ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
What Will They Learn? A Survey of Core Requirements at Our Nation's Colleges and Universities. 2011-12
Author: Kempson, Lauri
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Core Curriculum,College Curriculum,Undergraduate Study,Required Courses,General Education,Writing (Composition),Literature,Second Languages,United States Government (Course),United States History,Economics,Mathematics,Natural Sciences,Physical Sciences,Tuition,Reputation,Graduation Rate,School Catalogs,Course Descriptions,Trustees,Educational Quality

What does it mean to be a college graduate? One knows about the time and ever-increasing amount of money that a diploma demands. But when it comes down to what matters--the skills and knowledge acquired--what does a college degree mean? That is the question the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) answers in this book. Inside one will find over 1,000 colleges and universities judged and graded on the basis of the single most important issue facing students: what will they learn? The lawns and shrubbery, the football team, the design of the recreation center, the size of the endowment, the storied past--none of this compares in importance to each student's academic growth. In this report, ACTA examines what tuition dollars and public money are supporting. Will students find a coherent core curriculum that guides them through the fundamentals that every person needs for success in career and community? Can an employer be confident that a newly hired college graduate brings high-level skills to the workplace? These questions matter to the public: in a recent Roper survey, 70% responded that colleges and universities should require all students to take basic classes in core subjects, and a startling 57% said that, on average, American colleges and universities were doing only a fair or poor job in preparing their graduates for their future careers. Not surprisingly, over 200,000 people visited  ACTA website in the past year to learn more about what students will--or won't--learn at college. ACTA has sounded a wake-up call for students, parents, trustees, and policymakers. In this time of economic uncertainty and rapid changes in employment opportunities, a college education without a solid core curriculum puts the students and the nation at risk. (Contains 10 notes.)
Show Me: A Report Card on Public Higher Education in Missouri
Author: Czelusniak, Sandra
Date: 2008-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Public Education,Higher Education,State Universities,General Education,Core Curriculum,College Curriculum,College Environment,Intellectual Freedom,College Students,Student Attitudes,Governance,Governing Boards,Administrative Organization,Tuition,Expenditures,Student Costs,School Effectiveness,Graduation Rate,School Holding Power,Student Surveys

Missouri is the &quot;Show Me&quot; State. And with this goal in mind, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) offers this report card to examine the state of higher education in Missouri. If the nation is to ensure its continued preeminence in higher education, policymakers, trustees, alumni, and taxpayers must know what is going on in higher education. This report card aims to do just that, and it follows similar ACTA report cards on higher education in the states of North Carolina and Georgia. The U.S. Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education underscored the challenges in its 2006 report, &quot;A Test of Leadership.&quot; It said that the higher education sector's &quot;past attainments have led our nation to unwarranted complacency about its future.&quot; Universities have &quot;remained so far ahead of our competitors for so long,&quot; the Commission wrote, that &quot;we began to take our postsecondary superiority for granted.&quot; Meanwhile, other nations are &quot;educating more of their citizens to more advanced levels than we are.&quot; Against this backdrop of concern--from the highest levels of the federal government to parents and taxpayers across the country--this study takes a close look at institutions which represent a majority of Missouri's four-year university enrollment and a range of institutional types. The report focuses on four key areas of the public's interest: what students are learning (the curriculum), whether the marketplace of ideas is vibrant (intellectual diversity), how universities are run (governance), and what a college education costs (affordability). Applying a common benchmark used in higher education, where appropriate, to determine whether students pass or fail--64 percent--this report card offers a Passing or Failing grade on each point. The first section focuses on general education--those courses completed usually within the first two years of a bachelor's degree program. In the second section, the author focus on intellectual diversity, a value that lies at the very heart of the educational enterprise. The third section turns to governance and actions by the University of Missouri Board of Curators and the Missouri State University Board of Governors. Lastly, the authors take a look at the University of Missouri System and Missouri State University in terms of cost and effectiveness. Appended are: (1) Selection Criteria for Core Courses; (2) Student Survey Data; and (3) Student Survey Methodology. (Contains 31 footnotes.)
The Hollow Core: Failure of the General Education Curriculum. A Fifty College Study
Author: Latzer, Barry
Date: 2004-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Core Curriculum,College Curriculum,Undergraduate Study,Required Courses,General Education,Writing (Composition),Literature,Second Languages,United States Government (Course),United States History,Economics,Mathematics,Natural Sciences,Physical Sciences,Public Colleges,State Universities,Private Colleges,Single Sex Colleges,Educational Quality

