ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
The Economics of Guided Pathways: Cost, Funding, and Value. CCRC Working Paper No. 123
Author: Belfield, Clive
Date: 2020-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Community Colleges,Costs,Educational Change,Change Strategies,Financial Support,Two Year College Students,Student Needs,Leadership Responsibility,Academic Advising,Academic Support Services,State Aid,Resource Allocation,Educational Finance,Sustainability,School Holding Power,Academic Persistence,Career Counseling,Goal Orientation,Progress Monitoring,Institutional Characteristics,Student Characteristics,Budgets,Caseworker Approach,Scheduling,Grants,Tuition,Money Management,Program Administration,College Administration,Dual Enrollment

This paper is the first to investigate the costs of institution-wide reforms at community colleges. Drawing on data from 12 community colleges implementing comprehensive guided pathways reforms, I use the ingredients method to analyze the resources required to implement such reforms and examine their feasibility and affordability, as well as their value for students. For a typical college with 4,000 full-time equivalent students (FTEs) that implements guided pathways over four years, the total implementation cost beyond business-as-usual operations is estimated at $450 per student each year, or $7.1 million in total, which amounts to 12% of the college's annual budget, or approximately 3% per year. Around one third of this cost is for enhanced student advisement. Extra investments in information technology are also significant. Ongoing operating costs, primarily for student advisement and student success courses, are around $350 per FTE each year. Cost estimates vary depending on how colleges implement guided pathways, but the results are robust to alternative input prices and college characteristics. There is also some evidence of economies of scale. To finance guided pathways, colleges relied mainly on resource reallocation and efficiency gains, extra public funding, and external grants and funds. Increases in tuition/fees were modest, temporary, or delayed until after implementation; increases of just under 1% per year would suffice to support guided pathways reforms. From the student perspective, guided pathways increases the affordability and value for money of community college. With enhanced advising, students take fewer unnecessary courses. Program mapping leads students to take the right courses both at the community college and at any transfer college. Improved advising help students access grants and in-kind services; they also assist with financial plans to pay for college. Overall, the savings these reforms allow for are likely to exceed the modest increase in tuition/fees from guided pathways. [For the companion paper &quot;Funding Guided Pathways: A Guide for Community College Leaders. Report,&quot; see ED609234.]
Navigating the Uncertainty of Reopening Schools: A Guide for Parents, Families, and the Public
Author: Humphrey, Daniel C.
Date: 2020-08-00
Type: Guides - General
Subjects: School Closing,COVID-19,Pandemics,Guidelines,Public Health,School Safety,Hygiene,Disease Incidence,Distance Education

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of school districts in California will not have in-person teaching in fall 2020. Over the months ahead, parents, educators, and the public will have to navigate uncertainty in weighing the costs and benefits of opening schools versus supporting learning remotely. This brief offers the questions that parents, educators, and the public should ask about the education, health, safety, and social-emotional needs of children and adults when considering plans for reopening during the pandemic. The authors, education and health policy experts, summarize what is known in these areas and provide a set of questions intended to prompt a cooperative effort to encourage safe, effective, and equitable teaching and learning in every phase of pandemic schooling.
Funding Guided Pathways: A Guide for Community College Leaders. Report
Author: Jenkins, Davis
Date: 2020-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Community Colleges,Costs,Educational Change,Change Strategies,Financial Support,Two Year College Students,Student Needs,Leadership Responsibility,Academic Advising,Academic Support Services,COVID-19,Pandemics,State Aid,Resource Allocation,Educational Finance,Sustainability,School Holding Power,Academic Persistence,Career Counseling,Goal Orientation,Progress Monitoring,Active Learning,Experiential Learning,Institutional Characteristics,Student Characteristics,Budgets,Caseworker Approach,Scheduling,Grants,Fund Raising,Tuition,Money Management,Program Administration,Role,Coaching (Performance),Student Recruitment,College Administration,Dual Enrollment

