ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
High Schools and Students&apos; Initial Colleges and Majors. Working Paper 165
Author: Darolia, Rajeev
Date: 2018-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Majors (Students),High School Students,College Choice,Predictor Variables,Educational Quality,Socioeconomic Influences,High Schools,Institutional Characteristics,School Role,Student Records,Academic Persistence,Selective Admission,College Admission,College Preparation,Public Schools,Graduation Rate,Statistical Analysis,Equations (Mathematics),Grade Point Average,College Students

We use statewide administrative data from Missouri to examine the explanatory power of high schools over student sorting to colleges and majors at 4-year public universities. We develop a &quot;preparation and persistence index&quot; (PPI) for each university-by-major cell in the Missouri system that captures dimensions of selectivity and rigor and allows for a detailed investigation of sorting. Our analysis shows that students' high schools predict the quality of the initial university, as measured by PPI, conditional on their own academic preparation, and that students from lower SES high schools systematically enroll at lower-PPI universities. However, high schools offer little explanatory power over major placements within universities.
Career and Technical Education, Inclusion, and Postsecondary Outcomes for Students with Disabilities. Working Paper 177
Author: Theobald, Roddy
Date: 2017-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Vocational Education,Inclusion,Postsecondary Education,Outcomes of Education,Special Needs Students,Disabilities,Regular and Special Education Relationship,High School Students,Longitudinal Studies,Data Analysis,Employment Potential,Attendance Patterns,Academic Achievement,Graduation Rate,College Attendance,Student Promotion,Statistical Analysis

We use longitudinal data on all high school students in Washington State, including postsecondary education and workforce outcomes, to investigate predictors of intermediate and postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities. We pay particular attention to career and technical education (CTE) enrollment and the extent of inclusion in general education classrooms, as prior research suggests these factors may be particularly important in influencing the outcomes of students with disabilities. We estimate models that compare students with other students within the same school district, who are receiving special education services for the same disability, and have similar baseline measures of academic performance and other demographic information. We find generally weak relationships between CTE enrollment in any particular grade and intermediate and postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities, though we replicate earlier findings that students with disabilities who are enrolled in a &quot;concentration&quot; of CTE courses have higher rates of employment after graduation than students with disabilities who are similar in other observable ways but are enrolled in fewer CTE courses. We also find consistently strong evidence that students with disabilities who spend more time in general education classrooms experience better outcomes--fewer absences, higher academic performance, higher rates of grade progression and on-time graduation, and higher rates of college attendance and employment--than students with disabilities who are similar in other observable ways but spend less time in general education classrooms.
Reaching Further and Learning More? Evaluating Public Impact&apos;s &quot;Opportunity Culture&quot; Initiative. Working Paper 181
Author: Backes, Ben
Date: 2018-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Educational Opportunities,Program Implementation,Teacher Effectiveness,School Districts,Educational Cooperation,Mathematics Achievement,Reading Achievement,Standardized Tests

Public Impact's &quot;Opportunity Culture&quot; (OC) initiative provides a suite of models aimed at extending the reach of highly effective teachers and has partnered with school districts to implement these interventions in schools. Using administrative data from three partner school districts that collectively include 44 OC schools, we estimate the relationship between OC staffing models and student achievement in math and reading. We find that the bulk of exposed students received treatment under OC's multiclassroom leadership model, in which a master teacher with demonstrated effectiveness intensively leads and coaches a team of teachers, and that these students scored higher in math in all specifications. In reading, while most specifications find positive and significant learning gains for students taught by team teachers, the specification that performs best in our placebo tests--one that includes school-by-year fixed effects to account for overall improvement in treatment schools--does not find any impact. Results for other specifications are more mixed and are imprecisely estimated.
Promoting Self-Regulation in the First Five Years: A Practice Brief. OPRE Brief 2017-79
Author: Rosanbalm, K. D.
Date: 2017-10-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,Self Management,Guidelines,Child Development,Literature Reviews,Well Being,Intervention,Educational Practices,Relevance (Education),Child Psychology