This report provides empirical proof of a disturbing trend in higher education. Over the last several decades colleges and universities have substituted so-called "distribution requirements" for a solid core curriculum. Distribution requirements enable students freely to choose their general education courses, the courses outside their specialization. A core curriculum, by contrast, limits the general education options to a small number of select offerings designed to provide a broad foundation in the arts and sciences--the mark of an educated person. "The Hollow Core," based on a 50-college study by ACTA senior consultant Barry Latzer, proves that even the most prestigious higher education institutions--the Ivy League, the Seven Sisters, and some of the leading state universities--are no longer requiring those subjects that every educated man and woman ought to be studying: composition, U.S. government or American history, economics, foreign language, literature, mathematics and natural or physical science. The assigned "grades" for each college--based on the number of core subjects required--provide a handy way of comparing general education programs. The overall results of this investigation are alarming, and will, the author hopes, trigger a long-overdue reexamination of general education in the United States. Nearly half of the surveyed institutions require two or fewer core subjects out of the seven. Indeed, 24 percent of the colleges received an F for requiring only one course or none at all. These include such well-known schools as Colgate, Cornell, Penn State, Vassar and the University of Wisconsin. Appended are: (1) Identifying Core Courses; (2) The Big Ten; (3) The Big Eight; (4) The Ivy League; (5) The Seven Sisters; and (6) Additional Colleges and Universities. (Contains 7 tables.) [Funding for this paper was provided by the William and Karen Tell Foundation.]
Aligning Community Colleges to Their Local Labor Markets: The Emerging Role of Online Job Ads for Providing Real-Time Intelligence about Occupations and Skills in Demand
Author: Altstadt, David
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Community Colleges,Labor Market,Occupational Information,Demand Occupations,Emerging Occupations,Job Skills,Employment Qualifications,Employment Opportunities,Education Work Relationship,Artificial Intelligence

The U.S. economy will emerge from the Great Recession radically transformed from what it was a generation ago. Changes are afoot affecting which occupations and industry sectors will produce employment growth, as well as what education credentials, competencies, and skills will be required to do those jobs. Community colleges already take steps to address the workforce needs of local employers, but their efforts often are hampered by a lack of detailed, up-to-date information about occupations and skills in demand. A promising, yet still-evolving solution to that problem can be found within the large pool of job openings posted on the Internet. This paper discusses new sophisticated &quot;spidering&quot; and artificial intelligence technologies that can aggregate and analyze these online job ads and provide a more comprehensive, &quot;real-time&quot; source of information about the hiring and skill needs of local employers. If proven accurate and reliable, analyses of online job ads could complement traditional ways that community colleges determine labor market demand for program and course offerings. (Contains 1 table, 10 figures and 26 endnotes.)
Innovations in Labor Market Information and Their Application: Applications for Workforce Programs. A Greenways Action Brief
Author: Milfort, Myriam
Date: 2012-08-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Credentials,Job Training,Labor Force Development,Labor,Labor Market,Innovation,Alignment (Education),Colleges,Job Skills,Employment Qualifications,Environmental Education,Employment Opportunities,Employers,Labor Supply,Labor Needs,Transfer of Training

With funding from the Joyce and Lumina foundations, Jobs for the Future (JFF) launched Credentials that Work to help postsecondary institutions, regions, and states align their occupational training programs to changing market demands. This initiative incorporates innovations in real-time labor market information in guiding institutions to better align education and training investments with the needs of regional economies. Real-time data draw on current information and signals from the labor market to help improve the understanding of hiring trends and employer demand, including certifications and skill requirements. Through Credentials that Work, JFF and participating community colleges seek to advance the use of a combination of traditional and real-time LMI in institutional decision making. This action brief draws on "Innovations in Labor Market Information and Their Application," a workshop presented at the GreenWays to Good Jobs Peer Learning Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, February 29, 2012. It provides an overview of Credentials that Work and demonstrates the application of real-time LMI by workforce partnerships supported by GreenWays. Reflecting the green jobs backdrop of the conference, examples and suggestions indicate how job developers can use LMI resources to acquire a more robust understanding of their local green economies. (Contains 1 table, 3 figures and 3 footnotes.)
The Training Requirements of Foreign-Born Workers in Different Countries
Author: Ryan, Chris
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Adult Literacy,Migrant Workers,Foreign Countries,Employment Patterns,Immigration,Labor Market,Numeracy,Skilled Workers,Vocational Education,Job Skills,Comparative Analysis,Comparative Education,Occupational Surveys,Daily Living Skills,Educational Attainment,Measures (Individuals),Immigrants,Predictor Variables,Native Language,English (Second Language)

