ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
State Higher Education Financing Models. MHEC Policy Brief
Author: Baum, Sandy
Date: 2017-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Finance,College Students,Access to Education,Resource Allocation,State Policy,State Aid,Financial Support,Student Financial Aid,Tuition,Public Colleges,Grants,Community Colleges

In most states and in the nation as a whole, the combination of constrained resources and rapid enrollment growth during the Great Recession left a legacy of significantly diminished per-student funding for higher education. Adequate funding is a necessary component of supporting college access and success and meeting state goals for educational attainment. But the adoption of a financing model that allocates state resources equitably and efficiently is also important for improving student outcomes. This brief addresses four areas in which state policy makers can learn from practices in other states and from principles of sound public policy design to strengthen their higher education financing systems. The year-to-year stability of funding, the balance between appropriations for institutions and student aid, the growing interest in tuition-free community colleges, and the allocation of funds across public colleges and universities are all areas in which states take a variety of approaches, with quite different implications for educational opportunity.
A Review of College Promise Programs: Evidence from the Midwest. MHEC Policy Brief
Author: Kelchen, Robert
Date: 2017-07-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: College Programs,Tuition,Paying for College,Access to Education,Program Descriptions,Educational Finance,Enrollment,Program Design,Two Year Colleges,Graduation Rate,College Bound Students,Undergraduate Students,Two Year College Students,Scholarships,Adult Students

As the price of a public college education has risen at well above the rate of inflation for decades, college affordability has become a key concern in public policy discussions. At the same time, recent high school graduates from lower-income and middle-income families are nearly 20 percentage points less likely to enroll in college the following year than students from high-income families. A number of states and communities have responded to these concerns by starting college promise programs, which typically promise qualified middle or high school students that they will cover part or all of tuition prices when a student enters college. A key goal of these programs is to encourage financially-needy students to think that college is possible and prepare academically for postsecondary education while they are in high school. The wave of college promise programs can be in part linked to the visibility and success of two programs in the Midwest: the Indiana 21st Century Scholars program (which began in 1990) and the Kalamazoo Promise (which began in 2005). Seven states have implemented tuition-free college programs for some or all students since 2014, highlighted by the Tennessee Promise program that covered tuition at public two-year colleges and New York's recently-enacted Excelsior Scholarship program that covers tuition for eligible students at two-year and four-year public colleges. Today, there are nearly 200 active local and state college promise or free college programs across 41 states. These programs vary considerably in their eligibility criteria, institutions covered, and financial generosity. In this brief, the body of research is detailed on the effects of three well-known college promise programs in the Midwest (Indiana's 21st Century Scholars Program, Missouri's A+ Program, and Kalamazoo Promise) before discussing some of the key questions that policymakers and funders must consider when designing college promise or tuition-free college programs.
The Relative Effectiveness of Traditional and Alternative Teacher Preparation Programs: A Review of Recent Research. MHEC Research Brief
Author: Jang, Sung Tae
Date: 2017-03-00
Type: Information Analyses
Subjects: Alternative Teacher Certification,Teacher Education Programs,Program Effectiveness,Academic Achievement,Conventional Instruction,Knowledge Level,Self Efficacy,Teacher Persistence,Elementary Secondary Education,Kindergarten

