ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Spotlight on VET: Romania
Author: Cedefop - European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Vocational Education,Secondary Education,Postsecondary Education,Adult Education,Workplace Learning,Lifelong Learning,Employment Level

In Romania, vocational education and training (VET) is provided at upper secondary and post-secondary levels. The first two years of upper secondary education are compulsory for all learners. Enrolment in upper secondary education and training, including VET (grade 9), requires grades from national exams in mathematics and the Romanian language, a lower secondary diploma, and a final mark transcript for all subjects. Some VET schools also have entry exams. To enrol in tertiary education, upper secondary graduates need to pass baccalaureate exams. Initial VET is under the responsibility of the Ministry of National Education. The National Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Development coordinates the creation of training standards for qualifications validated by sectoral committees (coordinated by the National Authority for Qualifications) and approved by the ministry. Social partners participate in the committees and support VET implementation. Continuing VET development is under the responsibility of the Ministry of Labour and Social Justice. Adult vocational training is offered by authorised private and public providers taking into account the needs of employers and basic skills needs of adults. Investments to support the institutional development of education and training are still few. The main challenges are unequal access to education and training and the high rate of early leaving from it; this particularly affects children in rural areas, from poor communities, and Roma. The 2015-20 Strategy to reduce early school leaving was developed to address these challenges, and a mechanism will be established for early warning and intervention that will help detect young learners at risk of leaving school. Another challenge is to reduce youth unemployment by supporting skills acquisition and securing smooth and sustainable transitions from education and training to the labour market. In November 2018, the labour ministry developed a list of elementary occupations giving unskilled adults access to participation in programmes leading to qualifications at EQF level 1, such as six-month apprenticeship programmes.
Closing San Francisco&apos;s Juvenile Hall: An Analysis of the Youth Population. Research Report
Author: Macallair, Daniel
Date: 2019-12-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Correctional Institutions,Institutionalized Persons,Juvenile Justice,Youth,Community Programs,Racial Differences,Gender Differences,Age Differences,Delinquency,Placement,Urban Areas

In June 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to close the city's juvenile hall, setting in motion a planning process that will culminate in the transfer of all remaining youth out of the facility and into community-led alternatives by the end of 2021. This analysis is the first in a series by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) to assist in planning for the closure of the juvenile hall. CJCJ has conducted a comprehensive review of the juvenile hall population using official data gathered from more than 200 annual and monthly reports issued by the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department (SFJPD) from 1990 through November 2019, monthly tabulations compiled by the Board of State and Community Corrections and Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), and case tabulations by San Francisco's Community Assessment and Referral Center (CARC). The detailed data provided by these official sources offer vital information on population trends within the city's juvenile justice system and aid in developing an effective system of alternatives to detention. As rising costs and falling population trends have come to light, community leaders and youth advocates have galvanized support for the closure of the juvenile hall. Now, San Francisco is poised to reinvest millions of dollars into local alternatives, such as diversion programs, community-based services, or small, temporary shelters for youth. Planning for this reinvestment of city resources requires a clear understanding of the youth population that will need to be served following the closure of the juvenile hall.
How Ed-Tech Can Help Leapfrog Progress in Education
Author: Vegas, Emiliana
Date: 2019-11-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Technology,Educational Innovation,Technology Uses in Education,Teaching Methods,Educational Finance,Computers,Educational Objectives,Learning Processes,Skill Development,Program Effectiveness

The Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution studies innovations that can rapidly improve education progress, including innovations that use education technology. If the education sector stays on its current trajectory, by 2030 half of all children and young people around the world will lack basic secondary-level skills needed to thrive. To change this dire prediction, rapid non-linear progress must be made, or what CUE calls &quot;leapfrogging.&quot; Technology can help education leapfrog in a number of ways. This brief is the second in a series of Leapfrogging in Education snapshots that provide analyses of CUE's global catalog of education innovations. Of the nearly 3,000 global innovations CUE cataloged, more than one half involve the use of technology, which suggests strong interest in its use and application in aiding educators around the world. This brief answers questions such as: Who implements and funds ed-tech innovations? Who benefits from ed-tech innovations? Where in the world are ed-tech innovations? What kind of hardware is used in ed-tech innovations? What are the goals of ed-tech innovations? How do ed-tech innovations support the learning process? What are the competencies and skills developed by education technology innovations? and How effective are ed-tech innovations? [For the first brief in this series, see ED597321.]
Learning to Leapfrog: Innovative Pedagogies to Transform Education
Author: Istance, David
Date: 2019-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Innovation,Educational Change,Teaching Methods,Teacher Role,Lifelong Learning,21st Century Skills,Equal Education,Global Approach,Blended Learning,Problem Solving,Foreign Countries,Experiential Learning,Creative Activities,Multiple Literacies,Multilingualism,Bilingual Education,Game Based Learning,Educational Quality,Educational Environment,Communities of Practice

