ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard? Advance Brief for State Policymakers
Author: ACT, Inc.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: School Readiness,College Preparation,International Education,Comparative Education,Comparative Testing,Competition,Academic Standards,Educational Objectives,Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators,Definitions,Academic Achievement,Educational Policy,Educational Attitudes

According to MetLife's March 2011 Survey of the American Teacher: Preparing Students for College and Careers, approximately 93% of secondary school parents, 85% of secondary teachers, and 80% of business executives believe college and career readiness should be a priority in the nation's classrooms. This college and career readiness priority is shared by many of the nation's governors and chief state school officers. Forty-four states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have adopted the Common Core State Standards, a state-led initiative that identifies what knowledge and skills in English language arts and mathematics students need to be successful in life after high school. ACT helped write those standards, and its definition of college and career readiness is the one on which the Common Core State Standards are based. But do individuals know if ACT's--and thus every state that has adopted Common Core State Standards--definition of college and career readiness is not only the right goal, but also internationally competitive? The newest policy research report, Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard?, attempts to answer this question. This paper presents key takeaways from the report. (Contains 2 figures.) [For the full report, &quot;Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard?,&quot; see ED520009. For the executive summary, &quot;Affirming the Goal: Is College and Career Readiness an Internationally Competitive Standard? Executive Summary,&quot; see ED520012.]
Taking the Next Step: The Promise of Intermediate Measures for Meeting Postsecondary Completion Goals
Author: Offenstein, Jeremy
Date: 2010-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Credits,Accountability,Higher Education,Educational Objectives,Academic Achievement,Outcomes of Education,Credentials,Educational Attainment,Basic Skills,Data,Educational Assessment,Educational Improvement,Educational Policy,Educational Change,Educational Finance,Financial Support,Graduation Rate

As educators, government officials, and foundations leaders have embraced the agenda of dramatically increasing college success and credential completion, they have come to understand the need for better data on student outcomes to guide the improvement efforts of institutions, systems, and states. The data on degree completion and other final outcomes are too little, too late if the ultimate goal is improving rather than just reporting outcomes. What is needed are good comparative data on intermediate steps along the way to completion that are associated with earning degrees. Such measures are likely to include basic skills acquisition and the completion of a specific number of credits or particular gateway courses. In this paper, the authors assess the state of the emerging field of defining, measuring, reporting, and rewarding student progress in achieving &quot;intermediate measures of success.&quot; This paper distinguishes between milestones that must be attained in order to get to completion and success indicators that increase a student's chances of completion. The authors review 11 cases of the use of intermediate measures by multistate, single-state or single-system, and multi-institution initiatives, noting differences in approaches, definitions, and uses of &quot;milestones&quot; data. This paper concludes with clear advice for the &quot;next generation&quot; of efforts to collect and report data on intermediate measures. The goal is to encourage common practices and definitions, as well as more thoughtful and effective uses of these data for institutional improvement, policy reform, performance funding, and accountability purposes. Appended are: (1) Summary of Milestones and Success Indicators; and (2) Detailed Descriptions of Milestones and Indicators. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures and 7 endnotes.)
College Success for All: How the Hidalgo Independent School District Is Adopting Early College as a District-Wide Strategy
Author: Nodine, Thad
Date: 2010-10-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: High Schools,Economically Disadvantaged,College Credits,School Districts,Rural Areas,Limited English Speaking,Higher Education,Acceleration (Education),Dual Enrollment,College Preparation,Hispanic American Students,Partnerships in Education,Difficulty Level,Career Education,Academic Achievement

The Hidalgo Independent School District (ISD) in Texas has raised the bar on what it means for a school system to focus on college readiness. This paper tells the story of how Hidalgo ISD, located in one of the most economically depressed metropolitan areas with one of the lowest number of college-educated adults, is preparing all of its students to earn college credits while in high school. Hidalgo ISD serves a student body that is 99.5 percent Hispanic, 90 percent economically disadvantaged, and 53 percent limited English proficient. Preliminary data shows enviable results: This past June, more than 95 percent of the Class of 2010 graduated with college credits. Two-thirds of the graduating seniors had earned at least a full semester of credit for a college degree. This paper describes how Hidalgo ISD took the early college concept and adopted it as a district-wide strategy: By embedding a college and career culture and focus in everyday activities, from elementary school through middle school and into high school, the school system now motivates and prepares all of its students for success in higher education. This strategy, combined with the establishment of strong postsecondary partnerships with South Texas College, Texas State Technical College, and University of Texas-Pan American, more rigorous course sequencing, and high-quality career pathways has been a recipe for success. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)
ICCS 2009 Latin American Report: Civic Knowledge and Attitudes among Lower-Secondary Students in Six Latin American Countries
Author: Schulz, Wolfram
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Foreign Students,Citizenship,Citizenship Education,Student Surveys,Measures (Individuals),Program Effectiveness,Foreign Countries,Latin Americans,Citizenship Responsibility,Questionnaires,Guidelines,Competency Based Education,Tables (Data),Statistical Data

