ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Addressing Data Gaps during a Pandemic: How Authorizers Can Continue to Hold Charter Schools to High Standards
Author: LiBetti, Ashley
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Quality,Measurement Techniques,Educational Indicators,Data Collection,Accountability,Evaluation Methods,COVID-19,Pandemics,Progress Monitoring,Postsecondary Education,College Readiness,Family Involvement,Student Participation,Well Being,Educational Opportunities,Equal Education,Charter Schools,Academic Achievement

In Spring 2020, National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) convened a working group of authorizers and other stakeholders to learn more about the challenges they faced, given the data gaps caused by COVID-19, and to ask what guidance was needed for the sector to adapt to these unusual circumstances. Based on their feedback and insights, NACSA created this guide to support authorizers as they reflect on these challenges and opportunities. This guide is meant to help authorizers gain context and spur thinking on what it means right now for authorizers to maintain high standards of accountability, regardless of the data gaps. [For the accompanying toolkit, &quot;A Guide for School Districts: Exploring Alternative Measures of Student Learning and Wellness,&quot; see ED610389.]
Navigating the Authorization Process: A Toolkit for Leaders of Nontraditional Charter Schools
Author: Kulesa, Amy Chen
Date: 2020-09-00
Type: Guides - General
Subjects: Charter Schools,Nontraditional Education,Accountability,Models,Inquiry,Immersion Programs,Competency Based Education,Barriers,Educational Quality,Capacity Building,Performance,Measurement,Interpersonal Communication,Information Dissemination,School Effectiveness,Leadership Responsibility

This toolkit informs school leaders about the authorizing challenges they may confront, illustrates opportunities and options for school leaders to navigate the authorizing process, and shares useful frameworks for considering the benefits and trade-offs of these options. The toolkit contains the following sections: (1) Strategies &amp; Considerations for Improving Capacity; (2) Strategies &amp; Considerations for Improving Metrics; and (3) Strategies &amp; Considerations for Improving Communication. This toolkit for authorizers is accompanied by a policy report (ED610381) and a toolkit for authorizers (ED610384).
Authorizing Nontraditional Charter Schools: A Toolkit for Authorizers
Author: Kulesa, Amy Chen
Date: 2020-09-00
Type: Collected Works - General
Subjects: Charter Schools,Nontraditional Education,Accountability,Models,Inquiry,Immersion Programs,Competency Based Education,Barriers,Educational Quality,Capacity Building,Performance,Measurement,Interpersonal Communication,Information Dissemination,School Effectiveness

The goal of this toolkit is to shed light on the importance of authorizing nontraditional charter schools and how the challenges of authorizing nontraditional schools manifest in practice, as well as to provide action steps for authorizers and school leaders who are able and eager to lead the field on these complex issues. The toolkit contains the following sections: (1) Strategies &amp; Considerations for Improving Capacity; (2) Strategies &amp; Considerations for Improving Metrics; and (3) Strategies &amp; Considerations for Improving Communication. This toolkit for authorizers is accompanied by a policy report (ED610381) and a toolkit for school leaders (ED610383).
Authorizing amid Coronavirus: A Toolkit for Authorizers and School Leaders
Author: Squire, Juliet
Date: 2020-09-00
Type: Guides - General
Subjects: Charter Schools,Nontraditional Education,Accountability,Models,Barriers,Educational Quality,Capacity Building,Performance,Measurement,Interpersonal Communication,Information Dissemination,School Effectiveness,COVID-19,Pandemics,Leadership Responsibility,Distance Education,School Closing,Public Health,Expertise

Last fall, researchers at Bellwether Education Partners began research on how standard authorizing practices could discourage or disadvantage charter schools with nontraditional models, such as dual language immersion, Montessori, and competency-based education models. Throughout the course of their research, the authors spoke to dozens of school leaders and authorizers to better understand how they work to ensure quality even when a school model looks substantially different than what is typical. While not the intent of the research, much of what was learned can apply to the charter school sector today. Specifically, authorizers and school leaders can work together to respond effectively to COVID-19--by building their capacity, communicating with stakeholders, codifying their model, and quantifying their impact. This toolkit includes strategies and recommendations for authorizers and school leaders as they navigate the coming months and years. [For the accompanying policy report, see ED610381. For the authorizer toolkit, see ED610384. For the school leader toolkit, see ED610383.]
Good Jobs for All: How Federal Laws Can Create Pathways from Education and Training to Good Jobs
Author: Jimenez, Laura
Date: 2021-01-12
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Laws,Education Work Relationship,Accountability,Government Role,Legislators,Alignment (Education),Educational Quality,Labor Force Development,Job Training

