ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
The Other Lottery: Are Philanthropists Backing the Best Charter Schools? Policy Analysis No. 677
Author: Coulson, Andrew J.
Date: 2011-06-06
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Charter Schools,Private Financial Support,Advanced Placement,Test Results,Comparative Analysis,American Indians,Student Characteristics,Grants,Peer Influence,Models,Replication (Evaluation)

The central problem confronting education systems around the world is not that people lack models of excellence; it is their inability to routinely replicate those models. In other fields, they take for granted an endless cycle of innovation and productivity growth that continually makes products and services better, more affordable, or both. That cycle has not manifested itself in education. Brilliant teachers and high-performing schools can be found in every state and nation, but, like floating candles, they flicker in isolation, failing to touch off a larger blaze. Over the past decade, one of the most prominent strategies for overcoming this problem has been for philanthropists to partner with the best charter schools in an attempt to bring them to scale. This study seeks an empirical answer to the question: Is that strategy working--are the highest-performing charters attracting the most funding? The author searches for the answer in California, the state with the largest number of charter schools and the largest number of charter school networks (groups of two or more schools following the same pedagogical model or founded, overseen, or operated by the same person or group). Specifically, he compares the amount of philanthropic funding received by these networks with their performance on state-administered and Advanced Placement tests. The results are discouraging. There is effectively no correlation between grant funding and charter network performance, after controlling for individual student characteristics and peer effects, and addressing the problem of selection bias. For example, the three highest-performing charter school networks perform dramatically above the level of conventional public schools on the California Standards Tests, but rank 21st, 27th, and 39th in terms of the grant funding they have received, out of 68 charter networks. The AP results are worse; the correlations between charter networks' AP performance and their grant funding are negative, though negligible in magnitude. The top-performing charter networks, like  top-ranked American Indian charter schools, play a transformative role in children's educational and career prospects, and lay bare the failure of conventional educational arrangements to fulfill each child's potential. Everyone should indeed strive to preserve and replicate them. But philanthropy has not proven to be a reliable, systematic mechanism for accomplishing that goal in California, which has enjoyed more earnest and extensive efforts in this regard than perhaps any other state. Appendices include: (1) Selection Bias; (2) Methodology; (3) Regression Results; (4) Assessing Selection Bias; and (5) Does Growth Necessarily Beget Mediocrity? (Contains 2 figures, 3 tables and 38 notes.)
Markets vs. Monopolies in Education: A Global Review of the Evidence. Policy Analysis. No. 620
Author: Coulson, Andrew J.
Date: 2008-09-10
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Free Enterprise System,Comparative Education,Global Approach,Evidence,School Choice,Private Schools,Private Sector,Public Sector,Economics,Competition,Outcomes of Education,Government School Relationship,Academic Achievement,Educational Attainment,Social Systems,Economic Factors,Educational Policy

Would large-scale, free-market reforms improve educational outcomes for American children? That question cannot be answered by looking at domestic evidence alone. Though innumerable &quot;school choice&quot; programs have been implemented around the United States, none has created a truly free and competitive education marketplace. Existing programs are too small, too restriction laden, or both. To understand how genuine market forces affect school performance, everyone must cast a wider net, surveying education systems from all over the globe. This paper undertakes such a review, assessing the results of 25 years of international research comparing market and government provision of education, and explaining why these international experiences are relevant to the United States. In more than one hundred statistical comparisons covering eight different educational outcomes, the private sector outperforms the public sector in the overwhelming majority of cases. Moreover, that margin of superiority is greatest when the freest and most market-like private schools are compared to the least open and least competitive government systems (i.e., those resembling a typical U.S. public school system). Given the breadth, consistency, relevance, and decisiveness of this body of evidence, the implications for U.S. education policy are profound. Source Studies are appended. (Contains 3 tables, 2 figures and 16 notes.)
End It, Don't Mend It: What to Do with No Child Left Behind. Policy Analysis. No. 599
Author: McCluskey, Neal
Date: 2007-09-05
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,Federal Legislation,Policy Analysis,Federal Government,Educational Policy,National Standards,Educational Legislation,Accountability,Educational Improvement,Program Effectiveness,Constitutional Law,Government Role,School Choice,National Competency Tests

