ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Home-Based Lunch Provision on Child Retention in Primary Schools in Mbita Sub-County Kenya
Author: Abonyo, Nelson
Date: 2014-12-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Elementary Education,Academic Persistence,Surveys,Public Schools,Questionnaires,Teacher Attitudes,Administrator Attitudes,Lunch Programs,Attendance Patterns,Transfer Students,Student Attrition,Urban Schools,Rural Schools,Proximity,Influences,Student Records,Dropouts,At Risk Students

Despite the introduction of Free Primary Education in 2003 by the Kenya government in its quest to increasing access, retention and equity in education provision, child survival rate in primary schools in Mbita Sub-county is still 85.2% and is below the national survival rate of 97.1%. It was due to this low retention rate that the study was set to investigate the effects of home-based lunch on child retention in the primary schools in Mbita. To achieve this, the study was set on a specific objective focused on identifying the effects of home-based lunch, on child retention in the primary schools. To realize the set objective, the study was based on a conceptual framework drawn from the Classical Liberal Theory focused on Equity of Opportunity in education provision as postulated by an American Educator Horace Mann. The framework explains the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables in home-based lunch provision. The study used descriptive survey design which was conducted in 42 public primary schools sampled from the 98 primary schools in Mbita Sub-county. The study used the precision rate and confidence level derivative to obtain the sample, where the sample size n = z2.p.q.N/e2 (N-1)+ z2.p.q defined the 42 schools. The study also adopted the stratified random sampling to accommodate social, economic, physical and environmental differences in the regions of the study. To obtain the stratum sample size, the proportionate stratification was used based on each stratums share where, nxn1/n defined the stratum sample size for the Island, Urban and Rural regions of Mbita Sub-county. Data was collected using questionnaires sent to head teachers and class teachers of the sampled schools, while interview schedules were used with class prefects to collect more information regarding the effects of home-based lunch on retention in the study area. The SPSS program for MS windows was also used to analyze the questionnaires. The study used frequencies and percentages because they easily communicated the research findings to majority of the readers. The study found out that home-based lunch provision contributed to absenteeism, lateness, transfers, attrition thus reducing child retention capacity of schools in Mbita. It was also noted that home-based lunch resulted to children walking long distances to and from schools, preparing lunch, not getting lunch at home, becoming truant and others incur accidents as they walk home every other day.
Inhibiting Connection: State Policy Impacting Expansion of Municipal Broadband Networks
Author: Sisneros, Lauren
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: State Policy,Municipalities,Information Networks,Two Year Colleges,State Action,State Legislation,Barriers,Information Technology,Information Policy,Technology Planning,Access to Information,Electronic Learning,Educational Resources,Telecommunications

States and students are increasingly turning to online education programs to provide access to postsecondary education and support credential completion. Recent data indicate that more than 25 percent of postsecondary students take some portion of their coursework online, with 13 percent of students doing so exclusively. Additionally, an Instructional Technology Council survey reported a 4.7 percent increase in student enrollment in online programs from fall 2013 to fall 2014. The survey targeted predominantly two-year institutions. As a growing number of students experience a postsecondary education online, the necessity for state leadership to ensure that citizens have adequate and affordable access to broadband service increases. This Education Trends report explores the debate around municipal broadband expansion and examines state policies across the country that impact municipal broadband networks.
The Artist as Online Learner
Author: Julian, June
Date: 2003-10-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Art Education,Artists,Electronic Learning,Online Courses,Web Based Instruction,College Students,Communities of Practice,Action Research,Technology Uses in Education,Ecology,Man Machine Systems,Computer Interfaces,Teaching Methods,Lecture Method,Distance Education,Course Descriptions,Electronic Publishing,Constructivism (Learning),Hypermedia,Assignments,Archives

Online teaching provides a new avenue for the human imagination, another way for artists and teachers to creatively participate in the predominant cultural form of our time, the Internet. Several online university courses are presented as examples of communities of learners in action. They provide an overview of what was found to be effective in digital learning ecologies. The contrasting arguments of both Postman, and Nardi and O'Day are presented in a series of examples of Problems and Solutions. The problem is the difficulty of effective human communication. This action research shows that online learning provides a good way to extend the human dialogue into new dimensions for teaching, for learning, and for understanding.
Computer Science in High School Graduation Requirements. ECS Education Trends (Updated)
Author: Zinth, Jennifer
Date: 2016-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: High School Graduates,Graduation Requirements,Computer Science Education,Educational Trends,Educational Policy,State Policy,Mathematics Education,Science Education,Credits,Computer Science,High Schools,Programming,Course Selection (Students),Advanced Placement,Core Curriculum