This report follows up on the book &quot;Leapfrogging Inequality: Remaking Education to Help Young People Thrive,&quot; published in 2018 by the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution. The book argued the importance of education leapfrogging--creating transformative shifts rather than incremental evolution by harnessing the power of innovation to advance a breadth of skills. This report focuses on the teaching and learning element of the leapfrog framework, especially on pedagogical approaches and the role of teachers, but draws on the others as relevant. The overall goal of the report is to deepen insights on how to leapfrog. Specifically, this report focuses on what might be done to address the learning crisis and to transform education systems to meet the demands of tomorrow. The report's value-added is its sharp pedagogical focus and its twin themes: (1) Pedagogical innovation is critical and is at the heart of the ambition to leapfrog education systems; and (2) It is critical to learn from the experiences of existing transformative approaches. The report first reviews the nature of the problem and argues that the global lifelong learning agenda calls for serious reimagining of the education landscape. It then argues that pedagogy, and specifically innovative pedagogies, must be central to any systematic transformation if leapfrogging is to be achieved. The report identifies six clusters of such pedagogies which, alone or in combination, would underpin such a transformation. It then examines factors that enable the successful implementation of innovative pedagogies, homing in on the support and empowerment of teachers, as well as structural changes in the design of schools to include hybrid models, combining both formal and nonformal. Finally, the report concludes by reflecting on the depth of transformation that this vision implies for education systems, and how to think about fruitful near-term approaches for scaling up innovative pedagogies.
District Leader Interviews: How School Districts Are Responding to ESSA&apos;s Evidence Requirements for School Improvement
Author: Rentner, Diane Stark
Date: 2019-08-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: School Districts,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Program Implementation,Evidence Based Practice,Educational Improvement,Educational Strategies,State Departments of Education,Government Role,State Government,Community Involvement,Educational Policy,Rural Schools,Urban Schools

In the spring of 2019, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) at the George Washington University conducted interviews with leaders from five school districts that differed in key characteristics. The aim was to learn about districts' efforts to implement the requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for using evidence-based approaches to improve low-performing schools. Under ESSA, states have more power than under previous iterations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to identify which schools are low-performing, and school districts have greater latitude to decide on strategies to improve these schools. This report summarizes the findings from those district interviews. A companion CEP publication issued in April 2019, State Leader Interviews: How States Are Responding to ESSA's Evidence Requirements for School Improvement, describes findings from interviews with state officials about how states are implementing ESSA's evidence requirements. [For the companion report, see ED597203.]
Model Work Standards for Teaching Staff in Center-Based Child Care. Third Edition
Author: Meacham, Deborah, Ed.
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Child Care Centers,Child Caregivers,Standards,Fringe Benefits,Employment Practices,Compensation (Remuneration),Professional Development,Staff Utilization,Teamwork,Decision Making,Problem Solving,Physical Environment,Safety,Work Environment,Early Childhood Teachers,Personnel Policy,Noninstructional Responsibility,Models,Well Being,Adults