Early childhood is a period of rapid brain development that paves the way for growth of self-regulation skills. This brief builds on reviews of the theoretical and intervention literature to provide early childhood leaders such as program administrators with guidelines for promoting self-regulation development in children aged birth through 5 years, both programmatically and through supportive environmental contexts. The brief is based on work conducted by the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), described in a series of four reports referenced throughout the brief, which can be accessed online at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/research/project/toxic-stress-and-self-regulation-reports.
Teacher Value-Added in Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools. Working Paper 183
Author: Ozek, Umut
Date: 2018-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Competencies,Public Schools,Charter Schools,Value Added Models,Poverty,Academic Achievement,Comparative Analysis,Teacher Characteristics,Teaching Experience,Educational Attainment,Teacher Effectiveness,Productivity,Teacher Influence,Educational Policy,Teaching Methods,Urban Schools,School Effectiveness,Achievement Tests,Standardized Tests,State Standards,Scores

In this study, we compare the teacher quality distributions in charter schools and traditional public schools, and examine mechanisms that might explain cross-sector differences in teacher effectiveness as measured by teacher value-added scores using school and teacher level data from Florida. We have three main findings. First, we find that teachers working in above-average poverty charter schools have significantly higher value-added scores compared to traditional public school teachers working in similar settings, which is mainly driven by the right tail of the value-added score distribution, yet we find no such differences in below-average poverty settings. Second, we find that cross-sector differences in observed teacher characteristics such as experience and educational attainment fail to explain any of the observed gaps in teacher effectiveness in higher-poverty settings. Instead, we find that differences in returns to experience on teacher productivity, which is significantly higher in the charter sector, explains most of the observed cross-sector effectiveness gaps. Third, we find considerable differences in teacher support and teacher influence on instructional policies and practices between charter schools and traditional public schools, which might help explain the higher returns to experience on teacher effectiveness as well as the observed effectiveness gaps between charter schools and traditional public schools serving disadvantaged students.
The Fiscal Externalities of Charter Schools: Evidence from North Carolina. Working Paper 182
Author: Ladd, Helen F.
Date: 2018-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Charter Schools,School Districts,Budgets,Educational Finance,Expenditure per Student,Urban Schools,Public Schools,Costs,Financial Support,Resource Allocation,Statistical Analysis,Private Schools,Rural Schools

A significant criticism of the charter school movement is that funding for charter schools diverts money away from traditional public schools. As shown in prior work by Bifulco and Reback (2014) for two urban districts in New York, the magnitude of such adverse fiscal externalities depends in part on the nature of state and local funding policies. In this paper, we build on their approach to examine the fiscal effects of charter schools on both urban and non-urban school districts in North Carolina. We base our analysis on detailed balance sheet information for a sample of school districts that experienced significant charter entry since the statewide cap on charters was raised in 2011. This detailed budgetary information permits us to estimate a range of fiscal impacts using a variety of different assumptions. We find a large and negative fiscal impact from $500-$700 per pupil in our one urban school district and somewhat smaller, but still significant, fiscal externalities on the non-urban districts in our sample.
Culture of Continuous Learning Project: A Literature Review of the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC). OPRE Report 2018-28
Author: Daily, Sarah
Date: 2018-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Literature Reviews,Early Intervention,Child Care,Early Childhood Education,Program Implementation,Program Effectiveness,Child Health,Child Welfare,Mental Health,Access to Health Care,Health Services,Access to Education,Capacity Building,Participation,Educational Quality,Educational Improvement,Change Strategies,Teamwork,Competence,Evidence Based Practice,Child Development

This literature review examines the evidence base of the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) to better understand its outputs and outcomes, as well as the contextual factors that may support success. The review's findings will be incorporated into the next phase of the &quot;Culture of Continuous Learning (CCL) Project,&quot; which includes a feasibility study to examine the implementation of the BSC in both Head Start and child care settings. Literature included in this review included peer-reviewed research articles, policy briefs, research reports, and white papers. The literature cited in this review was published between 1998 and 2016. Sections I through V of this report include a mix of literature related to the BSC and other quality improvement methods relevant for early childhood, while Section V includes literature specific to the outcomes related to BSC implementation. The literature search specific to the BSC identified 49 articles, of which 34 included a focus on BSC outcomes. These articles largely focused on studies conducted in the health care field. Overall, the literature examining the implementation and outcomes indicates that the BSC methodology has consistent evidence of improving practices in healthcare, child welfare, and mental health service provision by facilitating the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBP) and building the infrastructure to support quality improvement efforts. The literature suggests that the CCL Project may need to: (1) Support buy-in and engagement in the BSC at multiple levels of the system; (2) Ensure supports for implementation, including training, supervision, and data systems; (3) Develop strategies for building capacity to engage in the improvement process at all levels; (4) Examine ongoing incentives for supporting participation in the initiative; and (5) Identify strategies for trouble-shooting common problems that arise.
Conceptual Frameworks for Intentional Approaches to Improving Economic Security and Child Well-Being. OPRE Report 2018-03
Author: Sommer, Teresa Eckrich
Date: 2017-11-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Poverty,At Risk Persons,Well Being,Child Welfare,Parents,Family Programs,Program Effectiveness,Intervention,Social Services,Delivery Systems,Agency Cooperation,Change Strategies,Employment Services,Access to Education,Skill Development,Participation,Models,Teamwork