Despite the billions of dollars that the federal government spends each year on education and workforce training, education and labor market outcomes remain inequitable. Research shows that students do not receive sufficient information about what careers are available and which courses best lead to those options, so they waste time in courses that do not lead to good jobs. These poor outcomes in part result from how Congress structures and funds federal K-12 education, higher education, and workforce laws. Federal laws do not hold schools, colleges, and workforce training programs accountable for the quality of jobs students receive as a result of their schooling. Every year, millions of high school students graduate but are unprepared for college or careers. As a result, many students who enter postsecondary training do not earn a degree. Similarly, many workers enrolled in workforce training programs ultimately find employment in low-quality, dead-end jobs. Improving long-term outcomes requires a new approach that links all these systems with a unified vision where school and training systems lead to employment in good jobs. This issue brief recommends that federal laws take a unified approach to build pathways to better jobs. Specifically, Congress should: (1) Align the reauthorization schedule with federal education and workforce development laws without creating legislative gridlock; (2) Create a common set of rules and practices around defining quality; (3) Create parameters for job quality that are included in federal education and workforce development laws; (4) Align key legislative elements of federal education and workforce development laws with good jobs; and (5) Require states to implement federal education and workforce development laws collaboratively across the education and workforce training systems.
Preparing American Students for the Workforce of the Future: Ensuring Every Student&apos;s Readiness for College, Career, and Civic Life
Author: Jimenez, Laura
Date: 2020-09-14
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Labor Force Development,College Readiness,Career Readiness,Citizen Participation,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Policy,Career Development,Holistic Approach,Futures (of Society),Accountability

The United States has failed to prepare all students for college and their careers. That failure has enormous consequences and has led to inequitable educational, economic, and civic opportunities that are disproportionately borne by Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students and workers. These students' and workers' rates of dropout, remediation, under- and unemployment eclipse those of their white counterparts--not to mention the ever-widening wealth gap between whites and communities of color. As the coronavirus pandemic devastates America's health, economy, and workforce, a comprehensive recovery will likely be slower for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students and workers, whose jobs are less likely to offer remote work or employment benefits such as paid family or sick leave. This issue brief lays out a framework for a K-12 education research agenda that will uncover policy solutions for how best to prepare students for college, career, and civic life in a rapidly changing workforce and society. Through a range of research reports, Center for American Progress (CAP) will dig deeper into three systemic gaps in the education and workforce training systems that hinder students' career and civic outcomes. Specifically, this research addresses the lack of: (1) Early exposure to career options, particularly in grades K-8; (2) Holistic preparation for college and careers in the future workforce and civic life across academic and socioemotional factors; and (3) Orientation of school accountability systems around the outcomes of college and career readiness as well as the attainment of good jobs.
A Guide for School Districts: Exploring Alternative Measures of Student Learning and Wellness
Author: LiBetti, Ashley
Date: 2020-09-00
Type: Guides - General
Subjects: School Districts,Educational Quality,Measurement Techniques,Educational Indicators,Data Collection,Accountability,Evaluation Methods,COVID-19,Pandemics,School Closing,Progress Monitoring,Academic Achievement,Standardized Tests,Postsecondary Education,College Readiness,Family Involvement,Student Participation,Well Being,Educational Opportunities,Equal Education

This slide deck is a toolkit to help districts adapt existing school performance frameworks to the current moment or create new ones. These slides identify and walk through the fundamental questions districts need to consider in designing school performance frameworks that acknowledge the challenges that schools and students are facing, as well as a continued need to monitor performance and continuously improve. These questions include: (1) What are the key concepts or indicators that make up the district's current/past approach to assessing school quality? Are there other concepts or indicators related to school performance that become newly or more important for districts to assess in a COVID-19 world? (2) How has the district measured school performance within these indicators? (3) Why does the district focus on these measures? What questions is the district trying to answer? (4) What kinds of decisions does this data inform? What are the stakes of these decisions for students, schools, communities, and districts? (5) What problems or complications may prevent the district from using these measures now? Are there other limitations of those measures of which the district is concerned or aware? (6) What are other ways the district could get at the questions that these measures are intended to help us answer? What information is the district currently collecting from schools? Is there additional information that schools are collecting that might help? Are there other information sources that would be useful that districts and schools do not currently have but potentially could? and (7) What steps must the district take to implement these other ways of assessing quality or use them well? Are there any statutory or regulatory constraints? How will the district engage stakeholders and build buy-in for the changes? [For the accompanying guide, &quot;Addressing Data Gaps during a Pandemic: How Authorizers Can Continue to Hold Charter Schools to High Standards,&quot; see ED610382.]
Gender Gaps in Science Are Not a Given. Evidence on International Trends in Gender Gaps in Science over 20 Years. IEA Compass: Briefs in Education. Number 11
Author: Meinck, Sabine
Date: 2020-11-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Gender Differences,Science Achievement,Educational Policy,Grade 4,Grade 8,Achievement Tests,Elementary Secondary Education,Foreign Countries,International Assessment,Science Tests,Equal Education