The looming expiration of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has prompted a flood of commission reports, studies, and punditry. Virtually all of those analyses have assumed that the law should and will be reauthorized, disagreeing only over how it should be revised. They have accepted the law's premises without argument: that government-imposed standards and bureaucratic &quot;accountability&quot; are effective mechanisms for improving American education and that Congress should be involved in their implementation. In this paper, the authors put those preconceptions under a microscope and subject NCLB to a thorough review. They explore its effectiveness to date and ask whether its core principles are sound. They find that No Child Left Behind has been ineffective in achieving its intended goals, has had negative unintended consequences, is incompatible with policies that do work, is at the mercy of a political process that can only worsen its prospects, and is based on premises that are fundamentally flawed. They further conclude that NCLB oversteps the federal government's constitutional limits--treading on a responsibility that, by law and tradition, is reserved to the states and the people. The authors therefore recommend that NCLB not be reauthorized and that the federal government return to its constitutional bounds by ending its involvement in elementary and secondary education. Studies of Private versus Government Provision of Education are appended. (Contains 5 figures and 51 notes.)
Behind the Curtain: Assessing the Case for National Curriculum Standards. Policy Analysis. No. 661
Author: McCluskey, Neal
Date: 2010-02-17
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Evidence,National Curriculum,Economic Progress,Free Enterprise System,Educational Objectives,School Choice,Outcomes of Education,National Standards,Policy Analysis,Educational Change,Academic Achievement,Educational Attitudes,Test Results,Scores,Accountability,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Public Schools,Achievement Tests,Government Role,Federal Government,Exit Examinations,Student Evaluation

The argument for national curriculum standards sounds simple: set high standards, make all schools meet them, and watch American students achieve at high levels. It is straightforward and compelling, and it is driving a sea change in American education policy. Unfortunately, setting high standards and getting American students to hit them is extremely difficult. Politically powerful interest groups must be overcome. Crippling conflicts between different religious, ethnic, and ideological factions must be avoided. And a culture that is generally averse to an intense focus on academics must be transformed. These challenges help to explain why the research on national standards is both very limited and inconclusive. But what if the research were to clearly show that having national standards leads to superior performance on international tests? Still, there would not be compelling evidence that national standards produce optimal outcomes; economic growth, as well as personal fulfillment, could very well require an education focused on much more than just high test scores. It appears that the route to successful education goes in the opposite direction of national standards; it goes toward universal school choice. Only a free market can produce the mix of high standards, accountability, and flexibility that is essential to achieving optimal educational outcomes. (Contains 92 notes.)
Responsible Use of Live Animals and Dissection in the Science Classroom. NSTA Position Statement
Author: National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)
Date: 2008-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Animals,Elementary Secondary Education,Laboratory Procedures,Science Teachers,Science Curriculum,Science Interests,Science Education

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has revised a position statement published in June 2005. This revised statement examines the issues surrounding the integration of animals into the K-12 science curriculum and highlights key considerations that should be addressed when deciding to introduce live animals in the classroom and involve students in dissection activities. (Contains 8 resources.) [This is a revision of a similar report published in June 2005. To access this report, see ED489293.]
Aerospace Education. NSTA Position Statement
Author: National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)
Date: 2008-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Aerospace Education,Science Teachers,Educational Quality,Elementary Secondary Education,Science Education

National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has developed a new position statement, "Aerospace Education." NSTA believes that aerospace education is an important component of comprehensive preK-12 science education programs. This statement highlights key considerations that should be addressed when implementing a high quality aerospace education program.
Making College More Expensive: The Unintended Consequences of Federal Tuition Aid. Policy Analysis. No. 531
Author: Wolfram, Gary
Date: 2005-01-25
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Higher Education,Federal Government,Student Financial Aid,Tuition,Public Policy,Federal Aid,Grants,Democracy,Government School Relationship,Evidence,Human Capital,Educational Finance

As Congress debates the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), it should heed Friedrich Hayek's warning that democracy is &quot;peculiarly liable, if not guided by accepted common principles, to produce over-all results that nobody wanted.&quot; One result of the federal government's student financial aid programs is higher tuition costs at the nation's colleges and universities. Basic economic theory suggests that the increased demand for higher education generated by HEA will have the effect of increasing tuitions. The empirical evidence is consistent with that--federal loans, Pell grants, and other assistance programs result in higher tuition for students at the nation's colleges and universities. Also, when large numbers of students begin to rely on the federal government to fund their higher education, and the federal government uses this financing to affect the behavior of state and private institutions, everyone should be concerned about how the resulting loss of independence of colleges and universities affects the ability of voters to form opinions about public policy that are independent of the government's position. Rather than expand the current system, Congress should consider a phase-out of federal assistance to higher education over a 12-year time frame. As the federal government removes itself from student assistance, everyone should expect several things to happen. First, sticker tuition prices should decline. Second, the private market should respond to the phase-out of federal assistance. That response would likely take three forms: additional private-sector loans, additional private scholarship funds, and perhaps most importantly, the expansion of human capital contracts. Human capital contracts, first suggested 40 years ago by Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, would allow students to pledge a portion of future earnings in return for assistance in paying their tuition. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables and 68 notes.)
Using Food Science Concepts to Enact Science-Indigenous Knowledge Systems Classroom Based Discourses
Author: Kwofie, Samuel
Date: 2011-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Indigenous Knowledge,Science Instruction,Science Teachers,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Food,Scientific Concepts,Teacher Workshops,Instructional Effectiveness,Foreign Countries

