ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning. Annual Report, 2009-2010
Author: Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Child Development and Early Learning
Date: 2010-10-28
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: State Government,Public Agencies,Annual Reports,Child Development,Preschool Children,Child Care,Preschool Education,Human Capital,Learning Readiness

This paper presents the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning's annual report for 2009-2010. Providing quality early learning opportunities in the first five years shapes a child's learning and success for life. The window to make a difference in a child's future is small, but outcomes show that the agency is having an impact. 2009-2010 child outcomes for preschoolers in Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts, Keystone STARS 3 and 4 programs, and Head Start Supplemental Assistance Program, for example, show children are progressing throughout the program year and are coming to school ready to learn, with nearly every child ending the program year with age-appropriate or emerging age-appropriate language, numeracy and social skills. In 2009-2010, Pennsylvania served about one-third of young children in state of federally-funded quality early education programs. (Contains 50 endnotes.) [The printing of this report was made possible through private funds from the Pennsylvania Build Initiative.]
A Family's Introduction to Early Intervention in Pennsylvania
Author: Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Child Development and Early Learning
Date: 2010-04-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Child Development,Developmental Delays,Disabilities,Early Intervention,Parent Child Relationship

When you think of your child and how he or she is growing, you notice things like how soon he or she smiles, sits up, rolls over, or how well he or she walks, talks, holds a spoon, and feeds himself or herself. Children learn naturally during this time: by watching you and/or other children, and by being taught how to do different things. Because you know your child so well, you might notice that he or she is growing or developing differently than a cousin, brother or sister at that age. What you are noticing are changes in development. While all children grow and change at their own rate, some children can experience delays in their development. Sometimes this can be cause for concern. This paper provides a family's guide to Early Intervention in Pennsylvania. Early Intervention in Pennsylvania consists of services and supports designed to help families with children who have developmental delays. Early Intervention builds upon the natural learning occurring in those first few years. It is a process that promotes collaboration among parents, service providers, and others significantly involved with children. A list of rights and privileges under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) is appended. A glossary is included.
Complete to Compete: Improving Postsecondary Attainment among Adults
Author: Hoffman, Linda
Date: 2011-02-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Credentials,Postsecondary Education,Educational Needs,Educational Attainment,Labor Market,Adult Students,Adult Education,Competition,Labor Force Development,Barriers,State Action,Academic Support Services,Student Personnel Services,Finance Reform,Funding Formulas,Achievement Rating,Change Strategies,Best Practices,Student Financial Aid,Educational Improvement,Improvement Programs

The U.S. labor market is increasingly demanding a more educated workforce. Of the 48 million job openings projected for the next eight years, 63 percent will require some postsecondary education. For many of these job openings, workers will need at least a high school diploma but not necessarily a four-year degree. To successfully increase the proportion of postsecondary degree or certificate holders in the United States, the focus must be on &quot;adult&quot; learners. Meeting the education and training needs of the future via investments in adult learners is not a simple task. Numerous challenges exist for adults wanting to increase their education and skills. Approximately 88 million adults in the United States have at least one major barrier to success in the labor market, such as failure to attain a high school diploma, no postsecondary degree or training, or inability to speak, read, and write English well. Despite these challenges, states can implement policy and program changes that result in a more skilled workforce with a higher proportion of adults with postsecondary education and training. To improve postsecondary credential attainment rates for adults, state institutions will need to: (1) Provide flexible and integrated learning environments; (2) Offer comprehensive support services; (3) Use cross-institutional data to track performance; and (4) Create financing structures to incentivize improved performance. As used in this guide, the term &quot;postsecondary credential&quot; includes traditional degrees, such as an associate or a bachelor's degree as well as occupational certificates that are industry-validated. This guide also focuses on credentials that are recognized as valuable by employers and hold financial reward in the labor market for workers. (Contains 2 figures and 47 endnotes.)
Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards for Pre-Kindergarten
Author: Pennsylvania Department of Education
Date: 2005-08-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,Young Children,Kindergarten,Learning,Preschool Children,Preschool Education,Academic Standards