The training requirements of foreign-born workers may be different from those of native-born workers in similar jobs. Over recent decades Australian immigration policy has focused predominantly on accepting high-skilled migrants. Although this focus has resulted in the successful integration of foreign-born workers into the Australian labour market (Chiswick &amp; Miller 2011), high-skilled migrant workers may require further training to upgrade their skills for high-skilled employment. Against this backdrop, this study examines the relationship between training requirements and the migration background of workers in four (mainly) English-speaking countries (Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada). The authors are particularly interested in the extent to which the training requirements of foreign-born workers differ from those of native-born workers, and the extent to which these requirements are met in each of these countries. They pay particular attention to the differences between native English-speaking and non-native English-speaking workers within migrant populations because it seems likely that these groups have very different training requirements. They analyse the relationship between adult literacy skills and a skill use measure that reflects the frequency with which workers undertake certain tasks in their jobs. Analysing this relationship allows them to draw inferences about the need for further training among certain groups of native- and foreign-born workers in each country. The results obtained from this analysis are then compared with an analysis of the determinants of the actual training participation of native- and foreign-born workers. Their empirical findings reveal that foreign-born workers in Australia usually seem to receive the training they need, indicating that the integration of foreign-born workers into the Australian education and training system has been successful. While training requirements are being met in a similar way in the US and Canada, the authors observe that foreign-born workers in New Zealand are significantly more likely to require further training, but do not receive significantly more training than comparable native-born workers. Appended are: (1) Description of variables; (2) Descriptive statistics, sample of workers, 1994-96; and (3) Descriptive statistics, sample of workers, 2003-06. (Contains 18 tables, 4 figures and 7 footnotes.)
Success for All. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report
Author: What Works Clearinghouse (ED)
Date: 2012-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: English Language Learners,Elementary School Students,Educational Improvement,Academic Achievement,Evidence,Intervention,Second Language Learning,Language Acquisition,Educational Change,Oral Language,Comparative Analysis

&quot;Success for All&quot;[R] is a program for students in pre-K through eighth grade that focuses on reading, writing, and oral language development. Using a whole-school improvement approach, the goal of &quot;Success for All&quot;[R] is for all students (including English language learners) to read at grade level by the end of the third grade. The program consists of 90 minutes of daily instruction, during which time students are grouped by their instructional level rather than their current grade level. Students are moved to new reading groups every quarter based on their progress in pursuit of the program's goal. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) identified 30 studies of the impact of &quot;Success for All&quot;[R] on English language learners that were published or released between 1983 and 2012. Eight studies are within the scope of the English Language Learners review protocol but do not meet WWC evidence standards. Four studies did not establish that the comparison group was comparable to the intervention group prior to the start of the intervention. Three studies had only one unit assigned to one or both conditions, which makes it impossible to attribute the observed effect solely to the &quot;Success for All&quot;[R] intervention. One study had a separate technology intervention used in addition to &quot;Success for All&quot;[R] in some intervention schools and no comparison schools, which makes it impossible to attribute the observed effect solely to the &quot;Success for All&quot;[R] intervention. Fourteen studies are out of the scope of the English Language Learners review protocol because they have an ineligible study design. Eight studies are out of the scope of the English Language Learners review protocol for reasons other than study design. A glossary of terms is included. (Contains 2 endnotes and 7 additional resources.)
WWC Review of the Report &quot;Mastery Learning and Student Teams: A Factorial Experiment in Urban General Mathematics Classes&quot;
Author: What Works Clearinghouse (ED)
Date: 2012-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Mathematics Achievement,Mastery Learning,Outcome Measures,Experiments,High School Students,Grade 9,Academic Achievement,Computation,Formative Evaluation,Teamwork,Teaching Methods,Mathematics Curriculum