According to the World Bank and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) could serve as leverage for augmenting policy formulation regarding health, environment and education. By exploring the appropriate pedagogic approaches, the potential exist for integrating IKS into the conventional western based science classroom environment. This study is part of the Science and Indigenous Knowledge Systems Project (SIKSP) at the University of the Western Cape.  In response to the new South African curriculum to integrate school science with IKS, the reported study involving science teachers used food science based concepts as part of an instructional model to enhance the teachers' ability to engage in science-IKS classroom based discourses. The study involved 13 primary and secondary science teachers who attended bi-weekly science-IKS workshops for two consecutive six months. The teachers demonstrated the potential to: (1) enact science-IKS teaching and learning discourses, (2) articulate coherently the link between science and IKS concepts (3) discern science concepts embedded in traditional food processing techniques (4) unravel the wisdom in IKS and (5) value IKS as a useful body of &quot;owned&quot; knowledge. (Contains 4 tables.) [Funding for this project was provided NRF of South Africa. This paper was published in: Proceedings of the 19th Annual meeting of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology (SAARMSTE), 18-21 January 2011 at North-West University, pages 387-397.]
The Role of Mentoring in College Access and Success. Research to Practice Brief
Author: Coles, Ann
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Mentors,College Bound Students,Access to Education,Higher Education,Minority Groups,College Preparation,Graduation Rate,College Students,Academic Achievement

Increasing the number of college students who graduate prepared for participation in the workforce and civil society will require a redoubling of efforts to improve college-going and completion rates for students traditionally underrepresented by higher education--individuals from low-income backgrounds and young people of color, who currently earn degrees at much lower rates than other groups (NCES 2010; Mortenson 2009). Mentoring is a valuable strategy to provide students with the emotional and instrumental support students need to achieve the goal of a college degree. By providing information, guidance, and encouragement, mentors can play an important role in nurturing students' college aspirations, helping them prepare for college and, advising them on how to make successful transitions from high school to their first year on campus (Levine and Nidiffer 1996). The prevalence and positive impact of mentoring has generated a large body of social science research on its various dimensions. This brief distills and synthesizes scholarly research specifically as it pertains to the role of mentoring to promote college access and success, with an emphasis on implications for practitioners. It strives to serve as a tangible resource for practitioners seeking to ensure that their efforts--are based in research and targeted in ways that will produce the most positive outcomes for students--particularly given limited program resources. (Contains 8 resources.)
Shifting Trends in Special Education
Author: Scull, Janie
Date: 2011-05-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Mental Retardation,Emotional Disturbances,Learning Disabilities,Disability Identification,Trend Analysis,Special Education,Special Education Teachers,Population Trends,Incidence,Autism,State Departments of Education,Paraprofessional School Personnel,Developmental Delays,Speech Impairments,Language Impairments,Response to Intervention,Educational Finance