This brief examines Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) science achievement of the 20% highest and the 20% lowest performing fourth and eighth graders in 11 countries. To do so, the authors compare achievement distributions across countries, using measures of relative equality within countries. Such an examination provides detailed insights into variation, and has the potential to reveal tailored options for addressing various issues. For example, if gender gaps exist at the lower end of the achievement distribution, policies addressing the specific weaknesses of low achieving students of the disadvantaged gender would be more effective than any generalized measures implemented for all students. Therefore, the authors compare (1) general changes in gender gaps in science achievement at the tails of the achievement distribution over time; and (2) the development of gender gaps between grade four and grade eight within a cohort of students at two different points in time, 16 years apart.
Underserved Community College Students and the Complexity of STEM Transfer. Data Note 1. STEM Series
Author: Meza, Elizabeth Apple
Date: 2019-12-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Two Year College Students,Community Colleges,Majors (Students),Higher Education,College Admission,College Transfer Students,Minority Group Students,Females,First Generation College Students,At Risk Students,Student Needs,Institutional Cooperation

Community college students aspiring to transfer into STEM majors at a four-year institution face a complicated and nuanced admissions process. In some cases, students may be admitted to the four-year transfer institution but face additional requirements to enter a STEM major. This study of community college underserved students of color, women, and first-generation students in a program aimed to help them succeed in STEM finds gaps in knowledge around transfer and STEM specific major requirements. These findings point to the need to build more knowledge about STEM-major transfer requirements and processes among community college students as well as advisors and STEM faculty so they can better inform students of transfer pathways. This research also points to the need to strengthen transfer partnerships between two-year and four-year institutions in support of community college students who aspire to a STEM baccalaureate degree.
The Career Pathways Approach: A Way toward Equity? Policy and Practice Brief
Author: Hester, Candace
Date: 2020-08-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Career Pathways,Equal Education,School Districts,Minority Group Students,Low Income Students,English Language Learners,High School Students,Learner Engagement,21st Century Skills,Social Capital,Program Implementation

In 2019, career pathways were offered in one-third of U.S. school districts, including more than 500 in California. A new brief from the California Collaborative on District Reform, &quot;The Career Pathways Approach: A Way Towards Equity?,&quot; examines the equity promise and challenge of pathways. At a time when traditional school experiences have been upended, students may struggle even more than normal to understand the relevance of their schoolwork and to connect it to opportunities after high school. Pathways can offer opportunities to enhance engagement, develop social capital, and build 21st century skills, especially for the most vulnerable students. To help pathways designers and implements fulfill the potential of the pathways approach, this brief offers conditions for equitable implementation and parallel strategies for success.
Are Texas Teacher Retirement Benefits Adequate?
Author: Aldeman, Chad
Date: 2020-12-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teacher Retirement,Retirement Benefits,Teacher Employment Benefits,Tenure,Teacher Salaries,Educational Finance,Educational Change,Program Evaluation,Investment,Program Costs,Cost Effectiveness

In &quot;Are Texas Teacher Retirement Benefits Adequate?,&quot; authors Chad Aldeman and Anthony Randazzo analyze the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) of Texas and find it is not serving all of its members well. Most members will leave their teaching service in Texas with inadequate retirement benefits, and the unfunded liabilities the system has accrued over time harm today's teachers and retirees. From the benefit side, only about one-quarter of the educators who join TRS will secure an adequate retirement benefit. Long-serving veterans who put in 20 years or more can earn enough retirement income to live off, but TRS leaves all other members with inadequate savings. And even for those who do secure a larger pension, the income is not consistently adjusted for inflation, leaving retirees with a steadily eroding benefit. This situation is a particular concern in Texas, where the state has chosen not to provide most of its educators with Social Security coverage. The lack of Social Security coverage across its school districts makes it even more important for the state to ensure that all of its public-sector employees receive adequate retirement benefits during their service. From a financial perspective, TRS has accumulated an unfunded liability of $50.6 billion, which eats into state and school district budgets, keeps teacher compensation low, and keeps retirees from receiving cost-of-living adjustments on their pensions. With the national economy in the midst of a recession in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, TRS' unfunded liabilities are likely to rise even further in the coming years. The authors recommend that Texas legislators open up a different type of defined benefit retirement plan, called a Guaranteed Return (GR) plan, for teachers and other education employees. Texas county and municipal employees are already covered by GR plans and have been for decades. Adopting a similar model for education employees -- whether on its own or as one of multiple retirement plan options -- would allow Texas to improve the retirement security of educators while also reducing the risk that the state adds to its already large unfunded liabilities. [This report was funded by Equable Institute.]
Foundations for Good Practice: The Student Experience of Online Learning in Australian Higher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Author: Martin, Linley
Date: 2020-11-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,COVID-19,Pandemics,Higher Education,Disease Control,School Closing,Online Courses,Distance Education,Electronic Learning,Access to Education,Barriers,Educational Needs,Change Strategies,Student Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Learner Engagement,Interaction,Teaching Skills,Student Responsibility,Libraries,Access to Information,Research,Student Evaluation,Well Being