Allowing high school students to fulfill a math or science high school graduation requirement via a computer science credit may encourage more student to pursue computer science coursework. This Education Trends report is an update to the original report released in April 2015 and explores state policies that allow or require districts to apply computer science coursework toward completion of high school graduation requirements in math, science or foreign language. [For the April report, see ED556465.]
It's Time for an Ambitious National Investment in America's Children: Investments in Early Childhood Care and Education Would Have Enormous Benefits for Children, Families, Society, and the Economy
Author: Bivens, Josh
Date: 2016-04-06
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Investment,Human Capital,Knowledge Economy,Educational Benefits,Community Benefits,Family Programs,Child Care,Employment Potential,Child Caregivers,Professional Identity,Early Childhood Education,Educational Opportunities,Child Development,Educational Policy,National Programs,Block Grants,Grants,Federal Aid

Nearly 7 years into the recovery from the Great Recession, two glaring problems remain in the U.S. economy. One is a significant slowdown in the growth of productivity (the amount of output and income generated in an average hour of work). The other is the destructive rise in income inequality in recent decades due largely to big corporations and the wealthy rewriting the rules of the economy to stack the deck in their favor. Ameliorating these two problems should be policymakers' core focus. One way to address both issues--one that would spur myriad other benefits to American families--is investing ambitiously in the country's children. This report reviews the evidence on why a major investment in America's children is such a promising economic strategy that can provide substantial social benefits--and that would more than pay for itself over time. It highlights four particular tranches of benefits: (1) Benefits that stem from having more resources invested in the care and education of children in their early years; (2) Benefits that stem from providing resources directly to families with young children to help them afford early child care and pre-kindergarten; (3) Benefits that stem from increasing labor force participation by parents (mostly mothers) of young children; and (4) Benefits that stem from the professionalization of the child care workforce. This report demonstrates that such a national investment could pay off in a number of ways.
Making Whole-Child Education the Norm: How Research and Policy Initiatives Can Make Social and Emotional Skills a Focal Point of Children&apos;s Education
Author: García, Emma
Date: 2016-08-24
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Child Development,Social Development,Emotional Development,Thinking Skills,Creativity,Self Control,Problem Solving,Skill Development,Achievement Tests,Foreign Countries,International Assessment,Secondary School Students,Educational Policy,Teacher Education,Teacher Competencies,Discipline Policy,Student Evaluation,Accountability

The importance of so-called noncognitive skills--which include abilities and traits such as critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, social skills, persistence, creativity, and self-control--manifests itself in multiple ways throughout life. This policy brief, which focuses on a set of skills that can and should be taught in schools, is based on a body of scholarly literature that tends to use the term &quot;noncognitive skills&quot; over others. Various fields and experts call them social and emotional skills, behavioral skills, inter- and intra-personal skills, and life skills, among other terms, but this brief does not aim to settle this issue. This brief explains why it is so important to incorporate these skills into the goals and components of public education, and lays out the steps necessary to make that happen.
The Teacher Pay Gap Is Wider than Ever: Teachers' Pay Continues to Fall Further behind Pay of Comparable Workers
Author: Allegretto, Sylvia A.
Date: 2016-08-09
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Teacher Salaries,Comparable Worth,Salary Wage Differentials,Compensation (Remuneration),Trend Analysis,State Surveys,Teacher Employment Benefits,Tables (Data),Public School Teachers,Educational Attainment,Teaching Experience,Teacher Supply and Demand,Personnel Policy

An effective teacher is the most important school-based determinant of education outcomes. Therefore it is crucial that school districts recruit and retain high-quality teachers. This is increasingly challenging given that the supply of teachers has been greatly affected by high early to mid-career turnover rates, annual retirements of longtime teachers, and a decline in students opting for a teaching career. At the same time, many factors are increasing the demand for teachers, including shrinking class sizes, the desire to improve diversity, and the need to meet high standards. In short, the demand for teachers is escalating, while simultaneously the supply of teachers is faltering. This report finds that the teacher pay penalty is bigger than ever. In 2015, public school teachers' weekly wages were 17.0 percent lower than those of comparable workers--compared with just 1.8 percent lower in 1994. This erosion of relative teacher wages has fallen more heavily on experienced teachers than on entry-level teachers. Importantly, collective bargaining can help to abate this teacher wage penalty. Some of the increase in the teacher wage penalty may be attributed to a trade-off between wages and benefits. Even so, teachers' compensation (wages plus benefits) was 11.1 percent lower than that of comparable workers in 2015. The following are appended: (1) Summary of the data used in this analysis; (2) A table with estimated public school teacher weekly wage penalty, 1979-2015; and (3) A table with public school teacher and non-teacher college graduate weekly wages, by state.
The Road Less Traveled: Changing Schools from the Inside Out
Author: Goodwin, Bryan
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Change,Change Strategies,Educational Quality,Learner Engagement,Student Motivation,Personality Traits,Teacher Role,Administrator Role,Systems Approach,Principals,Moral Development