When the Model Work Standards were first crafted more than two decades ago, they were built on the premise that quality child care jobs are the cornerstone of high-quality services for children and families. The intent of these standards is to make it possible for those who choose teaching young children as a career to reasonably and responsibly support themselves and their families without having to hold second jobs, be dependent on another wage earner, or rely on other income supports. It is also the intent that early educators feel pride in their career choice, rather than the need to defend it to others or question it themselves. In short, these standards are about rights, raises, and respect for the early care and education workforce. The following standards cover nine topic areas. Taken as a whole, they describe a high-quality work environment for early educators in center-based child care programs. The nine areas include: (1) Wages; (2) Benefits; (3) Employment Policies and Practices; (4) Payment for Professional Responsibilities; (5) Professional Development; (6) Staffing and Teaching Supports; (7) Communication and Team Building; (8) Decision Making and Problem Solving; and (9) Health, Safety, and Physical Setting. [This report is co-released by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment and the American Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation.]
A Stronger Future for Evidence-Based School Improvement in ESSA
Author: Rentner, Diane Stark
Date: 2019-12-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Evidence Based Practice,Educational Improvement,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Program Implementation,Educational Policy,Disadvantaged Schools,Educational Strategies,Intervention

This report summarizes the results of a project by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) that explored how education leaders, practitioners, and the research community might work together more effectively to advance the use of evidence in school improvement. In particular, the project focused on how to support states and school districts as they implement the evidence requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Under ESSA, states have more flexibility than under previous federal law to identify which schools are low-performing, and districts have more latitude to decide on strategies to improve these schools. This report, the third in a series, analyzes information across the three main project activities: (1) a meeting of policy experts, researchers, and state and local education leaders hosted in July 2019 by CEP and the National Academy of Education; (2) interviews about the ESSA evidence requirements with leaders in seven states; and (3) interviews about the ESSA evidence requirements with leaders in five school districts. [For &quot;State Leader Interviews: How States Are Responding to ESSA's Evidence Requirements for School Improvement,&quot; see ED597203 and &quot;District Leader Interviews: How School Districts Are Responding to ESSA's Evidence Requirements for School Improvement,&quot; see ED602938.]
Expanding Access to Out-of-School Learning: Lessons from Year 1 at ReSchool Colorado
Author: Gross, Betheny
Date: 2019-04-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Summer Programs,Access to Education,Equal Education,Empowerment,Parents,Children,Partnerships in Education,Advocacy,Educational Opportunities

Out-of-school time, especially in the summer, offers students an opportunity to explore new passions, build friendships and relationships, and experiment with independence. Taking field trips, visiting museums, and going to camp can all boost students' learning and social development. But engagement in and access to these vital opportunities are not equitable. Many parents, especially those who are new to the country or living in historically underserved communities, are unfamiliar with these opportunities or their potential value to their children. And these opportunities can often be expensive, costing anywhere from a few hundred dollars to even thousands of dollars, making it difficult if not impossible for less affluent children to participate. Even when interest and resources are not a barrier, information about when and where the opportunities exist and how to enroll children are often fragmented and difficult to find, leaving parents to rely on their informal social networks or their own legwork to track down information. In 2017 ReSchool Colorado launched a set of initiatives to expand access to out-of-school learning opportunities for children in the Denver area. This brief seeks to provide an initial, formative assessment of lessons learned in the first year of the initiatives, focusing on the core issues of families' expectations for out-of-school time, availability of programs across communities, and equitable access.
Life Journey through Autism: A Guide to Safety
Author: Ziegert, Amanda
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Autism,Pervasive Developmental Disorders,Child Safety,Prevention,Parent Role,At Risk Persons,Children,Adolescents,Adults,Sexuality,Bullying,Internet,Work Environment,School Safety,Intervention,Story Telling,Family Environment,Accident Prevention,Child Abuse,Sexual Abuse

No parental instinct is as intense and fundamental as protecting one's child from harm. For parents of children with autism, safety risks become magnified because of challenges resulting from fixations with narrow interests, limited situational awareness, and sensory and communication issues. So why should parents expect to do it all alone? We wrote &quot;A Guide to Safety&quot; with a lot of help from parents, first responders, educators, and community members, who shared their strategies and resources to address safety threats that commonly arise during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. This autism safety resource will educate parents about how to prevent and mitigate emergency events, safety threats that may affect their child in the future, and how to teach safety habits that will build a foundation for safety in adulthood. [Contributing writers were Dwight Good, Deborah Hammer, Scott Lillard, and Colin Weiss. This publication is a product of the collaborative effort between the Organization for Autism (OAR) and Danya International, Inc. (Danya).]
Within-Subject Mediation Analysis for Experimental Data in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience
Author: Vuorre, Matti
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Statistical Analysis,Hierarchical Linear Modeling,Cognitive Psychology,Neurosciences,Bayesian Statistics,Causal Models,Experiments,Hypothesis Testing