This guide is intended to help community college leaders understand the costs involved in implementing guided pathways reforms and develop plans for funding and sustaining them. It is based on research at six institutions that have implemented large-scale changes based on the guided pathways model, which focuses on supporting students to enter and complete programs of study that lead to good jobs and transfer to four-year college programs. The guide explores the following questions: (1) What are the up-front and recurring costs of guided pathways reforms? (2) How are colleges funding these costs? (3) How are colleges sustaining support for guided pathways practices? and (4) How can college leaders contemplating guided pathways reforms estimate the costs involved and develop a viable plan for funding and sustaining the reforms? All six case study institutions incurred costs above and beyond the status quo, with the largest costs related to hiring, training, and maintaining an adequate number of advisors for case management advising by field. Significant start-up costs also included purchasing or upgrading information systems to support websites with user-friendly program maps, educational planning, case-management advising, and class scheduling. However, college leaders reported that they do not intend to return to old practices--even in response to a crisis of the magnitude of COVID-19--because guided pathways reforms have led to improved outcomes for students and benefited the colleges as businesses. Four colleges reported increased Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) retention and graduation rates and reductions in non-degree-applicable credits. Moreover, leaders at every college indicated that they were better positioned to respond to the COVID-19 crisis because of changes they made as part of their pathways reforms. This guide outlines steps that college leaders can take to estimate the costs involved in implementing guided pathways and develop a plan for funding and sustaining these reforms. A companion technical paper estimates the overall costs of implementing guided pathways for colleges of various sizes. [For the companion paper, &quot;The Economics of Guided Pathways: Cost, Funding, and Value,&quot; see ED609232.]
Reopening Schools after COVID-19 Closures: Considerations for States
Author: Foundation for Excellence in Education
Date: 2020-05-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: School Closing,COVID-19,Pandemics,School Schedules,Disease Control,State Policy,Board of Education Policy,Student Needs,Student Placement,Blended Learning,Online Courses,Distance Education,Electronic Learning,Asynchronous Communication,Synchronous Communication,Looping (Teachers),Grouping (Instructional Purposes),Student Evaluation,State Standards,School Safety,Holistic Approach

With school campuses shuttered due to COVID-19, the rate and level of quality of student instruction varies across the nation, states, regions and even neighborhood to neighborhood. It's now almost certain that the 2019-20 school year -- as it was meant to be executed -- is now over. Given this fact, the questions on many state leaders' minds are these: (1) When and how should schools reopen (once it's safe from a health perspective to do so)?; (2) What could school schedule, student placement and educator staffing options &quot;look like&quot; when we reopen?; and (3) How should we provide supports to students, particularly those who are most in-need, once schools reopen? This report offers a range of options that states might consider -- each of them possessing some advantages and drawbacks. States might consider adopting one or more (in some instances) to help schools best meet the needs of students. As states begin to evaluate which options are most appropriate for their unique context, they should take into account additional issues that would need to be considered, including: (1) Varying direct and indirect costs of implementing different models; (2) Collective bargaining and educator contracts; (3) Professional development to support high-quality implementation; and (4) State-level and district/school-level capacity to implement each identified model.
Unequal Public Schools Makes Affirmative Action Essential for Equal Opportunity: A Policy Brief from the UCLA Civil Rights Project
Author: Orfield, Gary
Date: 2020-10-28
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Public Schools,Equal Education,Affirmative Action,African American Students,Hispanic American Students,School Segregation,American Indian Students,State Universities,Race,Poverty,Elementary Secondary Education,Academic Achievement

The brief first presents new facts on the extraordinary segregation of Black and Latino students in the state's public schools. Second, it shows that those groups are doubly segregated by race and poverty at the most educationally unsuccessful schools. These children are, on average, from families with far lower income and wealth and with parents with significantly less education. School is their chance to break the cycle of inequality but they are highly isolated in the state's weakest schools, with very few having the opportunity to attend the competitive schools which are the most equipped to prepare students for access to a very competitive higher education system. The playing field is highly unequal -- so many of the advantages that come to students from more privileged families do not reflect individual skill or merit in winning the race, but a much better starting point within the unequal public schools. Often debates over affirmative action assume all students have an equal chance to prepare for college entrance exams. This brief shows that the preparation access is systematically unequal by race and provides new statistics on the extent of segregation by race and poverty for Calfifornia's non-white students. It uses state testing and enrollment data to show that black, Latino and America Indian students are concentrated in the most low-achieving schools, while Whites and Asians attend the most high-achieving schools. This produces a very unequal path to college, making affirmative action necessary to level the playing field.
Time to Change Course: Reclaiming the Potential of Texas Charter Schools. A State Case Study
Author: Jones, Adam
Date: 2018-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Charter Schools,Educational Quality,Public Schools,Educational Needs,Financial Support,Educational History,Accreditation (Institutions),Educational Policy,Policy Formation,School Districts,Educational Administration,Barriers,State Standards,State Regulation,State Legislation,Governance,State Government,Audits (Verification)

