ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Learning Centre Roles in Facilitating Learning Communities at the Tertiary Level
Author: Manalo, Emmanuel
Date: 2006-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Program Effectiveness,Foreign Countries,Postsecondary Education,Higher Education,Outcomes of Education,Partnerships in Education,Language Skills

Tertiary learning centres are generally considered as having the primary function of teaching students how to be most effective in their learning and performance so as to achieve success in their courses of study. Instruction provided by such centres are delivered through group work (courses, workshops), one-to-one work, and through materials that come in the form of print and electronic resources. What is often not well known is that the success of such centres in meeting student learning needs depends considerably on the development of effective learning communities within the tertiary institutions where these centres operate. Important features of such learning communities include students who are active (rather than passive) participants in the development of their learning capabilities, students helping each other, faculty and departmental staff who are actively involved in the development and provision of support mechanisms to cultivate desired student skills, and effective communication channels that allow instructors to learn as much from their students as the students learn from them. This paper examines some of the ways in which staff working in learning centres can contribute to the development of these learning communities. Specific examples are drawn from activities and programs provided by the Student Learning Centre at the University of Auckland. The ways in which the success of many of the Centre's activities and programs depend on these learning communities, and the measures used to assess the impact of these programs on student performance, are discussed. (Contains 4 footnotes.)
Learning Community Link: Enhancing Learning Using Telecommunication Technologies
Author: Burke, Michael
Date: 1997-08-01
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: School Districts,Telecommunications,Internet,Video Technology,Teleconferencing,Synchronous Communication,Electronic Mail,Partnerships in Education,Schools of Education,Program Implementation,Urban Schools,Rural Schools,Program Descriptions

Telecommunication technologies (computers with Internet/e-mail capabilities, desktop videoconferencing units, and fiber-based video links) provided by the Learning Community Link did indeed expand typical school boundaries and did increase communication possibilities for teachers and students. Using the power of computers to communicate, analyze and evaluate data and prepare presentations, students were able to solve real-world problems. Student learning went beyond the textbook and school walls to access information located on the Internet and at other locations. Videoconferencing allowed students to interact with other students in real time to discuss research findings and also provided teachers with direct access to consultants and specialists. Teachers cooperated in developing interactive multidisciplinary projects and sharing resources and expertise via e-mail and videoconferencing. Students, teachers and support staff participating in the Learning Community Link have thus formed a true &quot;community of learning&quot; by using telecommunication technologies to enhance communication, enrichment opportunities and staff development. As the installation of equipment progresses, the Learning Community Link's &quot;Boatload of Knowledge&quot; continues its journey through the electronic rivers of telecommunications.
Understanding Incivility in the College Classroom
Author: Frey, Kristen A.
Date: 2009-12-04
Type: Information Analyses
Subjects: Student Behavior,Student Attitudes,Interpersonal Relationship,Classroom Environment,College Students,Teacher Behavior,College Faculty,Literature Reviews,Behavior Modification,Classroom Techniques,Lecture Method,Teacher Student Relationship,Teacher Expectations of Students,Teacher Researchers

In recent years, faculty have seen an increase in latecomers, sleepers, cell phone addicts, and downright disruptive students in their courses. Classroom incivility is the disruptive behavior that occurs in higher education learning environments at an alarming rate. Incivility is often a reciprocal process; both students and faculty may contribute to a climate of disrespect and disregard for the learning process. University students are increasingly diverse, unprepared for academic work, juggling multiple life roles, and facing tremendous pressures to perform in large, impersonal classrooms. Moreover, faculty are often trained as researchers and struggle to effectively manage their classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to review academic literature about classroom disruptions, including the causes of incivility and strategies to manage negative student behaviors. In particular, young, female, low-status, and minority instructors face the greatest challenges. Recommendations for faculty include presenting engaging lectures at a moderate pace, respectfully interacting with students, communicating clear expectations, returning assignments at the end of class, and maintaining consistent office hours.
Shifting Risk to Create Opportunity: A Role for Performance Guarantees in Education. Working Paper 2010-02
Author: Hassel, Bryan C.
Date: 2010-07-28
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Educational Change,Outsourcing,Risk,Politics of Education,Productivity,Performance Contracts,Educational Improvement,Educational Finance,School Districts