The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) focused on the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens. Preparing students for citizenship involves developing relevant knowledge and understanding as well as encouraging the formation of positive attitudes toward being a citizen. Descriptions of the conceptual background for and the design of ICCS appear in the publication detailing the ICCS assessment framework. Regional contexts are important for civic and citizenship education because they shape how people undertake their roles as citizens. ICCS included, in addition to the core international survey, regional modules in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. This report from ICCS focuses on the six countries that participated in the study's Latin American regional module. It is based on a regional student survey and an assessment of knowledge specific to the region as well as on data from the international student and school instruments. The results reported in this publication are based on data gathered from random samples of almost 30,000 students in their eighth year of schooling in more than 1,000 schools from the six ICCS Latin American countries. The regional module for Latin America was connected to a broader initiative known as the Regional System for the Development and Evaluation of Citizenship Competencies (SREDECC), the aim of which is to establish a common regional framework for citizenship competencies, basic criteria for effective citizenship education, and a system for evaluating the outcomes of this area of education. Each chapter contains footnotes. Appended are: (1) Instrument design, samples, and participation rates; (2) Percentiles and standard deviations for civic knowledge; (3) The scaling of questionnaire items; (4) Item-by-score maps for questionnaire scale; and (5) Organizations and individuals involved in ICCS. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 44 tables and 10 figures.) [Funding for the Latin American module of ICCS was assured by the Inter-American Development Bank through SREDECC and by the ministries of education of the participating countries.]
ICCS 2009 European Report: Civic Knowledge, Attitudes, and Engagement among Lower-Secondary Students in 24 European Countries
Author: Kerr, David
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Foreign Students,Citizenship,Citizenship Education,Measures (Individuals),Foreign Countries,Principals,Secondary School Students,Learner Engagement,Student Attitudes,Knowledge Level,Guidelines,Civics,Geographic Regions,Cross Cultural Studies,Surveys,Questionnaires

The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) studied the ways in which countries prepare their young people to undertake their roles as citizens. ICCS was based on the premise that preparing students for citizenship involves helping them develop relevant knowledge and understanding and form positive attitudes toward being a citizen and participating in activities related to civics and citizenship. These notions were elaborated in the ICCS assessment framework. Regional contexts are important aspects of civic and citizenship education because they help everyone understand how people are differentially influenced to undertake their roles as citizens. Along with its regional module for Europe, ICCS included regional instruments for Asia and Latin America to supplement the data obtained from the international survey. This report from ICCS focuses on the 24 countries that participated in the study's European regional module. It is based on the European ICCS student instrument that investigated specific European issues related to civic and citizenship education. The report also includes relevant data from the international student instruments that pertained to those countries. Readers should view this European report in the context of the international reports on the findings from ICCS. The findings reported in this publication are based on data gathered from random samples of more than 75,000 students in their eighth year of schooling in more than 3,000 schools from 24 European countries. These student data were augmented, where relevant, by data from over 35,000 teachers in those schools and by further contextual data collected from school principals and the study's national research centers. Appended are: (1) Instrument design, samples, and participation rates; (2) Percentiles and standard deviations for civic knowledge; (3) The scaling of questionnaire items; (4) Item-by-score maps for questionnaire scale; and (5) Organizations and individuals involved in ICCS. Each chapter contains footnotes. (Contains 62 tables and 21 figures.) [Funding for the European module of ICCS was assured by the European  Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture in the form of a grant to the  European countries participating in the project.]
ICCS 2009 International Report: Civic Knowledge, Attitudes, and Engagement among Lower-Secondary School Students in 38 Countries
Author: Schulz, Wolfram
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Citizenship,Citizenship Education,Secondary School Students,Student Attitudes,Student Characteristics,Principals,Learner Engagement,Foreign Countries,Citizen Participation,Grade 8,Guidelines,Educational Environment,Teaching Methods,Teacher Education,Curriculum