Teacher preparation refers to a &quot;state-approved course of study, the completion of which signifies that an enrollee has met all the state's educational or training requirements for initial certification or licensure to teach in the state's elementary or secondary schools&quot; (Department of Education, 2016, p. 6). The widespread concern for the quality of teacher preparation has extended to both traditional programs at four-year institutions and alternative programs created to address teacher shortages. This brief seeks to inform policies on teacher preparation by reviewing research on the effects of teacher certification and preparation programs in relation to student performance and teacher outcomes. Main findings include: (1) Traditional teacher preparation generally refers to a four- or five-year undergraduate program at a postsecondary institution. Alternative preparation programs, such as Teach for America (TFA), provide expedited pathways to licensure in order to rapidly increase the number of available teachers in a state; (2) Traditional teacher preparation consistently yields better instructional knowledge, self-efficacy, and teacher retention than alternative preparation across all levels of schooling, except kindergarten; (3) Studies comparing alternative and traditional teacher preparation programs have yielded mixed results in relation to student achievement. Some studies revealed that less selective alternative preparation programs were either substantially less effective or slightly less effective than traditional programs. However, other studies demonstrated that alternative and traditional preparation programs are equally effective in Texas and New York, and some studies indicated that TFA, a highly selective program, is more effective in improving math and science scores compared to traditional preparation; and (4) Taking into account the findings of both teacher and student outcomes research, a cautious approach to policy would minimize reliance on alternative preparation programs to meet teacher workforce demands.
The Impact of Graduate Education on Teacher Effectiveness: Does a Master&apos;s Degree Matter? MHEC Research Brief
Author: Horn, Aaron S.
Date: 2017-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Masters Degrees,Graduate Study,Educational Attainment,Academic Achievement,Incidence,Preschool Teachers,Elementary School Teachers,Middle School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Outcomes of Education,High Schools,Junior High Schools

Many school districts and states have long encouraged teachers to pursue graduate education. Teachers are frequently permitted to use graduate credits for recertification (Hill, 2007), and teachers with graduate degrees generally earn a higher salary or receive an annual stipend (Miller &amp; Roza, 2012). Advocates have argued that graduate education may improve teacher effectiveness (e.g., Harris &amp; Sass, 2011) and raise the status of the teaching profession (e.g., Sahlberg, 2015). The purpose of this brief is to examine the prevalence of graduate degrees among teachers in the United States and to summarize research on the relationship between teacher educational attainment and student achievement. Main findings include: (1) Among early childhood, primary, middle, and junior high school teachers, those with a master's degree do not have a larger effect on student reading achievement, relative to teachers with only a bachelor's degree; (2) The effect of master's degree attainment on student reading and math achievement during high school remains unclear; and (3) Overall, past research depicts a complex, poorly understood relationship between teacher educational attainment and student outcomes that may vary by such factors as level of schooling, academic subject, and major-course congruence.
Writing for Enjoyment and Its Link to Wider Writing: Findings from Our Annual Literacy Survey 2016. National Literacy Trust Research Report
Author: Clark, Christina
Date: 2017-06-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Writing (Composition),Writing Skills,Recreational Activities,Learner Engagement,Self Esteem,Literacy,National Surveys,Youth,Writing Attitudes,Reading Attitudes,Gender Differences,Age Differences,Literary Genres,Motivation

Numerous national and international studies have explored reading for enjoyment in connection to reading skill as well as to other reading variables, such as reading motivation and reading frequency. These studies tend to show that reading for enjoyment is an important predictor of reading skill, and is linked with how often children and young people read and how they feel about reading. Yet, despite its recognised importance in the world of reading, a similar focus on writing for enjoyment, both in terms of research activities and policy, is scarce. Using data from 39,411 pupils aged 8 to 18 who took part in our annual literacy survey in November/December 2016 and who answered questions about writing, this report aims to address some of the current gaps in knowledge. It aims to establish how many children and young people enjoy writing, how writing enjoyment has changed over the years and who the children and young people are who enjoy writing. The report also investigates the link between writing enjoyment and writing behaviour, confidence, motivation and attainment.
Tuition Control Policies: A Challenging Approach to College Affordability. MHEC Policy Brief
Author: Kelchen, Robert
Date: 2017-08-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Tuition,Paying for College,State Aid,Grants,Costs,Fees,State Policy,Trustees

The rising price of attending college has made college affordability an increasingly important policy issue in recent years. In order to make college more affordable for students and their families, states can pursue three possible options. The first option is to provide additional state appropriations to colleges, which allows institutions to charge lower tuition rates and/or to offset listed tuition prices through the use of institutional grant aid. The second option is to increase state grant aid awards to reduce the price tag paid by students. The drawback to both of these options is that they require additional state resources which are often difficult to obtain. A more politically feasible option in a number of states is to enact price controls by implementing limits on how much (if any) tuition and fees can be increased in a given year. These tuition and fee controls take three main forms, each of which is discussed in this brief. The first section of the brief details how often they are used and the body of research on whether they are effective in achieving their ultimate goal. This brief concludes with three Midwestern states' tuition and fee policies presented as case studies before offering recommendations for policymakers to consider when adopting tuition controls.
Guidance for Administering MAP Growth Assessments When Results Are Used for High-Stakes Purposes. NWEA Research
Author: Northwest Evaluation Association
Date: 2017-08-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Outcome Measures,Academic Achievement,High Stakes Tests,Test Results,Guidance,Integrity,School Policy,Testing,Test Score Decline,Test Length,Supervision