The study reviewed in this paper examined the effects of &quot;mastery learning&quot; and &quot;student team learning&quot; on the math achievement of high school students. The analysis included 588 ninth-grade students in 16 urban Philadelphia high schools. The study assessed the effectiveness of the different conditions after one year by comparing student performance on a shortened version of the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), Mathematics Computations and Concepts and Applications subscales. The study found, and the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) confirmed, a statistically significant positive effect on math achievement for students in &quot;team learning&quot; (i.e., the combined &quot;Teams and Teams-and-Mastery&quot; groups) compared with those not in &quot;team learning&quot; (i.e., the combined &quot;Focused Instruction&quot; and &quot;Mastery&quot; groups). The study found, and the WWC confirmed, no statistically significant effects on math achievement for students using &quot;mastery learning&quot; (i.e., the combined &quot;Mastery&quot; and &quot;Teams-and-Mastery&quot; groups) compared with those not using &quot;mastery learning&quot; ( i.e., the combined &quot;Focused Instruction&quot; and &quot;Teams&quot; groups). Finally, the study showed no significant differences among any of the individual groups in the study (for example, &quot;Teams&quot; only vs. &quot;Teams-and-Mastery&quot;). The research described in this report meets WWC evidence standards with reservations. Appended are: (1) Study details; (2) Outcome measure for the mathematics achievement domain; (3) Study findings for the mathematics achievement domain; and (4) Supplemental findings for the mathematics achievement domain. A glossary of terms is included. (Contains 2 endnotes.)
WWC Review of the Report &quot;Learning the Control of Variables Strategy in Higher and Lower Achieving Classrooms: Contributions of Explicit Instruction and Experimentation&quot;
Author: What Works Clearinghouse (ED)
Date: 2012-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Science Experiments,Scientific Methodology,Teaching Methods,Science Process Skills,Grade 4,Outcome Measures,Evidence,Science Achievement,Evaluation Methods,Elementary School Science

The study reviewed in this paper examined three separate methods for teaching the &quot;control of variables strategy&quot; (&quot;CVS&quot;), a procedure for conducting a science experiment so that only one variable is tested and all others are held constant, or &quot;controlled.&quot; The study analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial of 848 fourth-grade students in 39 classrooms in 12 schools in Fayette County, Kentucky. Classrooms with similar achievement levels (within schools, when possible) were formed into triplets. Within each triplet, classrooms were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) &quot;Instruct&quot;: Teachers taught &quot;CVS&quot; in an interactive lecture format; (2) &quot;Manipulate&quot;: Teachers taught &quot;CVS&quot; by providing time for students to design and run experiments in groups; or (3) &quot;Both&quot;: Teachers taught &quot;CVS&quot; through both interactive lectures and by providing time for experimentation in groups. The study assessed the impact of each of the three strategies by testing student understanding of the concepts at three points: the day before instruction, the day after instruction, and five months after instruction. The study found, and the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) confirmed, statistically significant differences in student performance on the &quot;CVS comparison assessment&quot; at posttest among the three conditions. Students in the &quot;Both&quot; condition outperformed students in the &quot;Manipulate&quot; condition and the &quot;Instruct&quot; condition, and students in the &quot;Instruct&quot; condition outperformed students in the &quot;Manipulate&quot; condition. In addition, students in the &quot;Both&quot; condition outperformed students in the &quot;Manipulate&quot; condition on the &quot;ramps test.&quot; These findings indicate that using a combination of interactive lectures and manipulative experiments was the most effective method of teaching &quot;CVS.&quot; The research described in this report meets WWC evidence standards without reservations. Appended are: (1) Study details; (2) Outcome measures for each domain; (3) Study findings for science achievement; and (4) Supplemental findings by achievement level. A glossary of terms is included. (Contains 2 endnotes.) [The following study is the focus of this review: &quot;Learning the Control of Variables Strategy in Higher and Lower Achieving Classrooms: Contributions of Explicit Instruction and Experimentation&quot; (EJ876300).]
The Community College Mission: History and Theory, 1930-2000. Working Paper Series. Number 1-09
Author: Meier, Kenneth M.
Date: 2008-00-00
Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Subjects: Community Colleges,Educational History,College Role,Organizational Culture,Social Environment,Interdisciplinary Approach,Institutional Mission,Educational Research

There is a significant omission in the literature concerning the historical origins of the community college and the social and educational forces that have shaped its mission. Rigorous historical studies are relatively rare in higher education. For community colleges, analytical histories are even less common (Ratcliff, 1987; Frye, 1991, 1992). This study is a multidisciplinary historical analysis of the national junior-community college mission debate in the twentieth century. It combines fresh historical research with organization theory and consensus social movement theory to clarify and contextualize the community college mission and organizational behavior. The study explains the mission as an historically contingent social and educational process driven by a complex interaction of environmental pressures, institutional structure, organizational culture, and community and student demands.