ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Digital Learning Compass: Distance Education State Almanac 2017. Alabama
Author: Seaman, Julia E.
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Distance Education,Enrollment,Undergraduate Students,Graduate Students,Public Colleges,Private Colleges,Proprietary Schools,Two Year Colleges,School Size,On Campus Students,Enrollment Trends,Institutional Characteristics,Geographic Location,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education

This brief report uses data collected under the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Fall Enrollment survey to highlight distance education data in the state of Alabama. The sample for this analysis is comprised of all active, degree-granting institutions of higher education that are open to the public. The focus is on the distance education data that has been collected by IPEDS for the fall 2012, fall 2013, fall 2014, and fall 2015 terms. This report provides data in the following categories: (1) Overall and Distance Enrollment - 2015; (2) Distribution of State Institutions; (3) Distribution of Total Student Enrollment; (4) On-Campus Students; (5) Distribution of Distance Student Enrollment; (6) Enrollment Trends; (7) Exclusively Distance Student Locations; (8) Overall Enrollment in Alabama; and (9) Distance Enrollment in Alabama. [The Digital Learning Compass organization, which conducted this report, is made up of three partners: e-Literate, WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies), and the Babson Survey Research Group. For a related report, &quot;Digital Learning Compass: Distance Education State Almanac 2017,&quot; see ED580356.]
Playbook on Best Practices: Gender Equity in Tech
Author: Buse, Kathleen
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Best Practices,Sex Fairness,Disproportionate Representation,Technology,STEM Education,Educational Strategies,Engineering,Computer Science,Technical Occupations,Career Development,Recruitment,Barriers,Inclusion,Work Environment,Education Work Relationship,School Business Relationship,Gender Bias,Human Resources,Talent Development,Labor Turnover,Professional Development,Social Support Groups

While girls are studying and excelling in science and math more than ever before, this achievement has not been matched with a similar rise in the representation of women in these careers. Today, women make up just 12 percent of the engineering workforce and 26 percent of the computing workforce. Employers play a critical role in improving the representation of women in engineering and computing professions. This report is a set of specific strategies and actions that have been shown to measurably increase the representation of women in these professions. Validated by research and successfully used in practice, these strategies and actions outlined here can be strategically deployed by an organization. It is divided into three sections: (1) Support an Inclusive Talent Pipeline; (2) Build Equity into Your Recruiting DNA; and (3) Create and Sustain a Winning Culture for All. The sections break down and tackle some of the barriers facing girls and women in technology. Strategies are detailed providing organizations with actions to recruit, retain, and advance women in technology.
The Effects of Class Size in Online College Courses: Experimental Evidence. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-14
Author: Bettinger, Eric
Date: 2015-05-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Class Size,College Students,Small Classes,Online Courses,Effect Size,Academic Persistence,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Statistical Analysis,Comparative Analysis,Student Records,Enrollment

Class size is a first-order consideration in the study of education production and education costs. How larger or smaller classes affect student outcomes is especially relevant to the growth and design of online classes. We study a field experiment in which college students were quasi-randomly assigned to either a large or a small class. All classes were conducted online. Large classes had, on average, ten percent more students than small classes (mean increase 10.2 percent, standard deviation 4.0 percent). The experiment was conducted at DeVry University, one of the nation's largest for-profit post-secondary institutions, and included over 100,000 student course enrollments in nearly 4,000 classes across 111 different undergraduate and graduate courses. We examine class-size effects on student success in the course and on student persistence in college. We find little evidence of effects on average or for a range of specific course types. Given the large sample, our estimates are quite precise, eliminating the likelihood of any meaningful effect of class size changes of the magnitude in question.
Strategic Staffing? How Performance Pressures Affect the Distribution of Teachers within Schools and Resulting Student Achievement. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-15
Author: Grissom, Jason
Date: 2015-11-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Longitudinal Studies,Academic Achievement,Achievement Gains,Teacher Surveys,School Statistics,Teacher Placement,Teacher Effectiveness,School Effectiveness,Strategic Planning,Staff Utilization,Value Added Models,Accountability,Institutional Characteristics,Elementary Secondary Education,Statistical Analysis