The International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) studied the ways in which countries prepare their young people to undertake their roles as citizens. ICCS was based on the premise that preparing students for citizenship roles involves helping them develop relevant knowledge and understanding and form positive attitudes toward being a citizen and participating in activities related to civic and citizenship education. These notions were elaborated in the ICCS framework, which was the first publication to emerge from ICCS (Schulz, Fraillon, Ainley, Losito, & Kerr, 2008). This report of results from ICCS documents differences among countries in relation to a wide range of different civic-related learning outcomes, actions, and dispositions. It also documents differences in the relationship between those outcomes and characteristics of countries, and in the relationship of these outcomes with student characteristics and school contexts. ICCS considered six research questions concerned with the following: (1) Variations in civic knowledge; (2) Changes in content knowledge since 1999; (3) Students' interest in engaging in public and political life and their disposition to do so; (4) Perceptions of threats to civil society; (5) Features of education systems, schools, and classrooms related to civic and citizenship education; and (6) Aspects of students' backgrounds related to the outcomes of civic and citizenship education. ICCS gathered data from more than 140,000 Grade 8 (or equivalent) students in more than 5,300 schools from 38 countries. These student data were augmented by data from more than 62,000 teachers in those schools and by contextual data collected from school principals and the study's national research centers. Each chapter contains footnotes. (Contains 103 tables and 24 figures.) [Funding for ICCS was provided by the European Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture, in the form of a grant to the European countries participating in the project, and the Inter-American Development Bank through SREDECC (Regional System for the Evaluation and Development of Citizenship Competencies).]
Supporting Preservice Teachers' Reform-Based Practices: The Importance of Intellectual and Emotional Support in a Community
Author: Richards, Jennifer
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Preservice Teacher Education,Preservice Teachers,Science Teachers,Community Support,Teaching Methods,Teacher Attitudes,Intellectual Development,Emotional Development,Educational Practices,Teaching Experience,Interviews,Phenomenology,Teaching Skills,Educational Change

Background: Research has demonstrated that teacher candidates enact reform-based teaching practices more consistently while they are in their teacher education programs than they do after they graduate. Purpose: To understand why science teacher candidates' practices of attending to the substance of students' thinking diminish after they leave their one-year masters certification program. Research Design: Qualitative. Findings: While candidates were in the program, they were involved in a constant interplay between attending to the substance of students' thinking in their internship placements--enacting the central reform-based practice--and discussing their experiences in their science pedagogy courses. This interplay stabilized a framing of teaching as being primarily about student thinking and provided candidates with community support in making sense of students' ideas and reasoning. Moreover, in addition to intellectual support, the community also provided candidates with emotional support. Without community support, candidates became less stable in their practices of attending to the substance of students' thinking. Conclusion: This study draws attention to the importance of community support in promoting the enactment of reform-based teaching practices. (Contains 3 footnotes.)
Teacher Responses to Pay-for-Performance Policies: Survey Results from Four High-Poverty,  Urban School Districts
Author: Wells, John
Date: 2011-04-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Urban Schools,Quasiexperimental Design,Academic Achievement,Teacher Surveys,Program Effectiveness,Disadvantaged Schools,Teacher Attitudes,Merit Pay,Compensation (Remuneration),Teaching Conditions,Teacher Collaboration,Teacher Characteristics,Job Satisfaction,Educational Policy,Comparative Education,Teacher Evaluation,Evaluation Criteria

