventh grades.
Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006: An Overview. CRS Report R44542, Version 3. Updated
Author: Granovskiy, Boris
Date: 2016-06-20
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Vocational Education,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Secondary Education,Postsecondary Education,Land Grant Universities,Agricultural Education,Technical Education,Grants,Federal Aid,Tech Prep,Educational Assessment

The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV; P.L. 109-270) is the most recent federal law supporting career and technical education (CTE) services offered within the states at the secondary and postsecondary education levels. CTE, which has historically been known as vocational education, comprises organized educational activities that provide individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to prepare for the labor market in general and for careers in current or emerging professions in particular. The stated purpose of Perkins IV is to support the development of career and technical, as well as academic, skills among secondary and postsecondary education students enrolled in CTE programs. This report is divided into four major sections. The first section provides an overview of career and technical education, including student participation levels. This is followed by a brief legislative history of the federal government's involvement in CTE. The third section discusses Perkins IV in detail, including an overview of appropriations levels and state performance. The final section summarizes some of the more significant findings from the National Assessment of Career and Technical Education, which was completed in 2015.
The 2012-2013 HISD Kindergarten Academic Performance of the 2011-2012 AVANCE Prekindergarten Cohort. Evaluation Report. Volume 7, Issue 2
Author: Corkin, Danya M.
Date: 2013-05-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: School Districts,Kindergarten,Preschool Children,Early Childhood Education,Low Income Students,Academic Achievement,Achievement Tests,Standardized Tests,Reading Tests,Scores,Phonemic Awareness,Program Evaluation

The AVANCE Head Start program provides comprehensive early childhood education and family support services to low-income families with children 3 to 5 years of age. One of the main purposes of Head Start is to help children from low-income backgrounds succeed in kindergarten and beyond. This report examines the academic performance of AVANCE Houston Inc. students, including those dually enrolled in the Houston Independent School District (HISD), by comparing their HISD kindergarten academic performance to the performance of demographically similar peers. Specifically, this study provides a comparison of the 2012-2013 Aprenda 3 and Stanford 10 test scores of 329 kindergarten students who were enrolled in AVANCE Houston Inc. in 2011-2012 to the scores of kindergarten students who were enrolled in HISD prekindergarten that were matched by age, gender, ethnicity, economic status, limited English proficiency (LEP), and special education status using Propensity Score Matching analysis (PSM; Rosenbaum &amp; Rubin, 1983). Findings suggest that the performance of kindergarteners who attended AVANCE was comparable to the performance of kindergarteners who attended HISD prekindergarten after controlling for these demographic variables. Student performance on the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) and Tejas LEE was also assessed to determine the percentage of AVANCE students entering the district as developed in their phonemic awareness, a predictor of success in learning to read (University of Texas System/Texas Education Agency, 2010).
Head Start Program Longitudinal Effects Study: Third Grade Follow-Up, 2014-2015 Third Grade STAAR Reading and Mathematics Performance. Evaluation Report. Volume 9, Issue 2
Author: Pei, Lai Kwan
Date: 2016-02-10
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: School Districts,Economically Disadvantaged,Grade 3,Longitudinal Studies,Followup Studies,Mathematics Achievement,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Tests,Reading Tests,Achievement Tests,Scores,Academic Achievement,Outcomes of Education

The goal of Head Start is to develop the cognitive and social-emotional skills of children from low-income families to prepare them to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. Presently, Houston Independent School District (HISD) collaborates with four federally-funded Head Start agencies: AVANCE, Gulf Coast Community Services Association (GCCSA), Harris County Department of Education (HCDE), and Neighborhood Centers, Inc. (NCI). Each Head Start agency provides, not only high-quality educational programs to 3- or 4-year-old low income children, but also offers access to health, dental, and other support services in order to meet families' needs. The purpose of this report was to explore the lasting impact of Head Start on students' performance on the third grade STAAR reading and mathematics tests. The findings suggested that economically-disadvantaged students who attended Head Start programs obtained higher mean scale scores, and had higher percentages of students who met the 2015 STAAR Level II: Satisfactory (Phase-In 1) standard on both third grade reading and mathematics tests than their peers in the district. Among the four Head Start agencies, NCI had the highest percentage of students who met the 2015 STAAR Level II: Satisfactory (Phase-In 1) standard on the third grade reading and mathematics tests, and obtained the highest mean scale scores on the 2015 STAAR reading and mathematics tests.
Apprenticeship in the United States: Frequently Asked Questions. CRS Report R44174, Version 3. Updated
Author: Collins, Benjamin
Date: 2016-01-29
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Apprenticeships,Job Training,Government Role,Federal Government,Federal Aid,Program Development,Educational Finance,Standards,Incentives,Public Agencies,On the Job Training

Apprenticeship is a job training strategy that combines on-the-job training with related instruction, typically provided in a classroom setting. This report answers frequently asked questions about apprenticeship and the federal activities that support this training approach. This Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) report focuses on the Registered Apprenticeship system, through which the U.S. Department of Labor (or a recognized state apprenticeship agency) certifies a program as meeting federal requirements related to duration, intensity, and benefit to the apprentice. Historically, the federal role in apprenticeship has primarily involved regulation and oversight. In recent years, federal funds have been made available to support the development and expansion of apprenticeship programs. There are also several established federal funding streams in which apprenticeship is an allowable, but not required, use of funds.
Adept at Adapting: Adult Learner 360 Case Studies on How Institutions Listen to Students, Faculty, and Staff to Redesign Services for Adult Learners
Author: Glancey, Kathleen
Date: 2018-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Student School Relationship,Nontraditional Students,Data Use,Program Effectiveness,Administrator Surveys,Student Surveys,Teacher Surveys,Program Improvement,State Colleges,College Faculty,Academic Support Services,Student Needs,State Universities,Prior Learning,Community Colleges,Adults