School performance pressures apply disproportionately to tested grades and subjects. Using longitudinal administrative data and teacher survey data from a large urban school district, we examine schools' responses to those pressures in assigning teachers to high-stakes and low-stakes classrooms. We find that teachers who produce greater student achievement gains in math and reading are more likely to be placed in a tested grade-subject combination in the following year and that the relationship between prior performance and assignment is stronger in schools where principals have more influence over assignments. This strategic response has the consequence of disadvantaging achievement in early grades, however, concentrating less effective teachers in K-2 classrooms, which in turn produces lower achievement for those students, as measured by low-stakes assessments, that may persist into tested grades as well.
Equal Access to Content Instruction for English Learners: An Example from Science
Author: Brown, Zoe Ann
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Equal Education,Access to Education,English Language Learners,Achievement Gap,Relevance (Education),Content Area Reading,Content Area Writing,Science Achievement,Science Education,College Entrance Examinations,High School Students

Equal access to content instruction is the foundation of educational equity--it reduces opportunity gaps that lead to achievement gaps. Achievement gaps lead to gaps in college and career access, which lead to income gaps. Income gaps lead to language gaps, thus perpetuating one of the most critical gaps we face in education. This paper is about the importance of equal meaningful access to content instruction for English learners and how academic-language instruction through content improves both content and English achievement. This paper uses quality science education as an example of providing meaningful access to content instruction through hands-on, inquiry-based lessons to apply higher-order thinking skills that promote the development of academic language. The authors conclude by advocating that this type of science education should be available to all students and suggest policies and practices to increase the likelihood of this taking place. Contains a bibliography.
Teacher Workforce Developments: Recent Changes in Academic Competiveness and Job Satisfaction of New Teachers. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-16
Author: Loeb, Susanna
Date: 2015-11-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Job Satisfaction,Teacher Recruitment,Minority Group Teachers,Teacher Selection,Public School Teachers,Educational Policy,Labor Market,Educational History,Longitudinal Studies,College Graduates,Urban Schools,School Districts,Teacher Qualifications,Teacher Attitudes,Diversity (Faculty),Teacher Persistence,College Entrance Examinations,Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Characteristics,Academic Ability,Academic Achievement,Multivariate Analysis,Rural Schools,Educational Trends,Trend Analysis,Bachelors Degrees

The capacity of the nation's public schools to recruit and retain highly skilled teachers is a perennial concern of policy makers and school leaders. Over the past two decades, major policy strategies including the federal No Child Left Behind Act and alternative pathways to teaching, as well as changes in the broader labor market, have altered the context in which academically skilled college graduates choose whether to enter teaching, and, if so, where to teach. Using data from 1993 to 2008, we find that schools nationwide are recruiting a greater share of highly skilled college graduates into teaching, and that increases in teachers' academic skills are especially large in urban school districts that serve predominantly non-white students. On the other hand, the increase in the share of academically skilled teachers coincides with the lower likelihood of non-white teachers being hired. Once hired, non-white teachers report substantially lower job satisfaction than other teachers. The issue of how to recruit and support highly skilled and diverse teacher workforce remains pressing.
Building Teacher Teams: Evidence of Positive Spillovers from More Effective Colleagues. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-20
Author: Sun, Min
Date: 2015-11-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Placement,Teacher Collaboration,Peer Influence,Teacher Effectiveness,School Statistics,School Effectiveness,Teamwork,Evidence,Elementary School Teachers,Middle School Teachers,Value Added Models,Robustness (Statistics),Academic Achievement,Predictor Variables,Statistical Analysis

Student peer effects are well documented. We know far less, however, about peer effects among teachers. We hypothesize that a relatively effective teacher may positively affect the performance of their peers, while a relatively ineffective teacher may negatively impact the performance of other teachers with whom they work closely. Utilizing a decade of data on teacher transfers between schools that result in changes of peers when transfer teachers enter grade-level team in the new school, we find evidence of strong positive spillover effects associated with the introduction of peers who are more effective than the incumbent teacher himself or herself. Interestingly, the incumbent teacher's students are not meaningfully disadvantaged by the entry of relatively ineffective peers. This finding implies that mixing teachers with diverse performance levels can be a strategy for increasing student achievement in the aggregate. These results are robust to several student sorting and teacher selection issues.
The Racial School-Climate Gap
Author: Voight, Adam
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Environment,Organizational Climate,Race,Achievement Gap,Racial Differences,Racial Factors,Institutional Characteristics,Student Characteristics,Performance Factors,Academic Achievement,Elementary Secondary Education