Over 30 years of research confirms the foundational importance of early education and care for children's school and life success. As Pennsylvania seeks to emphasize its early learning programs, a standards-based approach to pre-kindergarten programs is vital. Children are born with an incredible capacity and desire to learn. It is critical that their first steps are in the right direction. Research-based standards are essential to building the foundation for a strong start--one that effectively provides children with skills and gives them the confidence to stay the course, graduate from high school or college, and contribute productively to communities and workplaces. This document presents the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standards for Pre-Kindergarten. The Early Learning Standards were developed as a joint project of the Departments of Education and Public Welfare as part of Governor Rendell's commitment to early childhood education and care. The Early Learning Standards are meant to guide the development of pre-kindergarten programs, and were developed by a Task Force consisting of early childhood practitioners and administrators, policy analysts and researchers, and university faculty. The Task Force membership is listed in Appendix A. Support for the development of the standards was provided through the national Build Initiative, which is a multi-state partnership that helps states construct a coordinated system of programs and policies that responds to the needs of young children.
The Employment Retention and Advancement Project: Paths to Advancement for Single Parents. Executive Summary
Author: Miller, Cynthia
Date: 2010-11-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Models,Welfare Recipients,One Parent Family,Tenure,Employment Practices,Labor Turnover,Promotion (Occupational),Career Development,Phenomenology,Individual Differences,Salary Wage Differentials,Vocational Rehabilitation,Performance Factors,Barriers

Between 2000 and 2003, the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project identified and implemented a diverse set of innovative models designed to promote employment stability and wage or earnings progression among low-income individuals, mostly current or former welfare recipients. The project's goal was to determine which strategies could help low-wage workers stay employed and advance over time--and which strategies seem not to work. Over a dozen different ERA program models have now been evaluated using experimental, random assignment research designs, and three of the programs increased single parents' employment and earnings. This report augments the ERA project's experimental findings by examining the work, education, and training experiences of single parents targeted by the studied programs. Although the analysis is descriptive only and cannot be used to identify the exact causes of advancement, examining the characteristics of single parents who advance and the pathways by which they do so can inform the design of the next generation of retention and advancement programs. Key findings include: (1) Few parents advanced over time, and most of the remaining parents either spent long periods out of work or lost ground; (2) Parents who advanced worked more stably over the period than other parents; (3) Parents who did not work during Year 3 had very high rates of employment instability; (4) In terms of demographic characteristics and experiences, parents who worked but had not advanced were between these two extremes (that is, between parents who advanced and those who did not work in Year 3); and (5) Job changing is an important route to advancement. (Contains 1 footnote.)
Report of the Build Subsidized Child Care Rate Policy Task Force: Recommendations for Action
Author: Stoney, Louise
Date: 2004-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Child Care,Child Welfare,Grants,Early Childhood Education,Discussion Groups,Public Agencies,Fees,Administrative Organization,Educational Finance

In the Fall of 2003, the Pennsylvania Build Initiative convened a Rate Policy Task Force to broadly examine the issue of child care rates and make recommendations for action. The Task Force goal was two-fold: (1) to suggest ways that the rate and payment process currently used by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (DPW) can better support the children and families who receive subsidized child care; and (2) to begin thinking about how DPW rates can be aligned with the early care and education finance approaches used by other public agencies and private funders. While Task Force members represented many of the Commonwealth's early childhood programs and fund administrators, the group decided early on that it was essential to gather information from a much broader group of providers, consumers and administrators. To this end, Task Force members suggested that a series of forums--discussion groups guided by facilitators and a common set of questions--be convened across the state. The Pennsylvania Child Care Association (PACCA) agreed to coordinate this effort. In February and March of 2004, forums were held in the following eight regions: Lehigh, Norristown, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Scranton, Monroeville, Franklin and State College. Lessons learned from the forum, coupled with ideas and research gleaned from Task Force members, form the basis of this report. Section I summarizes key issues raised at the forums, and includes concerns and suggestions made by forum participants. Section II summarizes Task Force deliberations, research and ideas from other states. Section III offers recommendations from the Task Force. Early Learning Team Rate Policy Task Force Provider Forum Discussion Guide is appended. (Contains 16 footnotes.)
School Outreach and Museum-Architect Partnerships: An Initiative at the Canadian Centre for Architecture
Author: Chalas, Agnieszka
Date: 2006-11-00
Type: Dissertations/Theses - Masters Theses
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Architecture,Partnerships in Education,Teacher Surveys,Museums,Outreach Programs,Interviews,Observation,Guidelines,Program Effectiveness,Program Descriptions,Facilitators (Individuals),Elementary School Teachers,Urban Environment