Some schools use results from the MAP® Growth™ interim assessments from Northwest Evaluation Association® (NWEA®) in a number of high-stakes ways. These include as a component of their teacher evaluation systems, to determine whether a student advances to the next grade, or as an indicator for student readiness for certain programs or interventions (such as special education or gifted and talented programs). Therefore, guidance is needed about how to protect the integrity of the testing process and the test results. NWEA offers these guidelines based on their current research and experience with school districts using NWEA's tests for high-stakes purposes. These recommendations provide school leaders and test administrators with guidance about key issues that should be considered when using MAP Growth test results from NWEA as a factor in high-stakes decisions about schools, educators, or students. These recommendations should also be viewed as important testing practices even if test results are not used for high-stakes purposes. These recommendations will help to improve the overall reliability and validity of student test scores. NWEA recommends that schools or districts should strongly consider implementing three broad policies: (1) Schools or districts should develop a written policy at the start of the year that clearly outlines expectations for teachers and students throughout the testing process; (2) These policies should be understood by all teachers prior to the first test administration, allowing teachers the opportunity to seek clarifications about the testing policies, which may be different than when the NWEA assessments were used in a low-stakes capacity; and (3) Consistency is the key. These policies should be enforced at all test administration periods and should be the same for all teachers in the school.
Writing Enjoyment, Behaviours and Attitudes in 8 to 11-Year-Olds in 2017/18: Findings from Our Annual Literacy Survey. National Literacy Trust Research Report
Author: Clark, Christina
Date: 2018-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Writing Attitudes,Learner Engagement,Writing (Composition),Writing Skills,Recreational Activities,Youth Programs,Incidence,Barriers

This report explores the writing enjoyment, behaviours and attitudes of 8 to 11-year-olds in the UK in the 2017/18 academic year. It supports the launch of author and National Literacy Trust ambassador Cressida Cowell's Free Writing Friday initiative; a new campaign designed to encourage primary school children to write for pleasure. In this report we look at how many pupils enjoy writing, how often they write in their free time and whether they face any barriers to writing, using data from 9,170 pupils aged 8 to 11 who answered writing questions as part of our Annual Literacy Survey that we conducted between November 2017 and January 2018.
Readathon: How Children and Young People Are Engaged and the Benefits to Reading--Findings from Our Annual Literacy Survey. National Literacy Trust Research Report
Author: Clark, Christina
Date: 2018-05-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Literacy,Reading,Reading Programs,Children,Adolescents,Age Groups,Reading Attitudes,Literature Appreciation,Reading Materials,Reading Ability,Reading Improvement,Comparative Analysis,Gender Differences

Read for Good's sponsored Readathon gives children in schools a purpose to read, combined with freedom to choose what they read, on their own terms, free from assessment or evaluation. The sponsorship money helps to provide a regular supply of new books and storyteller visits to the UK's major children's hospitals and supports school libraries. This report shows that compared with pupils who had not taken part in Readathon (80.6%, N = 26,020), either in this year or previous school years, pupils who have participated in Readathon (19.4%, N = 6,267): (1) enjoy reading more; (2) are more likely to read something in their free time daily; (3) have on average higher perceptions of their reading ability; (4) read a wider variety of materials, such as poems, non-fiction, fiction, lyrics, text messages and websites, in their free time at least once a month; (5) have more positive attitudes towards reading, for example they are more likely to agree that; reading is cool; more likely to agree that they carry on reading even when they find it difficult; and more likely to agree that there are lots of things they want to read; (6) are more likely to use the school library; and (7) report higher life satisfaction.
Developing Shanghai&apos;s Teachers. Teacher Quality Systems in Top Performing Countries
Author: Zhang, Minxuan
Date: 2016-01-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Quality,Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Competencies,Faculty Development,Success,Performance Based Assessment,Teacher Evaluation,Career Development,Incentives,Beginning Teacher Induction,Teacher Promotion,Principals,Inservice Teacher Education,Teaching Skills,Teacher Salaries