Education inequity is a persistent reality of American culture. As early as kindergarten, there are marked differences in academic performance between racial minority students and their peers. These differences are sustained as students progress through school. One aspect of students' social experience that may help to explain the gap is school climate. A positive school climate has been associated with higher levels of school achievement. Thus, differences in how students of different races experience various aspects of school climate may help explain group differences in achievement. This document summarizes several recent research studies conducted by WestEd's Health and Human Development Program staff that examined connections between student race, achievement, and school climate. The collective findings of these studies support the notion that, just as there is a racial achievement gap, there is a racial school-climate gap in California schools. Contains endnotes.
High-Quality Science Instruction: Building Conceptual Understanding and Language Skills for English Learners
Author: DiRanna, Kathy
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Science Instruction,Educational Quality,Language Skills,English Language Learners,Common Core State Standards,Scientific Concepts,Lesson Plans,Educational Innovation,Elementary Secondary Education,STEM Education

The confluence of &quot;Common Core State Standards&quot; (&quot;CCSS&quot;), &quot;Next Generation Science Standards&quot; (&quot;NGSS&quot;), and 21st century skills provides an unparalleled opportunity to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for all students, particularly English learners. &quot;CCSS,&quot; &quot;NGSS,&quot; and 21st century skills point to a significant shift in education toward a deeper approach to learning--an approach that focuses on building both conceptual understanding and the language skills necessary to convey that understanding. This paper supports the idea that high-quality science instruction serves as an effective method to achieve these goals, particularly for English learners. To provide a broad context on the current state of STEM education, the paper begins with an overview of 21st century skills, &quot;CCSS,&quot; and &quot;NGSS&quot;--and what these mean for student learning, particularly related to language development. The authors discuss how high-quality science lessons can effectively support language development, especially for English learners. The paper also describes a professional learning project that enabled teachers in Montebello Unified School District to develop lesson plans for teaching science concepts and correlating language skills. This paper serves as the second part of an earlier Equity Assistance Center paper, &quot;Equal Access to Content Instruction for English Learners: An Example from Science&quot; (ED580362). Contains a bibliography.
Unnecessary Disruptions? Implications of the Volatility of Within-School Reassignments on Student Achievement. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-13
Author: Atteberry, Allison
Date: 2015-08-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Faculty Mobility,Barriers,Beginning Teachers,Longitudinal Studies,Teacher Placement,Correlation,Teacher Transfer,Instructional Program Divisions,Statistical Analysis,Educational Policy,Teacher Effectiveness,Student Adjustment,Achievement Tests,State Standards,Records (Forms),Elementary Secondary Education

Educators raise concerns about what happens to students when they are exposed to new teachers or teachers who are new to a school. These teachers face the challenge of preparing a year's worth of new material, perhaps in an unfamiliar work environment. However, even when teachers remain in the same school they can switch jobs--teaching either a different grade or a different subject than they have taught before. There is an extensive literature that explores the various aspects of the challenges confronting new teachers (see, for example, Feiman-Nemser, 2003; Johnson, 2007). While there exists some quasi-experimental literature on the effects for student achievement of being new to the profession (e.g., Rockoff, 2004) or to a school (Hanushek &amp; Rivkin, 2010), to date there is little evidence about how much within-school churn typically happens and how it affects students. In this paper, we use longitudinal panel data from New York City from 1974 to 2010 to document the phenomenon, and we tie assignment-switching behaviors to student achievement in the period since 1999, when student-level data is available. We find that students are far more likely to have a teacher who has undergone a within-school switch than one who is new to the school or new to teaching. We therefore use a variety of fixed effects approaches to estimate the link between student achievement and these three forms of being to new one's job assignment--new to teaching, new to school, or new to position within the same school--with a particular focus on the latter given that so many teachers experience within-school reassignments and we know so little about how students are affected by it.
Changing Distributions: How Online College Classes Alter Student and Professor Performance. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-10
Author: Bettinger, Eric
Date: 2015-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Online Courses,Conventional Instruction,Delivery Systems,Intermode Differences,Academic Persistence,Academic Achievement,Outcomes of Education,Teacher Effectiveness,Undergraduate Students,Student Records,Grades (Scholastic),Statistical Analysis