This report examines trends in the number of special-education students and personnel at both the national and state levels from 2000-01 to 2009-10. It finds that the overall population of special-education students, after decades of increases, peaked in the 2004-05 school year and has declined since. But within this population, individual categories of students with disabilities differed markedly in their trajectories: (1) The population of students identified as having "specific learning disabilities," the most prevalent of all disability types, declined considerably throughout the decade, falling from 2.86 million to 2.43 million students, or from 6.1 to 4.9 percent of all students nationwide; (2) Other shrinking disability categories included mental retardation, which dropped from 624,000 to 463,000 students, or from 1.3 to 0.9 percent of all pupils, and emotional disturbances, which fell from 480,000 to 407,000 students, or from 1.0 to 0.8 percent; and (3) Autism and "other health impairment" (OHI) populations increased dramatically. The number of autistic students quadrupled from 93,000 to 378,000, while OHI numbers more than doubled from 303,000 to 689,000. Even so, autistic and OHI populations constituted only 0.8 and 1.4 percent, respectively, of all students in 2009-10. In addition, state-level special-education trends varied dramatically: (1) Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts reported the highest rates of disability identification in 2009-10; Rhode Island was the only state with more than 18 percent of its student body receiving special-education services; and (2) Texas, Idaho, and Colorado reported the lowest rates of disability identification in 2009-10. Adjusting for overall population size, Texas identified just half as many students with disabilities as Rhode Island: 9.1 percent of its total student body. States also varied in their special-education personnel practices, so much so that the accuracy of the data they report to Washington is in question. Nationally, schools ostensibly employed 129 special-education teachers and paraprofessionals for every thousand special-education students in 2008-09, up from 117 per thousand in 2000-01. At the state level, this ranged from a reported 320 per thousand in New Hampshire, to thirty-eight per thousand in Mississippi. Appendices include: (1) Proportion of the National Student Population with Disabilities, 1976-77 to 2009-10/National Number of Students with Disabilities by Category, 2000-01 to 2009-10/National Number of Students with Disabilities by State 2001 to 229-10; and (2) Federal Disability Definitions. (Contains 31 endnotes.)
Promoting Full-Time Attendance among Adults in Community College: Early Impacts from the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration in New York
Author: Richburg-Hayes, Lashawn
Date: 2011-05-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Community Colleges,Low Income Groups,College Credits,Adult Students,Program Effectiveness,Scholarships,Remedial Instruction,School Holding Power,Academic Persistence,Graduation Rate,Transfer Rates (College),Student Motivation,Enrollment,College Attendance,Two Year College Students,Full Time Students,Student Characteristics,Grades (Scholastic),Paying for College,Demonstration Programs,Program Implementation

Many adult students struggle to finance their educations, often contending with work and child care expenses in addition to the extra cost of remedial courses. Moreover, there is little need-based grant aid to help. This report presents early findings from an evaluation of a program in New York City targeted to low-income adults (ages 22 to 35) who need remedial course work. Part of MDRC's national Performance-Based Scholarship (PBS) Demonstration, the program operated at Borough of Manhattan Community College and Hostos Community College, both part of the City University of New York, in 2008 and 2009. Participating students were eligible for either a $1,300 scholarship for two consecutive semesters (totaling up to $2,600) or for $1,300 for each of those semesters &quot;and&quot; one summer term (totaling up to $3,900), if they maintained at least part-time enrollment, met attendance benchmarks, and earned at least a &quot;C&quot; average across six credits of courses. Scholarships were paid directly to students in increments and did not supplant other aid for which students qualified. Early analyses of student transcripts for about 60 percent of the total sample suggest that the program: (1) Encouraged more full-time enrollment; and (2) Resulted in more students eligible for summer funding registering for summer courses. These findings suggest that incentive scholarships may increase full-time attendance and summer enrollment, which may, in turn, benefit low-income adults needing remediation by decreasing the time they need to earn degrees or certificates. Future reports will present impacts for the full sample on measures not covered here, including student retention, credit accumulation, graduation and transfer rates, motivation, and use of scholarship monies. Selected Characteristics of Sample Members at Baseline are appended. (Contains 6 tables, 1 figure, 2 boxes and 26 footnotes.) [Additional funding for this report was provided by the College Access Foundation of California, Foundation to Promote Open Society, Helios Education Foundation, NYC Center for Economic Opportunity, and The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services through the Ohio Board of Regents.]
Review of &quot;The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Summary of Fourth Year Reports&quot;
Author: Belfield, Clive
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Evidence,School Choice,Demonstration Programs,Educational Vouchers,Longitudinal Studies,Academic Achievement,Achievement Gains,Racial Segregation,College Attendance,Charter Schools

This review is of &quot;The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Summary of Fourth Year Reports,&quot; published by the School Choice Demonstration Project, University of Arkansas. The report makes eight claims about the effectiveness of the program, most of them positive. On the key issue of achievement of students receiving vouchers, however, the report merely concludes that the program is not harmful. As the report's title suggests, the evidence for all its claims is almost exclusively the researchers' own work, with no reference to other academic literature. Importantly, none of their own referenced documents were peer-reviewed. Even as some of the report's claims are in accord with the broader literature, their appearance in isolation makes for an overly simple evaluation of the MPCP. (Contains 19 notes.) [This report reviews &quot;The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Summary of Fourth Year Reports. SCDP Milwaukee Evaluation. Report #28&quot; (ED518706).]