This report offers an insider's perspective into the world-leading Shanghai education system. After more than 40 years of reconstruction and reform, education in Shanghai has achieved remarkable results. In the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) 2009 and 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), 15-year-old students in Shanghai topped every league table by a clear margin. This report details Shanghai's transformation from a province that closed all of its schools in the 1970s to one with near-universal participation in primary and secondary schools and secondary student performance that tops the world. Central to this transformation has been the creation of a high-quality teacher workforce. The teacher development system that was built over this period reflects not only years of careful and incremental reform, but also the design of a self-reinforcing system that continually improves. This report first briefly reviews the history of teacher development in Shanghai since the end of the Cultural Revolution before turning to how the current system operates. The report envisions teacher development in Shanghai as a triangle, with the teacher career ladder, in-service training and development, and performance appraisal as the three sides. The three components combine to incentivize, motivate, and reward teachers throughout their careers. The system's carefully structured incentives also allowed Shanghai's government to use relatively limited public financing to build and sustain a very high quality teaching force in a relatively short period of time. This report is one of a series of reports on teacher quality systems in top performing countries commissioned by the Center on International Education Benchmarking® of the National Center on Education and the Economy®.
Understanding State Loan Forgiveness and Conditional Grant Programs. MHEC Policy Brief
Author: Wiederspan, Mark
Date: 2018-02-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: State Aid,Student Financial Aid,Student Loan Programs,Loan Repayment,Debt (Financial),Grants,Paying for College,Incidence,Occupations,Program Costs,Program Effectiveness

This brief examines two types of state service-contingent aid programs: conditional grants/loans and loan forgiveness. Conditional grant or loan programs provide a financial award to currently enrolled students and, in exchange for receipt of the award, students must fulfill certain service or work requirements after graduating from college. Loan forgiveness programs also have service or work requirements but provide forgiveness for student loans that were initially awarded without service-related conditions. A list of these types of programs in the Midwest is included.
College Completion through a Latino Lens
Author: Santiago, Deborah, Comp.
Date: 2018-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Hispanic American Students,College Students,Racial Differences,Ethnicity,Institutional Characteristics,Enrollment,Academic Persistence,Graduation,College Graduates,Time to Degree,Student Needs,Summer Programs,Family Involvement,Student Personnel Services,Access to Education

A recent report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) tracks college students over six years and examines their outcomes by race/ethnicity, institutional type, and enrollment intensity. Distinct trends in college enrollment, persistence, and completion emerge among Latino college students, including: (1) Most Latinos persist through college with a mix of full-time and part-time enrollment status; (2) Almost half of Latinos complete a degree in six years; and (3) Latinos are more likely than their peers to still be enrolled beyond six years on their path to a degree. The purpose of this brief is to further analyze persistence and completion among Latino students. It also identifies evidence-based practices that will help institutions and policymakers increase college completion.
The Use of Achievement Indices in State Accountability Systems as Part of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
Author: Marion, Scott
Date: 2017-12-26
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Educational Indicators,Accountability,State Regulation,State Standards,High Achievement,Low Achievement,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Educational Improvement,Elementary Secondary Education

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) provided feedback to several states recently regarding the states' ESSA plan. Among other issues, ED raised questions regarding the use of indices for the achievement indicator. ED expressed concerns that some of the states' index systems allowed the performance of high achieving students to &quot;mask&quot; the performance of lower achieving students. There is no question that ESSA allows for index systems where additional points can be awarded to schools for students that score above the proficient level. Given this allowance, the author argues that index systems offer a powerful way to incentivize continued improvement for students and schools without disenfranchising lower performance individuals. This does not negate the ESSA requirement to report the percentage of students scoring at the proficient level and above for all students and by student group.