In 2013, the Texas Legislature gave the state commissioner of education the broad statutory authority necessary to close poor performing public charter schools. Since then, the commissioner has vigorously exercised this new authority, preparing the way for the state to shift its resources away from enforcement and toward creation and support of new schools. To its credit, Texas is today unlikely to approve a charter organization that cannot competently educate students and uphold the requirement of prudent financial stewardship. However, the state's authorizing system represents an over-correction, putting too high a premium on risk aversion. The concept of public charter schools as innovative laboratories created to inform and inspire public educators has lost momentum in the process. It has never been more difficult to be granted a public charter in Texas than it is today. Consequently, Texas has not attracted the number of entrepreneurial education organizations warranted by the scale of its needs. This paper offers a brief history of how Texas got to this point, explores the opportunity costs of inertia and risk aversion, and offers a roadmap of policy recommendations for consideration for states across the nation that are motivated to use charter authorizing as a high-impact tool for improved achievement and innovation.
Ayer Elementary School&apos;s Resilient Conditions for Improvement: Pivoting amid COVID-19
Author: Kimner, Hayin
Date: 2020-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Elementary Schools,COVID-19,Pandemics,Educational Improvement,Crisis Management,Distance Education,Electronic Learning,School Closing,Educational Innovation,Student Behavior,Learner Engagement,Trust (Psychology),Teacher Collaboration,Change Strategies,Equal Education,Educational Environment

The educators of Ayer Elementary in Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) began their continuous improvement journey in 2016. The stability of their underlying organizational conditions to engage in improvement work--a shared purpose, mutual trust, structures and resources that foster collaborative work, and preparation and mobilization of improvement capabilities--was put to the test as their focus pivoted in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This practice brief describes ways in which Ayer Elementary continued to invest in short- and long-term improvement practices to strengthen student engagement within the new learning environment of distance learning and in anticipation of strengthening staff capacity for when students return to school.
Multi-Tiered System of Supports to Address Childhood Trauma: Evidence and Implications
Author: Gee, Kevin
Date: 2020-08-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Trauma,Well Being,Student Needs,COVID-19,Pandemics,Racial Bias,School Role,Coping,At Risk Students,Intervention,Mental Health,Grief,Violence,Symptoms (Individual Disorders),Child Health,Evidence Based Practice,Program Effectiveness,Cognitive Restructuring,Behavior Modification,Computer Mediated Communication,Systems Approach

When California's students return to school this fall, schools can play a pivotal role in preventing, assessing, and addressing trauma in order to support students' well-being. We summarize the existing evidence base on multi-tiered trauma-informed practices that offer increasingly intensive tiers of support. Although many multi-tiered models of trauma-informed approaches have been implemented in schools, the evidence base demonstrating their wholescale effectiveness is limited. The most compelling evidence comes from approaches within the more intensive tiers. Moreover, most of the recent guidance on addressing trauma comes from expert and practitioner experiences and recommendations, including the novel adaptations that some schools made amid the shift to distance learning. Finally, districts and schools seeking to become trauma informed should consider establishing a coherent systemwide trauma-informed approach, including care for educators themselves.
Supporting Learning in the COVID-19 Context: A Summary Brief
Author: Cottingham, Benjamin
Date: 2020-07-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,Distance Education,Blended Learning,Educational Technology,Electronic Learning,School Districts,Board of Education Role,Student Needs,Access to Computers,Teaching Methods,Teacher Competencies,School Closing,Online Courses,Student Evaluation,Feedback (Response),Expectation,Instruction,Teaching Conditions,Faculty Development,Teacher Role

This brief summarizes the key findings from the report &quot;Supporting Learning in the COVID-19 Context,&quot; which offers a framework for districts to use in their preparation to provide quality instruction through distance and blended models. We address modifications that will need to be made in the areas of instruction, content, and student engagement to meet the needs of students in the COVID-19 context. The implementation of quality distance and blended instruction for all students will depend on the extent to which districts provide educators with the support they need to teach successfully in these new contexts. To this end, districts will need to set and communicate expectations about instruction; support educators; develop systems to address greater student needs; and provide technology and data to improve instruction. [For the full report &quot;Supporting Learning in the COVID-19 Context: Research to Guide Distance and Blended Instruction,&quot; see ED609208.]
Addressing Charter School Facility Needs: Actions for States
Author: Foundation for Excellence in Education
Date: 2019-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Charter Schools,Facility Requirements,Educational Facilities,State Policy,School Buildings,Financial Support,Ownership,Costs,Credit (Finance)