This thesis focuses on an educational partnership between the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Architects in Action, which explores the potential of utilizing professional arts practitioners in an outreach capacity to extend museum programming. It seeks to answer the following questions: How did the architects' experiences compare to their expectations, and what are the benefits and challenges to using architects as facilitators of post-visit museum activities within the classroom setting? A series of architect interviews, teacher surveys, and classroom observations were conducted and analyzed in order to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the educational partnership and to ascertain how such partnerships can be improved. The findings generated by this study were used as a basis for the development of a series of recommendations intended to contribute to the improvement of practice within similar educational projects.
Rhizomatics: Following the Roots in Writing and Research Heuristics
Author: Webb, Adam
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Constructivism (Learning),Heuristics,Writing Instruction,Teaching Methods,Internet,Educational Technology,Handheld Devices,Computer Uses in Education,Research Tools,Workshops,Discussion,Writing Strategies,Student Research,College Instruction,Educational Theories,Writing (Composition)

Mobile Internet-based technologies have created the opportunity for many students to view writing and research as an everyday activity. While many students use these kinds of technologies on a daily basis in and outside of the classroom, not many writing pedagogies reflect this shift or capitalize on how beginner writers use them to effectively write and research within the academic institution. In this paper, I will use Dave Cormier's (2008) concept of a rhizomatic model of education to provide beginner writers with a sequence of heuristics for researching and writing using various mobile technologies. I propose teaching beginner writers in workshop-discussion settings, using their own mobile technologies in learning how to research and write. To support this approach, I will develop a sequence of heuristics based on Cormier's description of a rhizomatic approach to education, where &quot;knowledge can only be negotiated, and the contextual, collaborative learning experience shared by constructivist and connectivist pedagogies is a social as well as a personal knowledge-creation process with mutable goals and constantly negotiated premises&quot; (Cormier, p. 1). In order to explain a rhizomatic method to teaching research and writing to beginner writers, I will use the setting of the composition classroom. Rhizomatic heuristics will involve an initial sequence of heuristics that beginner writers can use to start their research, as well as provide a second more complex sequence of heuristics for them to use as they research and write.
Can Low-Income Single Parents Move up in the Labor Market? Findings from the Employment Retention and Advancement Project. Practitioner Brief
Author: Miller, Cynthia
Date: 2011-01-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Low Income Groups,Labor Market,One Parent Family,Program Effectiveness,Wages,Promotion (Occupational),Job Skills,Income,Employment Level,Individual Characteristics,Unions,Fringe Benefits

The Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project evaluated strategies to promote employment stability among low-income workers. This practitioner brief examines the work, education, and training patterns of single parents in the ERA project. Three years after entering the study, only one in four single parents had advanced. Most of the remaining parents either spent long periods out of work or they lost ground. Single parents who advanced worked more consistently over the study period than other parents and, if they were unemployed, they returned to work more quickly. They experienced faster earnings growth while working than other parents, especially when they changed jobs. At the end of the study period, they worked in better jobs, such as those with higher pay and more benefits, than parents who had not advanced. These findings support other research in underscoring the importance of changing jobs and of access to "good" jobs as strategies to help low-wage workers advance. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table, 2 boxes, and 10 notes.)
The Employment Retention and Advancement Project: Paths to Advancement for Single Parents
Author: Miller, Cynthia
Date: 2010-11-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Wages,Employment,Models,Welfare Recipients,One Parent Family,Persistence,Low Income Groups,Employed Parents,Promotion (Occupational),Individual Characteristics,Job Skills,Employment Patterns,Work Environment,On the Job Training,Employment Level,Participation