In response to the emergence of the COVID-19 virus as a pandemic, and actions taken by the Commonwealth and State Governments to contain its spread through restrictions on international and domestic travel and imposition of social distancing in public places, Australian higher education providers had to rapidly transition their teaching programs to online or remote learning and assessment if their students' participation and progress were not to be disrupted. This report is a high-level thematic analysis of summaries of student experience surveys conducted by 118 Australian higher education providers in the first half of 2020. It outlines positive and negative aspects of the transition identified by students, to support providers in addressing concerns. The study shows that a great deal of effort was put into making the transition to online or remote learning as good as possible and that this was recognised and greatly appreciated by students. While the information forwarded by the providers was overwhelmingly positive, a significant percentage of survey respondents indicated that they did not wish to continue with remote study and wished to return to a face-to-face experience as soon as possible.
A First 100 Days Agenda for K-12 Education
Author: Sargrad, Scott
Date: 2020-10-20
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Kindergarten,Elementary Secondary Education,Presidents,Elections,Equal Education,Pandemics,COVID-19,School Districts,Educational Finance,Decision Making,Educational Policy,Policy Formation,Race,College Preparation,Labor Force Development,Teaching (Occupation),Public Schools,Charter Schools,Educational Quality,Educational Opportunities,Public Agencies,Educational Improvement

In November, amid a global pandemic and economic crisis, voters will choose the next president of the United States. Clearly, there will be no shortage of pressing issues to tackle within the first 100 days of the next administration. Addressing COVID-19 and the economy will certainly be top agenda items, but regardless of this election's outcome, the next administration must also prioritize and take immediate action to dismantle the structural inequity in the K-12 education system and provide schools much-needed relief in the pandemic recovery. While the vast majority of K-12 education funding comes from the state and local levels, and local school districts have control over critical decisions, the problems that schools face today are simply too vast to be solved without federal involvement. As the Center for American Progress outlined in 2019, the next administration's agenda should focus on five core areas: (1) applying an explicit racial equity lens to policy development; (2) preparing all students for college and the future workforce; (3) modernizing and elevating the teaching profession; (4) dramatically increasing investments in public schools and improving the equity of existing investments; and (5) bringing a balanced approach to charter school policy. This issue brief outlines actions in each of these areas for the next administration's first 100 days that will help to provide every child with the opportunity for a quality education--particularly children who have historically been denied that opportunity.
Ensuring Whole-Child Well-Being as a Foundation for Learning: Relationships, Routines, and Resilience in the Time of COVID-19. Policy and Practice Brief
Author: Knudson, Joel
Date: 2020-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,Well Being,Resilience (Psychology),Child Health,Empowerment,Barriers,Interpersonal Relationship,Social Development,Emotional Development,Cognitive Development,Stress Variables,Elementary Secondary Education,Adults,Racial Bias,Violence,Economic Factors,Public Health,Brain,Adjustment (to Environment),Physiology,School Schedules,Interpersonal Communication,Partnerships in Education

A trio of crises--the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting financial instability, and racial injustice--has disrupted learning environments and the relationships, structures, and supports that students depend on to thrive. The consequences are far-reaching, but they have been felt most acutely by our most vulnerable youth. In the face of these challenges, lessons from the science of learning and development illustrate how strategic attention to supporting social, emotional, and cognitive well-being can light a path forward. A new brief from the California Collaborative on District Reform, &quot;Ensuring Whole-Child Well-Being as a Foundation for Learning: Relationships, Routines, and Resilience in the Time of COVID-19,&quot; explores the ways in which the pandemic has introduced and exacerbated threats to whole-child health and well-being, but also draws attention to human resilience and the supports that can empower students and adults to navigate the obstacles in their way. It draws attention to relationships, routines, and resilience--&quot;The New Three Rs&quot;--as vehicles for supporting well-being and learning, and highlights emerging district practices that can foster resilience among all members of our school communities in this moment and beyond. This brief shares insights from the California Collaborative on District Reform's recent meeting on approaches to school re-entry during the COVID-19 pandemic.