Despite the growing role of nontraditional providers and school operators, many school districts remain reticent, if not resolutely opposed, to turning over schools or even school functions like human resources to outside providers. Limiting the use of nontraditional providers, especially those with demonstrated effectiveness, hampers a district's ability to supplement or substitute existing school services and bars schools from reaping the potential gains in faculty productivity, student outcomes, and cost-effectiveness. Given today's tight budgets and shrinking staffs, this is a problematic state of affairs. It is especially so when it comes to school turnarounds, when many districts are struggling to deliver performance on their own but are also hesitant to farm matters out to an external provider--especially to those who may have limited skin in the game or those who may have thin records of success. In this report, the authors point out that uncertain results, political dangers, and unmapped responsibilities make the risk of partnering with new providers simply too great for many districts to take on. To address these challenges, they suggest a variety of performance guarantees such as warranties, bonds, and contracts that can be adapted for the case of nontraditional education providers. These tools can help spread risk and thereby facilitate partnerships as they have done in other sectors. (Contains 1 table, 2 figures and 18 endnotes.)
Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades. Education Outlook. No. 1
Author: Williams, Trish
Date: 2011-01-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Educational Change,Achievement Gains,Middle School Teachers,Public Officials,Middle Schools,School Districts,Educational Improvement,Difficulty Level,Academic Standards,State Standards,Grade 6,Grade 7,Grade 8,Curriculum Development,Teacher Surveys,English Teachers,Mathematics Teachers,Language Arts,Superintendents,Educational Quality,Intervention,Grants,Student Evaluation,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation

Educators and policymakers have debated in recent years how best to improve academic performance in the middle grades. In the absence of outcomes-based research about what works, school districts have reshuffled grade configurations, bolstered their focus on &quot;academic rigor,&quot; and worked to ensure that students are engaged in school as they go through the turbulence of puberty. To find out what district and school policies and practices are linked to higher student performance in the middle grades, a team of researchers from EdSource, Stanford University, and American Institutes for Research spent eighteen months conducting the most extensive empirical study of this grade level to date. The study, Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades, was released in 2010. This &quot;Outlook&quot; highlights what policymakers can do to support the middle grades.
High Schools, Civics, and Citizenship: What Social Studies Teachers Think and Do
Author: Farkas, Steve
Date: 2010-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Private Schools,Public School Teachers,Citizenship Education,Focus Groups,Civics,National Competency Tests,Social Studies,History Instruction,Secondary School Teachers,Public Schools,Citizenship Responsibility,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Surveys,Civil Rights,Social Attitudes,Secondary Education

Notwithstanding all the studies and data on schooling today, one has to go back more than a decade--to the 1998 Public Agenda study &quot;A Lot to Be Thankful For&quot;--for a serious attempt to examine what parents think public schools should teach children about citizenship. The annual Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup poll on schooling has not asked questions about citizenship since 2000. When these questions were last addressed, respondents chose &quot;prepar[ing] people to become responsible citizens&quot; as the least important purpose of schooling--behind such goals as &quot;enhanc[ing] people's happiness and enrich[ing] their lives&quot; and &quot;dispel[ling] inequities in education among certain schools and certain groups.&quot; Given this paucity of research, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Program on American Citizenship sought to investigate what schools are teaching today about citizenship. To aid the agency in this effort, it turned to the teachers most directly charged with educating and shaping America's young citizens--high school history and social studies teachers. And when it comes to finding out what teachers think, there may be no better research team in America than the pollsters/analysts Steve Farkas and Ann Duffett. This report is based on the views, thoughts, and frontline observations of the nation's high school history and social studies teachers. Farkas and Duffett surveyed more than one thousand public and private school teachers, and they conducted three focus groups with teachers in various communities across the country. What they found proved to be both surprising and predictable, somewhat reassuring but also unsettling. In general, the report points to the fact that while teachers' priorities and values largely reflect those of the general public, their efforts to convey that knowledge to students are falling short of their own expectations. This lack of confidence would certainly appear justified, if the poor results of the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress are any guide. In marked contrast to their private counterparts, public school teachers believe that social studies is losing ground to other subject areas and that civics in particular is being neglected by their schools. And, finally, teachers appear uncertain about what the precise content of a proper civic education should be--emphasizing notions of tolerance and rights, while giving less attention to history, facts, and key constitutional concepts such as the separation of powers. Two appendices are included. (Contains 6 tables, 5 figures and 18 notes.) [The forward to this report was written by Frederick M. Hess, Gary J. Schmitt, Cheryl Miller, and Jenna M. Schuette.]
What Parents Don&apos;t Know about College Graduation Rates Can Hurt. Education Outlook. No. 2
Author: Kelly, Andrew P.
Date: 2011-02-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Public Colleges,Graduation Rate,College Graduates,College Bound Students,Parents,College Choice,Knowledge Level,Economic Impact,Access to Information,Federal Aid,School Counselors,Counselor Role,Academic Persistence,Parent Influence,Educational Attainment,Family Income