Roughly 30 years ago, American educators stood at a crossroads, with a decision to make about the future of education. With their ears ringing of warnings that they were facing a &quot;rising tide of mediocrity&quot; and recognizing unacceptable gaps in achievement between disadvantaged students and others, educators set off down a path of reform that has, in the words of Frost, &quot;made all the difference&quot;--or has it? One thing known for sure is that it altered how educators have gone about running their schools. In this report, the author urges education leaders and policymakers to rethink the way they have been approaching reform for the past three decades and consider what might happen if they improved schools not from the top down but instead from the inside out--putting curiosity at the center of learning and unleashing a powerful, more engaging system of schooling. The author shows how schools can flip the top-down paradigm by taking a few key, consistent actions that put student engagement, motivation, and true problem-solving at the heart of teaching and learning to create new, more powerful outcomes that set students up for lifelong success.
Linking PARCC and MAP Assessments for Students in Montgomery County Public Schools. Applied Research
Author: Wang, Helen Y.
Date: 2016-06-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Public Schools,Accountability,College Admission,College Entrance Examinations,Correlation,Prediction,Career Readiness,College Readiness,Comparative Analysis,Predictive Validity,Scores,Tables (Data),Outcome Measures,Summative Evaluation,Probability,Cohort Analysis,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Middle Schools,Elementary Schools,Academic Achievement

The Office of Shared Accountability (OSA) in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) conducted a linking study to examine the relationship of the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment with the Common Core Consortia Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment in the 2014-2015 school year. This is the first study to address how existing assessments administered in MCPS can serve as indicators of college and career readiness as measured by PARCC. The study served two major purposes: (1) to predict college and career readiness on summative PARCC based on fall MAP; and (2) to compare spring MAP and summative PARCC scores. The study results can provide information on how to use MAP data to adjust instruction and to provide additional supports for students at risk of not attaining college and career readiness scores on PARCC. The results can also provide actionable knowledge to stakeholders that will help improve the MCPS accountability system. This study addressed the following research questions for Grades 3-8 in reading and mathematics: (1) How did fall/spring MAP RIT scores correlate to summative PARCC scale scores?; (2) What were thresholds on fall MAP RIT scores that were associated with 65% and 75% probability (likelihood) of meeting the college and career readiness benchmark on PARCC (performance level 4 or higher)? How accurately did fall MAP RIT scores predict college and career readiness on PARCC?; and (3) How did spring MAP RIT scores correspond to PARCC scale scores? Analyses by grade, content area, and student group were conducted when applicable. The results of the study have demonstrated strong predictive and concurrent validity evidence for MAP and the summative PARCC assessments for both reading and mathematics across grade levels, which supports the continuous use of MAP assessments in MCPS for predicting PARCC success. More specifically, the study results can provide information to guide instructional practices and to help improve student academic performance toward meeting the college and career readiness benchmark on PARCC. The following are appended: (1) Graphical Presentation of College and Career Readiness Prediction; (2) Prediction Accuracy for College and Career Readiness; and (3) Concordance Tables for Spring MAP and PARCC.
The Health of the Public Charter School Movement: A State-by-State Analysis. Second Edition
Author: Ziebarth, Todd
Date: 2016-03-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Charter Schools,Geographic Location,Public Schools,Criteria,Educational Innovation,Educational Quality,Educational Indicators,Institutional Characteristics,Student Characteristics

In October 2014, the first edition of &quot;The Health of the Public Charter School Movement: A State-by-State Analysis&quot; was released. Both encouraging words and constructive criticism for how to improve the report going forward were received. This second edition builds on the solid foundation of the inaugural version, while making adjustments to account for some of the helpful feedback. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the health of each state's charter public school movement, as a companion to the annual evaluation of the strength of each state's charter public school law. One helpful way to understand the difference between the two reports is to think of one as focused on inputs (law rankings) and the other as focused on outputs (health-of-the-movement rankings). This report provides data about the health of the charter public school movement along with thirteen indicators of growth, innovation, and quality. Three notable changes for this second edition report focused on: (1) the criteria that states had to meet in order to be scored and ranked; (2) four quality indicators--two more than the previous year's report; and (3) how innovation was addressed in this report. Overall, there is much to celebrate about the health of the charter public school movement. However, continued efforts to strengthen the movement are essential, even in those states where the current movement is relatively healthy. Appended to the report are (1) A Rubric and (2) Data Sources.
Measuring up to the Model: A Ranking of State Charter School Laws. Seventh Edition
Author: Ziebarth, Todd
Date: 2016-01-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Charter Schools,School Law,Educational Legislation,State Legislation,Public Schools,Advocacy,Educational Trends,Institutional Characteristics,Reputation,Program Effectiveness