Programs that address the needs of low-income parents and children at the same time may hold promise for reducing the transmission of poverty across generations. Contemporary programs of this type address some key weaknesses that may have limited the effectiveness of earlier such approaches, including too little attention paid to the quality, intensity, and intentionality of services for both parents and children. Administrators who lead these approaches today may regard quality and intensity as necessary, and they may also believe that delivering intentionally coordinated and aligned services is essential to achieving the desired outcomes. Yet further evidence is needed. Virtually no large-scale evaluations of the impacts of newer service delivery models of this type have been published to date (Chase-Lansdale and Brooks-Gunn 2014). This brief describes two conceptual frameworks that have the potential to expand our understanding of programs that aim to meet the needs of low-income parents and children through intentionally combined activities and approaches. It is geared particularly to program administrators and researchers who are interested in the services that could be involved in these approaches, how these services relate to mutually reinforcing outcomes for parents and children, and strategies for effectively delivering and coordinating services across programs and agencies.
Teacher Quality Gaps and Student Outcomes: Assessing the Association between Teacher Assignments and Student Math Test Scores and High School Course Taking. Working Paper 185
Author: Goldhaber, Dan
Date: 2018-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Competencies,Correlation,Mathematics Tests,Scores,High School Students,Course Selection (Students),Grade 4,Grade 5,Grade 6,Grade 7,Grade 8,Teacher Distribution,Disadvantaged Youth,Minority Group Students,Socioeconomic Influences,Value Added Models,Middle School Students,Middle School Teachers,Predictor Variables,Achievement Gap,Advanced Courses,Mathematics Achievement,Student Records,Statistical Analysis,Standardized Tests,Measurement,State Standards

We use panel data in Washington State to study the extent to which teacher assignments between fourth and eighth grade explain gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students--as defined by underrepresented minority status (URM) and eligibility for free or reduced price lunch (FRL)--in their eighth grade math test scores and high school course taking. We find some significant gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students in the value added of the teachers to which they are assigned in these grades, although gaps in middle school grades are sensitive to the specification of value added. We then show that teacher assignments are highly predictive of both eighth-grade test scores and advanced course taking in high school, and that differences between advantaged and disadvantaged students in teacher assignments explain significant portions of student outcome gaps. In the case of eighth-grade test scores, the URM/non-URM gap drops by more than 15% and the FRL/non-FRL gap drops by more than 20% when we control directly for teacher assignments. That said, the reduction in the achievement gap is more modest when we control for measures of teacher value added that do not control for classroom characteristics (8% and 9%, respectively), while gaps actually increase slightly when we control for measures of value added that control for classroom characteristics. These patterns are qualitatively similar and even larger in magnitude when we consider the number of advanced math courses taken in high school as the outcome.
Characteristics of Effective Statewide Higher Education Leadership Organizations
Author: National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS)
Date: 2017-05-24
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Higher Education,Best Practices,Program Effectiveness,Performance Factors,Statewide Planning,Administrative Principles,Administrative Organization,State Agencies,Change Strategies,College Administration,Knowledge Economy,Strategic Planning,Educational Planning