You would not buy a car without knowing its mileage, or a home without knowing its age and condition. Why would you invest in a college education without knowing graduation rates? Over the next several months, high school seniors across the country will decide where to go to college. Many students and their parents will base the decision on program offerings, cost, and distance from home, but they may be overlooking a vital piece of information. A recent study of parents choosing between two public colleges found that, when provided with graduation-rate data, 15 percent switched their preference to the school with the higher graduation rate. The information effects were pronounced among less-advantaged parents and those less informed about the college application process. Providing this key information could have real economic implications for students' lifetime earning potential. This &quot;Outlook&quot; presents the findings of the study and proposes policies to improve consumer information and increase college completion. (Contains 4 figures and 15 notes.)
Competitive Grant Making and Education Reform: Assessing Race to the Top&apos;s Current Impact and Future Prospects. Education Stimulus Watch. Special Report 5
Author: Manna, Paul
Date: 2010-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Federal Programs,Competition,Federal Aid,Educational Improvement,Grants,Federal Government,Educational Change,Program Evaluation,Systems Approach,Elementary Secondary Education,Elections,Program Effectiveness,Context Effect,Politics of Education

During President Barack Obama's first two years in office, the administration's signature education initiative has been the Race to the Top (RTT) fund, a small part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that was passed to stimulate the nation's ailing economy. While celebrations and criticisms of RTT abound, serious attempts to understand the program in a larger context or grapple with its underlying assumptions and mechanisms have played smaller roles in the conversation. The goal of this paper is to carefully analyze RTT to identify the program's strengths and weaknesses and to suggest what it can teach future designers and implementers of federal education policy, especially policies involving competitive grants. Today, people's collective knowledge of RTT's impact and future prospects is quite small compared to what it will be after the 2010 elections and the four years that the winners have to spend their grants. Still, this paper's consideration of RTT's basic assumptions and features, as well as the history of federal education policy, does suggest the following recommendations for federal education officials as they continue to implement RTT and consider new competitive grant programs in the future: (1) Design competitions with more focused goals and applications that are easier for states to complete and reviewers to evaluate; (2) Continue efforts to promote transparency and expand them during the RTT implementation phase; (3) Do not assume that knowledge transfer from RTT winners will always be desirable or easy; (4) Expect that the winners will not deliver on all their promises and be willing to claw back funds when they stumble. Consider making those recaptured funds available to states that just missed the winners' circle; and (5) Use substantive student outcomes, not just policy outputs, to judge state success. Certainly, other lessons will become clear as states--both the winners and losers--act upon their plans. There will also be variation in how these plans unfold. Given that federal dollars will be supporting some actions but not others, policymakers and researchers may be able to glean additional insights about the conditions under which federal grants contribute most to valuable reforms and where less federal involvement might be desirable. These ideas could inform additional competitive grant programs and other larger policy efforts, such as future reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table and 63 notes.)
Is College Worth the Investment? Education Outlook. No. 9
Author: Schneider, Mark
Date: 2010-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Higher Education,Public Colleges,Outcomes of Education,Private Colleges,Student Costs,Selective Admission,Income

As the cost of higher education rises, more and more students are struggling over the decision to attend college. But they now have help from PayScale.com, which recently released data on the return on investment (ROI) from over five hundred colleges and universities. This &quot;Outlook&quot; interprets the data using Barron's selectivity categories, revealing that ROI increases as colleges become more selective and that the ROI from public colleges and universities tends to be higher than from private ones. It also compares individual colleges within each level of selectivity, which can help students see where their investment in higher education may have a better return. But while the PayScale data represent a promising beginning, students still lack information about many colleges and individual degree programs. Going forward, we need to find ways to make these detailed ROI data available for more schools and help students make worthwhile investments of their time and money. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures and 6 notes.)
Doing the Same Thing over and over. Education Outlook. No. 11
Author: Hess, Frederick M.
Date: 2010-11-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: School Restructuring,Educational Change,Politics of Education,Role of Education,Best Practices,Outcomes of Education,Time Perspective,Differences,School District Autonomy,Adoption (Ideas)