Policymakers are increasingly adopting &quot;pay-for-performance&quot; policies in which teachers are  compensated based on their performance as measured by classroom evaluations and/or student achievement test results. Prior research has produced largely inconclusive findings concerning support among teachers for these policies and their effects on teachers. This paper analyzes teacher survey data drawn from a larger study of four high-poverty, urban school districts as they implemented a pay-for-performance initiative. The paper reports on attitudes about compensation reform in general, support for and perceived benefits and drawbacks of the policy in question, as well as on perceived effects the policy on teachers' working conditions, specifically in the areas of collaboration. Findings indicate high levels of support for pay-for-performance in general but somewhat less support for specific components of the program, such as using student performance to determine teacher pay. Responses were largely mixed regarding the effects of the policy on working conditions such as collaboration. A quasi-experimental design was used to allow for the comparison of responses on a select set of survey items, and teachers' participation in the program  generally had no effect on their attitudes about compensation when compared to teachers in similar schools who had not participated in the program. Differences in survey responses based on teacher-level characteristics are also addressed, but these did not explain variations in teachers' responses. Despite teachers' generally favorable perceptions of the pay-for-performance program, their knowledge of the program's details was limited throughout the period of implementation, thus raising serious questions about the program's ability to achieve its goal of bringing about change in teacher behavior. An appendix provides additional information about the procedures used to conduct the factor analysis. (Contains 7 tables and 9 footnotes.)
Frontier Schools in Montana: Challenges and Sustainability Practices. A Research Report
Author: Harmon, Hobart L.
Date: 2010-06-03
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Rural Schools,Focus Groups,School Districts,Educational Practices,Research Reports,Sustainability,Barriers,Performance Factors,Administrator Attitudes,Community Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Enrollment Trends,Financial Support,Financial Problems,Educational Finance,Expectation,Federal Regulation,Learner Engagement,Mixed Age Grouping,Administrator Characteristics,Individual Characteristics,Institutional Characteristics,Student Characteristics,School Demography,Educational Research

This study reveals the challenges confronting small, rural &quot;frontier&quot; schools in Montana and the practices that contribute to their sustainability.  A Montana frontier school is defined as a school district with 200 or fewer students and its attendant community in a county with five or fewer people per square mile. The researcher surveyed teachers, administrators, school board chairs and held six focus groups of community members to identify challenges and sustainability practices.  The top five &quot;most important&quot; challenges noted by school district personnel were low student enrollment, inadequate financial resources, unrealistic federal expectations, unmotivated students academically, and mixed grade levels of students in the classroom.  Frontier school districts operate mixed age or multi-grade classrooms and use school facilities to serve critical community functions as key general practices that contribute to school sustainability.  Lay citizens, compared to persons employed by the school district, are more likely to see the school as a vital necessity for maintaining a way of life associated with agriculture and related enterprises. (Contains 20 tables and 22 figures.) [This publication was produced by the Montana Small Schools Alliance and was funded by the Oro y Plata Foundation.]
The View from the Principal's Office: Results from the IERC Principals Survey. Policy Research: IERC 2011-2
Author: White, Bradford R.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Public Schools,Teacher Evaluation,Job Satisfaction,Principals,Surveys,Public Officials,Administrator Role,Educational Improvement,Administrator Attitudes,Teacher Selection,Human Resources,Personnel Management

This report, the third in an IERC series on public school principals in Illinois, summarizes the results of a survey of 877 Illinois public school principals conducted by the IERC in November 2010. The purpose of the survey, and of this report, is to provide policymakers and the public with a better understanding of the important role principals play in leading teaching and learning and to identify strategies to support their continuous improvement. The report begins with a description of the survey methodology. Next, we present our findings regarding job satisfaction and work preferences, followed by an analysis of principals' priorities and their professional practices, with an emphasis on strategies for hiring and evaluating teachers. The report concludes with a summary of findings and a discussion of implications. Comparison of Respondents with Most Recent Population Data for Illinois Principals is appended. (Contains 25 figures, 2 tables and 8 footnotes.)
School District Consolidation, Size and Spending: &quot;An Evaluation&quot;. A Mackinac Center Report
Author: Coulson, Andrew J.
Date: 2007-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Expenditure per Student,Public Schools,Educational Finance,School Districts,Costs,Cost Effectiveness,Multiple Regression Analysis,Correlation,Free Enterprise System,Economics,Consolidated Schools,School District Reorganization,School District Size,Educational Policy,Policy Analysis,Program Evaluation,Educational History,Federal Aid,Data Analysis

This study empirically tests the notion that consolidating smaller public school districts will save taxpayers money. Multiple regression analyses are employed to analyze the relationship between district size and per-pupil expenditures in the state of Michigan, focusing on the five most recent school years for which data are available. The study's results suggest that costs will continue to rise over time unless market incentives are introduced into the system. Arguably the study's most significant finding is that public school officials appear to maximize school operating spending regardless of the public demand for educational services. The introduction of market incentives could counteract this tendency by providing inducements for policymakers and school officials to reduce operating costs while maintaining or improving quality. Appendices include: (1) Detailed Regression Results; (2) Postestimation Diagnostics; and (3) Michigan School District Head Counts. (Contains 18 footnotes.)