Statistical mediation allows researchers to investigate potential causal effects of experimental manipulations through intervening variables. It is a powerful tool for assessing the presence and strength of postulated causal mechanisms. Although mediation is used in certain areas of psychology, it is rarely applied in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. One reason for the scarcity of applications is that these areas of psychology commonly employ within-subjects designs, and mediation models for within-subjects data are considerably more complicated than for between-subjects data. Here, we draw attention to the importance and ubiquity of mediational hypotheses in within-subjects designs, and we present a general and flexible software package for conducting Bayesian within-subjects mediation analyses in the R programming environment. We use experimental data from cognitive psychology to illustrate the benefits of within-subject mediation for theory testing and comparison.
Model Work Standards for Early Educators in Family Child Care. Third Edition
Author: Meacham, Deborah, Ed.
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,Child Care,Family Environment,Caregivers,Models,Policy,Professional Development,Work Environment,Employers,Community Role,Early Childhood Teachers,Income,Parents,Interpersonal Communication,Family Involvement

When the Model Work Standards were first crafted more than two decades ago, they were built on the premise that quality child care jobs are the cornerstone of high-quality services for children and families. The intent of these standards is to make it possible for those who choose family child care as a career to reasonably and responsibly support themselves and their families without having to hold second jobs, be dependent on another wage earner, or rely on other income supports. It is also the intent that family child care providers feel pride in their career choice, rather than the need to defend it to others or question it themselves. In short, these standards are about rights, raises, and respect for family child care providers. The Model Work Standards are divided into five categories: (1) Model Contract and Program Policies; (2) Professional Development; (3) Family Child Care Work Environment; (4) Provider as Employer; and (5) Community Support for Promoting Careers in Family Child Care. The Model Work Standards are intended to be used: (1) by family child care providers as a vehicle for immediately beginning to improve their work environment and job conditions; (2) in local communities, where representatives of family child care programs and support agencies can identify cooperative ventures to improve the child care infrastructure; and (3) with policymakers and funders to raise awareness about the amount of resources that will be necessary to make lasting, comprehensive improvements in the nation's child care system. [This report is co-released by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment and the American Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation.]
Optimizing Assessment for All: Framework for Understanding Project Goals and Scope
Author: Care, Esther
Date: 2020-01-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: 21st Century Skills,Foreign Countries,Educational Testing,Assessment Literacy,Test Construction,International Programs,International Cooperation,Curriculum Development,Alignment (Education)

This framework marks the first in a series of five reports detailing the work of the Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) project at Brookings to strengthen education systems' capacity to integrate 21st century skills (21CS) into teaching and learning, using assessment as a lever for changing classroom practices. In a world of rapid advancement and change, people and societies need a new mixture of skills to thrive. It is no longer accepted that education devoted mainly to the memorization of facts will prepare people to be thoughtful, productive, and engaged citizens. Rather, people of all ages need a broad set of skills, including cognitive, social, and technological, to evaluate and apply knowledge in ways that meet the new demands of a changing social and economic landscape. These skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, information literacy, and communication, among others, are often broadly referred to as 21CS or transversal competencies. Countries around the world are including 21CS in their national education goals and policies, signaling their commitment to addressing the changing needs of their learners. However, countries are faced with challenges on how to implement these policies due to disconnects between different parts of the education systems; lack of understanding on how teaching and learning 21CS looks in the classroom; and limited measurement expertise in the area of 21CS assessment. Between December 2017 and April 2020, the Optimizing Assessment for All (OAA) project will address these challenges by strengthening education systems' capacity to integrate 21CS into their teaching and learning, using assessment as a lever for changing classroom practices and building that capacity. The OAA project has emphasized developing existing capacity and resources and changing mindsets to cultivate and support a new generation of assessment specialists within the participating countries and regions. OAA has worked in two regions--Asia and sub-Saharan Africa--and three focus countries within each region have participated in a capacity-building approach for designing, developing, and piloting classroom-based assessments of 21CS. [Support was provided by Porticus.]