State policymakers can help public charter schools overcome obstacles to their stability, growth and ability to provide high-quality options to students--simply by providing these schools with access to affordable financing to build their own facilities. Ownership is a critical option to address charter school facility needs. Most charter schools pose little risk of defaulting on a building loan, given their specific circumstances and strong academic performance. Yet, these charter schools face the same high interest rates paid by the riskiest businesses. This forces most charter schools to lease instead of buy facilities, consequently redirecting resources that could otherwise go toward instruction. This issue brief explains how state policymakers can reasonably and effectively address the critical facility needs of charter schools: by helping charter schools secure affordable financing needed to own their buildings. First, the brief explains why ownership is a critical option to address charter school facility needs. Second, it describes why charter schools face a severe problem in accessing affordable financing for facilities. Finally, the brief provides three steps policymakers can take to help charter schools get affordable facility financing.
The Relations of Online Reading Processes (Eye Movements) with Working Memory, Emergent Literacy Skills, and Reading Proficiency
Author: Kim, Young-Suk Grace
Date: 2020-08-02
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Reading Processes,Eye Movements,Short Term Memory,Emergent Literacy,Reading Skills,Phonological Awareness,Orthographic Symbols,Naming,Listening Comprehension,Elementary School Students,Grade 1,Grade 3

We examined the relations between working memory, emergent literacy skills (e.g., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, rapid automatized naming), word reading, and listening comprehension to online reading processes (eye movements), and their relations to reading comprehension. A total of 292 students were assessed on working memory and emergent literacy skills in Grade 1, and eye movements, language, and reading skills in Grade 3. Structural equation model results showed that word reading was related to gaze duration and rereading duration, but listening comprehension was not. Working memory and emergent literacy skills were related to eye movements, but their relations to eye movements were largely mediated by word reading. Eye movements were related to reading comprehension, but not after accounting for word reading and listening comprehension. These results expand our understanding of reading development by revealing the nature of relations of emergent literacy skills, reading, and listening comprehension to online processes. [This is the online version of an article published in &quot;Scientific Studies of Reading.&quot;]
TIMSS 2019 U.S. Highlights Web Report. NCES 2021-021
Author: National Center for Education Statistics (ED)
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,Achievement Tests,International Assessment,Science Tests,Mathematics Tests,Science Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Grade 4,Grade 8,Scores,Foreign Countries,Low Achievement,High Achievement,Achievement Gains,Gender Differences,Racial Differences,Poverty,Public Schools,Low Income Students

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is an international comparative study that measures trends in mathematics and science achievement at the 4th and 8th grades every 4 years. TIMSS is designed to align broadly with mathematics and science curricula in the participating education systems and, therefore, to reflect students' school-based learning. The United States has participated in every administration of TIMSS since its inception in 1995, and the study provides valuable information on how U.S. students compare to students around the world. As the 2019 TIMSS results show, the United States had higher average scores than most participating countries in both mathematics and science at both the 4th and 8th grades. However, in 2019, the United States had relatively large score gaps between the top- and bottom-performing students in both TIMSS subjects and grades. Looking at changes over time in mathematics at both grades 4 and 8, U.S. average scores have increased over the long term--with higher average scores in 2019 than in 1995--but show no significant changes between 2015 and 2019. The results in this web report present descriptive data on student achievement designed to provide useful information to a broad audience, including members of the general public. [The intended use of this PDF is to allow readers to easily print all report text; however, for optimal figure viewing, please view the web report. Cover title varies: &quot;TIMSS 2019 U.S. Results.&quot; For the 2015 results, see &quot;Highlights from TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced 2015: Mathematics and Science Achievement of U.S. Students in Grades 4 and 8 and in Advanced Courses at the End of High School in an International Context. NCES 2017-002&quot; (ED570893).]
COVID-19 Early Literacy Loss: Strategies for States. ExcelinEd Policy Toolkit - 2020
Author: Foundation for Excellence in Education
Date: 2020-05-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,School Closing,Online Courses,Electronic Learning,Literacy Education,Reading Achievement,Elementary School Students,Student Promotion,Middle School Students,Barriers,Access to Computers,Educational Needs,Summer Programs,At Risk Students,Intervention

The 2019-2020 school year began with business as usual. Most students attended traditional brick and mortar schools, congregated with friends during class changes and attended sporting events to cheer on their school's teams. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the &quot;fourth quarter&quot; quickly shifted to remote learning at varying degrees of implementation and success across the country. In many states, district and school leaders are hard at work developing plans to make up for lost time, keenly aware that beginning-of-year knowledge gaps may be larger than ever. So, how can teachers and students be supported when they return to school in the fall? This publication offers states and districts a list of strategies and resources to assist in establishing a new normal in education.