The adult learner is often defined by age (25 years or older) as an easy way to distinguish this group from students who head to college straight out of high school. But age is insufficient as a defining factor. The growing popularity of other terms like nontraditional student--and more recently, terms like post-traditional student or today's student--indicate that who we are talking about is any student not enrolled full time, not coming straight from high school, and/or not free of dependents or financial obligations. Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) developed the Adult Learner 360 to provide institutions with a method to assess the perceived quality and effectiveness of an institution's programs, services, and policies for adult learners. The purpose of the Adult Learner 360, as it was with the ALFI Toolkit, is to provide data that can guide an institution's decisions about where to focus improvement efforts. This report examines the experiences of three institutions that used data to guide their decisions on building programs and services for their current and prospective adult students. Atlanta Metropolitan State College, Northwestern State University in Louisiana, and Shasta College in California all developed new approaches for their adult students by learning from the results of the Adult Learner 360, data tools designed by and offered through CAEL. The questions in the Adult Learner 360, also based on CAEL's Ten Principles for Effectively Serving Adults, provide a framework for institutions to develop programs and policies that help adults reach their educational goals. [This report was written with editorial assistance from Rebecca Klein-Collins.]
Linking Public Workforce Systems and Community Colleges through Prior Learning Assessment: Learnings from a National Pilot Project
Author: Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL)
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Labor Force Development,Prior Learning,Community Colleges,Education Work Relationship,Experiential Learning,College Credits,Credentials,Adult Students,Partnerships in Education,Skill Development,Federal Legislation,Student Evaluation,Advisory Committees,Educational Attainment

Within the next few years the majority of jobs in the U.S. will require some type of postsecondary credential. However, less than half of adults in this country currently possess a credential beyond high school. Though they may not have a college degree to show for it, most adults have likely gained significant and valuable learning through their lifetime. Fortunately, there is a tool that accelerates adults' entry into and through postsecondary education by building on what they already know. Prior Learning Assessment, or (PLA), is the process through which non-collegiate learning (such as knowledge and skills gained on the job or in the military) is evaluated for college credit. Recognizing what adults already know by awarding credit for this learning can lead them to a postsecondary credential more quickly and in a less costly way. Unfortunately, PLA has historically been a construct of higher education with little connection to other entities, such as the public workforce system, that engage adults in skill development. In early 2017 CAEL (the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning), through a grant from the ECMC Foundation, undertook a pilot project to do just that. The project, launched in four communities across the county, established local strategies and processes to increase the pipeline of adult learners and support college credential completion by leveraging shorter-term, non-credit training provided by the public workforce system. This paper provides an overview of why PLA-related partnerships between the workforce system and community colleges are important when it comes to increasing credential attainment and provides considerations--surfaced through the pilot project--for other communities interested in undertaking similar work. [For a related report, &quot;Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success: A 48-Institution Study of Prior Learning Assessment and Adult Student Outcomes,&quot; see ED524753.]
Federal and State Regulation of Student Loan Servicers: A Legal Overview. CRS Report R45917, Version 2
Author: Lewis, Kevin M.
Date: 2019-09-17
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Federal Regulation,State Regulation,Student Loan Programs,Student Financial Aid,Program Implementation,Legal Problems,State Legislation,Negligence,Deception,Disclosure

As the federal government's role in the student loan industry has expanded over time, the United States has contracted with student loan servicers to help it administer its growing student loan portfolio. These servicers perform a variety of functions, including (1) communicating with borrowers regarding repayment; (2) disclosing information about student loan terms to borrowers; (3) applying payments to outstanding loan balances; (4) processing applications for enrollment in repayment plans; and (5) processing requests for loan forbearance and deferment. Several federal statutes and regulations--along with an array of contractual provisions--may affect how these servicers conduct these various functions on the government's behalf with respect to federal student loans. This report analyzes the regulation of servicers of federal student loans. After providing necessary background information regarding the federal student loan programs, the report describes federal law governing student loan servicers. The report then discusses how some states and borrowers have tried to enact or enforce state laws to regulate servicers of federal student loans. Then, the report analyzes the legal issues implicated by the interaction of federal and state servicing laws, including whether (and, if so, to what extent) federal servicing regulation preempts the states from creating or enforcing servicing laws of their own. The report concludes by identifying relevant legal considerations for Congress.
Promoting Veteran Career Success through Employer Partnership: A Case Study of the Commercial Club of Chicago Veterans Working Group
Author: Miller, Andrew
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Veterans,Clubs,Accountability,Work Ethic,Unemployment,Best Practices,Communities of Practice,Models,Employer Attitudes,Careers,Recruitment,Barriers,Case Studies,Meetings,Advisory Committees,Program Descriptions,Information Sources,Employment Opportunities,Mentors,Females,Disabilities,Guidelines,Personnel Selection,Labor Force,Networks

As trained leaders for whom accountability and a strong work ethic are second nature, Chicagoland veterans are uniquely equipped to meet the demands of today's jobs. That veterans typically possess the skills and character needed to excel in the civilian workplace makes reports on the state of veteran unemployment more troubling. Through the Commercial Club of Chicago Veterans Working Group (VWG), some of the city's top employers are working together to share best practices and advance new ideas to help reverse this trend and support veterans in finding meaningful careers. The VWG's success is an outstanding example of a community's potential to effect change when diverse stakeholders are empowered to share challenges, leverage each other's strengths, and develop a community of practice. The goal of this publication is to recognize the efforts that VWG members have taken to improve their veteran recruitment, training and retention practices, and to create a blueprint for the successful replication of the VWG model in other communities throughout the country.