The University of Alaska System and its constituent institutions are faced with significant--and opposing--forces and pressures. The future well-being of the state will, in many ways, be shaped by the nature and extent of their contributions to the education of the state's citizens and workforce, the expansion and diversification of the state's economy, and the quality and life enjoyed by the residents of the state. Expectations in these regards are high, fueled to a large extent by the System's leadership's (Board and President) well-considered assessment of the needs of the state: (1) Increase the proportion of the state's population that has some form of post-secondary credential; a recognition that a high school education no longer equips citizens for either work or civic engagement in an increasingly complicated world; (2) Prepare the workforce needed by Alaska employers--greatly increase the numbers of state residents equipped to teach in the public schools and fill other key positions of importance to the state's employers; and (3) Contribute to economic development in the state--through research and other activities help in the creation of an economy that is more nationally and internationally competitive and less dependent on exploitation of the state's natural resources. These increasingly high expectations are running headlong into economic reality--the resources available to respond to these needs are severely constrained. The state has cut appropriations to the System and prospects for short-term recovery are slim--the University is hoping for flat funding at levels well below the peak level. And while tuition is comparatively low, concerns about affordability (and the political fallout associated with large increases in tuition rates) will keep the University from raising tuition to the levels required to replace losses in revenue from state government. This conflict between rising expectations and depleted resources has led the University to undertake a serious review of its operations--both academic and administrative--in an effort to find more efficient and effective approaches to delivery of services. This brief paper answers the following questions: (1) How can the University be organized to ensure that all its education assets can be brought to bear on meeting the needs of the state?; and (2) How should decision-making authority be distributed so that goals are achieved, quality is maintained/enhanced, and affordability of education can be sustained? [This report was prepared for the University of Alaska System.]
Making the Cut: The Effectiveness of Teacher Screening and Hiring in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Working Paper 184
Author: Bruno, Paul
Date: 2018-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Selection,Employment Qualifications,Urban Schools,Screening Tests,Academic Achievement,Employment Level,School Districts,Teacher Attendance,Teacher Influence,Teacher Evaluation,Job Application,Interviews,Eligibility,Correlation,Scores,Probability,Achievement Tests,Standardized Tests,Statistical Analysis,Teacher Characteristics,Value Added Models,Elementary Secondary Education,Regression (Statistics)

Despite evidence that many schools and districts have considerable discretion when hiring teachers and the existence of an extensive literature on teacher quality, little is known about how best to hire teachers. This is, in part, because predicting teacher quality using readily-observable teacher characteristics has proven difficult and there is very little evidence linking information collected during the teacher hiring process to teachers' outcomes once they are hired. We contribute to this literature using data from a recently-adopted teacher screening system in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) that allows applicant records to be linked to student- and teacher-level data for those teachers who are subsequently employed in the district. We find that performance during screening, and especially performance on specific screening assessments, is significantly predictive of applicants' eventual employment in LAUSD and teachers' later contributions to student achievement, evaluation outcomes, and attendance, but not to teacher mobility or retention. However, applicants' performance on individual components of the screening process are differentially predictive of different teacher outcomes, highlighting potential trade-offs faced by districts during screening. In addition, we find suggestive evidence across time and between districts that the shift to the new teacher screening system improved hiring outcomes in LAUSD relative to other similar districts and schools.
Creating Opportunity for All: Building Pathways from Continuing Education to Credit Programs
Author: Price, Derek V.
Date: 2018-01-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Continuing Education,Educational Opportunities,Community Colleges,College Transfer Students,Resilience (Psychology),Consortia,Articulation (Education),College Credits,Educational Change,Change Strategies,Prior Learning,Educational Practices,Career Guidance,Transfer Programs,Case Studies

Community college students start college with goals including transferring to earn a bachelor's degree and gaining the skills and credentials that have immediate labor market value. These goals are not mutually exclusive. Students deserve access to clear pathways, whether they enroll in short-term education and training programs or in college credit-based programs. But in colleges across the nation, these programs are not connected, making it complex and difficult for students to progress and meet their career and academic goals. The Northeast Resiliency Consortium (NRC), comprised of several community colleges and convened by Achieving the Dream, sought to develop a resilient workforce. One important challenge the NRC colleges took on was aligning continuing education and credit programs along a career pathway to meet student and labor market needs. This brief describes how the colleges made adjustments to articulate non-credit to credit credentials to ensure strong career pathways for students who start on the non-credit ramp. As a result, the colleges are now providing students with stacked credentials, ensuring prior learning and experience is accounted for within pathways, and are formally recognizing key milestones with credentials. All in all, the colleges smoothed the way for students to work toward an associate degree even if they began their studies in a non-credit program. According to the Northeast Resiliency Consortium Final Evaluation Report, a higher percentage of students enrolled in continuing education to credit pathways banked or earned credits, transitioned to credit-based programs, and gained and were retained in employment than a matched comparison group who did not enroll in these pathways.