If given the opportunity, what would you do to transform America's schools into a world-class, twenty-first-century education system? An intriguing challenge, right? Now imagine that there is one condition: you must retain existing job descriptions, governance arrangements, management, compensation structures, licensure requirements, and calendars. Unfortunately, that recipe for failure is a pretty fair depiction of the last few decades of school reform. Would-be reformers take it on faith that parents, policymakers, and voters understand that the world has changed and that it is important to transform our schools accordingly. Indeed, assumptions that change will be enthusiastically supported have yielded a situation where meaningful reform is never achieved. This &quot;Outlook&quot;, based on Frederick M. Hess's latest book, &quot;The Same Thing Over and Over: How School Reformers Get Stuck in Yesterday's Ideas&quot;, explains why we need to rethink our ways of teaching and schooling and what real reform might look like. (Contains 10 notes.)
K-12 Budget Picture: Lean Years Ahead. Education Outlook. No. 10
Author: Hess, Frederick M.
Date: 2010-11-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,Budgets,Educational Finance,Cost Effectiveness,Productivity,Retirement Benefits,Taxes,Health Services,Federal Programs

While educators are eager to forget the financial woes of the past two years and return to the familiar routine of steady budget increases, the fiscal outlook for America's fourteen thousand school districts is bleak--not just for next year, but for a half decade or more. This calls for a new mindset among educators and an unfamiliar, sometimes-uncomfortable commitment to productivity and cost-effectiveness. This paper suggests several ideas on how districts can boost productivity and cost-effectiveness. (Contains 64 notes.)
A Worm in the Apple? The Implications of Seniority-Based Teacher Layoffs. NRI Working Paper 2011-01
Author: Goldhaber, Dan
Date: 2011-01-13
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Collective Bargaining,Beginning Teachers,Job Layoff,Experienced Teachers,Economic Climate,Budgets,Educational Finance,Academic Achievement,Students

Stories abound about the staffing cuts that will have to be made currently, and in the next couple of years, as the ripple effects of the economic crisis impact local and state education budgets. Major budget cuts make teacher layoffs a near inevitability. This raises two very timely questions: what now determines which teachers are laid off, and is that policy best for students? A significant body of empirical research shows that the specific teachers to which students are assigned can have dramatic effects on their achievement. Research by economist Eric Hanushek (1992), for instance, estimates that the difference between having a very effective versus a very ineffective teacher can be as much as a full year's learning growth. So are the significant differences in teacher effectiveness part of the equation when making tough decisions about which teachers will lose their jobs? The research described in this paper suggests that the answer to this question is a definitive &quot;no.&quot; Empirical analysis reflects what is hard-wired into collective bargaining agreements (CBAs): seniority is the most important factor when deciding which teachers are laid off. Not only does this seniority-driven system not consider teacher effectiveness, but it also results in substantially more teachers being laid off to achieve specific budget targets because senior teachers, whose jobs are protected, earn more than novice teachers. This research also tellingly finds that the novice teachers laid off are often more effective than the senior teachers left behind. Looking at Washington state data on teacher effectiveness and teacher layoffs, this research finds that current layoff policy could lead to students losing 2 to 4 months of learning in the year after the layoffs. (Contains 2 tables, 4 figures and 33 endnotes.)
Choice without Options: Why School Choice Is Less than It Seems in Washington, D.C. Education Outlook. No. 12
Author: Schneider, Mark
Date: 2010-12-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Charter Schools,Federal Legislation,School Choice,Educational Improvement,Federal Programs,Parents,Educational Indicators,Educational Legislation,Public Schools,Competition,Enrollment

Every summer, an increasingly common event occurs across the country--parents open a letter explaining that their child's school is failing to meet benchmarks set under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and that, as a result, they have a right to send the child to another public school, if space is available. In the summer of 2009, letters went out to parents of children in more than one hundred District of Columbia public schools (DCPS) and D.C. public charter schools that did not make adequate yearly progress (AYP). This &quot;Outlook&quot; examines the choices available to those families and shows that while around twelve thousand students transferred schools that year, almost three-fourths made a school choice that can be described as choosing the bad over the worse or the unknown over the known. (Contains 2 tables, 4 figures and 6 notes.)