Online college courses are a rapidly expanding feature of higher education, yet little research identifies their effects. Using an instrumental variables approach and data from DeVry University, this study finds that, on average, online course-taking reduces student learning by one-third to one-quarter of a standard deviation compared to conventional in-person classes. Taking a course online also reduces student learning in future courses and persistence in college. Additionally, we find that student performance is more variable online than in traditional classrooms but that individual professors explain less of the variation in student performance in online settings than in traditional classrooms.
Persistence Patterns in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). CEPA Working Paper No. 15-09
Author: Evans, Brent J.
Date: 2015-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Large Group Instruction,Online Courses,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Enrollment,Learner Engagement,Academic Persistence,Graduation,Higher Education,College Students,Student Characteristics,Student Records,Regression (Statistics),Student Behavior,Statistical Analysis

Using a unique dataset of 44 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), this paper examines critical patterns of enrollment, engagement, persistence, and completion among students in online higher education. By leveraging fixed-effects specifications based on over 2.1 million student observations across more than 2,900 lectures, we analyze engagement, persistence, and completion rates at the student, lecture, and course levels. We find compelling and consistent temporal patterns: across all courses, participation declines rapidly in the first week but subsequently flattens out in later weeks of the course. However, this decay is not entirely uniform. We also find that several student and lecture-specific traits are associated with student persistence and engagement. For example, the sequencing of a lecture within a batch of released videos as well as its title wording are related to student watching. We also see consistent patterns in how student characteristics are associated with persistence and completion. Students are more likely to complete the course if they complete a pre-course survey or follow a quantitative track (as opposed to qualitative or auditing track) when available. These findings suggest potential course design changes that are likely to increase engagement, persistence, and completion in this important, new educational setting.
The Promise of Bilingual and Dual Immersion Education. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-11
Author: Umansky, Ilana M.
Date: 2015-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Bilingual Education,Immersion Programs,Bilingual Students,English Language Learners,Language Proficiency,Language Fluency,Language Skills,Skill Development,Educational Needs,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Urban Schools,Instructional Effectiveness,Teaching Methods,Comparative Analysis,Language Acquisition,Classification,Transitional Programs,Academic Achievement,Educational Benefits,Elementary Secondary Education

One in five school-age children in the U.S. speaks a language other than English at home (Zeigler &amp; Camarota, 2014). Roughly half of these emerging bilingual students (Garcia, 2009) are classified as English learners (ELs) when they enter school, meaning they do not meet state or district criteria for English proficiency (NCES, 2015). As the fastest growing official subgroup of students, ELs are transforming schools across the country, in cities as well as suburban and rural communities; in traditional immigrant-receiving areas as well as in new immigrant destinations. Emerging bilingual students, and the subset of them that are classified as ELs, bring with them important linguistic, social, cultural, and intellectual assets that can enrich and strengthen education for all students (González, Moll &amp; Amanti, 2013). But questions persist around how best to ensure that students who are not yet proficient in English can thrive in school, academically, linguistically, and socially. Should ELs be taught in bilingual classrooms that promote fluency in their home language while ensuring access to core academic content and developing English language skills? Or should they be taught in English immersion classrooms in order to maximize exposure to English? How do we ensure that emerging bilingual students develop both English proficiency and strong academic skills, while maintaining and developing literacy in their home language? How can schools best build on ELs' linguistic assets and support their educational needs?
School Segregation and Racial Academic Achievement Gaps. CEPA Working Paper No. 15-12
Author: Reardon, Sean F.
Date: 2015-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: School Segregation,Racial Segregation,Racial Differences,Achievement Gap,Poverty,Correlation,Disadvantaged Schools,Multivariate Analysis,School Effectiveness,Desegregation Litigation,School Desegregation,Court Litigation

Although it is clear that racial segregation is linked to academic achievement gaps, the mechanisms underlying this link have been debated since Coleman published his eponymous 1966 report. In this paper, I examine 16 distinct measures of segregation to determine which is most strongly associated with academic achievement gaps. I find very clear evidence that one aspect of segregation in particular--the disparity in average school poverty rates between white and black students' schools--is consistently the single most powerful correlate of achievement gaps, a pattern that holds in both bivariate and multivariate analyses. This implies that high-poverty schools are, on average, much less effective than lower-poverty schools, and suggests that strategies that reduce the differential exposure of black, Hispanic, and white students to poor classmates may lead to meaningful reductions in academic achievement gaps.