This seventh edition of &quot;Measuring up to the Model: A Ranking of State Charter School Laws&quot; presents the latest activity in charter public school legislation across the country. Some highlights include: (1) significant activity regarding potential enabling legislation in several of the states without charter public school laws, (2) Alabama becoming the 43rd state to enact a charter school law, and (3) a handful of states lifting restrictions on growth. While 2015 was a largely positive year for charter public school legislation across the country, supporters continued engagement advocacy efforts in 2016 to strengthen and defend charter public school laws. The goal of this collective effort must remain focused on how best to create more high-quality charter public schools, particularly for those students who are most in need of such options. This report serves as a useful tool in these efforts. Appended to the report is: Methodological Details.
Grade 10 PSAT Participation and Performance--School Year 2015-2016. Memorandum
Author: Navarro, Maria V.
Date: 2016-04-28
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Aptitude Tests,High Schools,Grade 10,Student Participation,Student Characteristics,Scores,Public Schools,Racial Differences,Ethnic Groups,Limited English Speaking,Low Income Groups,Special Education,Advanced Placement,Writing Achievement,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement

The 2015-2016 school year marks the first administration of the redesigned PSAT, which is composed of two sections: (1) Evidence-based Reading and Writing (EBRW) and (2) Math. This memorandum presents results of 2015-2016 Grade 10 PSAT participation and performance of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students. Among 10,859 MCPS first-time Grade 10 students, 91.5 percent of them participated in the redesigned PSAT, which was 3.2 percentage points higher than the participation rate of first-time Grade 10 students who took the PSAT in 2014-2015 (88.3 percent). Among first-time Grade 10 students who also reported themselves as Grade 10 when they took the PSAT, the average score was 979 of 1,520--40 points higher than the national sample. Slightly more than one half of first-time Grade 10 students were identified through the 2015-2016 PSAT to have AP potential on one or more AP exams related to core subjects. The attached tables provide additional data about the 2015-2016 Grade 10 PSAT participation and performance, and identification of AP potential by school and student group.
Re-Balancing Assessment: Placing Formative and Performance Assessment at the Heart of Learning and Accountability
Author: Hofman, Peter
Date: 2015-02-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Formative Evaluation,Performance Based Assessment,Student Evaluation,Accountability,High Stakes Tests,Summative Evaluation,Educational Change,Curriculum Based Assessment,Evidence Based Practice,Feedback (Response),Student Improvement,Educational Practices

These days, a growing chorus of parents, educators, and policymakers is voicing frustration and anger with top-down accountability and high-stakes testing. As members of two not-for-profit education organizations--one focused on assessment and the other on research and instructional practices--the authors find nothing wrong with testing itself; indeed, they believe evidence of what students know and can do should be at the heart of schooling. They are concerned, however, about what seems to be an almost myopic focus on high-stakes accountability based on tests of basic knowledge and skills to drive improvements in educational outcomes, to the exclusion of using formative and performance assessment to facilitate student growth and deeper learning (i.e., the ability to apply knowledge and skills in novel situations) (Pelligrino &amp; Hilton, 2012). Thus, they call for replacing our current, unbalanced formula of summative assessments and external pressure with a new, more balanced formula for assessment and accountability centered around &quot;curriculum-embedded performance assessments&quot; or &quot;CEPAs&quot;--classroom-based instructional units that provide multiple opportunities for learning and both formative and summative evidence-gathering. Done well, CEPAs can harness the power of real-time feedback, personalized learning, and real-world application to help students develop requisite foundational knowledge and deeper learning. Moreover, as the authors will discuss, CEPAs may be used for summative, including state accountability, purposes. While they are not a silver bullet, CEPAs could drive many other beneficial changes in the education system, including better classroom practice, more motivating and engaging school environments, and greater professional collaboration among educators. Perhaps most promising, CEPAs could undergird a state-level accountability system that measures what matters most: the extent to which students are developing and demonstrating the kinds of deeper learning they will need for success in college, career, and life.