Between 2000 and 2003, the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project identified and implemented a diverse set of innovative models designed to promote employment stability and wage or earnings progression among low-income individuals, mostly current or former welfare recipients. The project's goal was to determine which strategies could help low-wage workers stay employed and advance over time--and which strategies seem not to work. Over a dozen different ERA program models have now been evaluated using experimental, random assignment research designs, and three of the programs increased single parents' employment and earnings. This report augments the ERA project's experimental findings by examining the work, education, and training experiences of single parents targeted by the studied programs. Although the analysis is descriptive only and cannot be used to identify the exact causes of advancement, examining the characteristics of single parents who advance and the pathways by which they do so can inform the design of the next generation of retention and advancement programs. Key findings include: (1) Few parents advanced over time, and most of the remaining parents either spent long periods out of work or lost ground; (2) Parents who advanced worked more stably over the period than other parents; (3) Parents who did not work during Year 3 had very high rates of employment instability; (4) In terms of demographic characteristics and experiences, parents who worked but had not advanced were between these two extremes (that is, between parents who advanced and those who did not work in Year 3); and (5) Job changing is an important route to advancement. Supplementary Tables are appended. (Contains 24 tables, 5 figures and 45 footnotes.) [For "The Employment Retention and Advancement Project: Paths to Advancement for Single Parents. Executive Summary," see ED517020.]
Ways to Improve Lesson Planning: A Student Teacher Perspective
Author: Gafoor, K. Abdul
Date: 2010-11-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Preservice Teacher Education,National Curriculum,Constructivism (Learning),Student Teachers,Textbooks,Observation,Educational Objectives,Teaching Methods,Lesson Plans,Student Teacher Attitudes,Problems,Questionnaires

Learning to teach from practice lessons is at the core of student teacher preparation programs. But, there is no consensus regarding how to conduct this important aspect of pre-service teacher preparation. In view of the National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education 2010 (India), observation that existing teacher education take the school curriculum and textbooks as &quot;given&quot; and train teachers to adjust to the needs of the existing school system through fastidious planning of lessons in standardized formats and hence operates with rigid lesson plan formats, this study examines what student teachers feel as difficulty in connection to the lesson planning in B.Ed course in Kerala, India. Seventy four student teachers who have finished their pre-service preparation were asked one structured and one open ended question each to appraise the lesson planning practices and to identify the difficulties faced by them. Student teachers perceive difficulty in choosing learning experiences appropriate to the learners, deciding and allotting the time suitably for every lesson, in identifying and developing proper learning aids, in executing the planned lesson in classroom, in psychological sequencing of the lessons, in bringing about necessary adaptations to the lessons according to the requirements of individual classrooms, and in specifying the educational objectives. There are minor variations in the difficulties reported based on the subject of specialization at B.Ed. level. In tune with the constructivist paradigm, student teachers themselves recommended improvement in knowledge of school situation, students' standards, content, modern methods and approaches to teaching. The study suggests that the process of development of this knowledge and the lesson plan must be through a reflective and dialogic process, including among others observation, seminars, discussion and reading. Teacher education system needs to be more flexible--allowing more time for practice and permitting variable formats and objectives according to the demands of student teachers, schools, subject, and the topic. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)
Towards Inclusive Schooling
Author: Gafoor, K. Abdul
Date: 2010-12-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Social Class,Inclusion,Mainstreaming,Regular and Special Education Relationship,Social Justice,Access to Education,Special Needs Students,Disabilities,Gender Issues,Social Isolation,Equal Education,Barriers,Academic Aspiration,Parent Participation,Expectation,Teacher Role,Role Models,Educational Technology,Educational Environment,Curriculum,Family Influence

Social inclusion is the process that will enable every person in society to participate in normal activities of societies they live in, including education, employment, public services and social recreational activities. For the development of an inclusive society, preparation of younger generation also needs to be inclusive. Our schools must become breeding grounds of members of such a prospective society. Younger generation will form the inclusive only in an environment that includes them all. Such an environment will be available in only those schools which provide opportunity for full participation for every student. Opportunity for full participation means opportunity to take part and to get developed through all the resources at the disposal of the school-personnel, academic, and socio-cultural. These include teachers, assigned works, information sources, and physical infrastructure, academic and social and cultural gatherings arranged by the school. All these need to be provided to all, irrespective of ability, gender, locality, home background and income, and social class. Such a school, which ensures development of all children, regardless of ability, gender, locality, home background and income, and social class by planning and providing equitable opportunity for teacher support, assigned works, social life of school, information access, and the innumerous programmes conducted by the school can only be called an inclusive school. This paper raises reservation on whether our schools are moving in this direction. It makes some specific suggestions of how to make all resources in school available to every student. (Contains 2 figures.)