ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Intercollegiate Athletics Subsidies: A Regressive Tax
Author: Denhart, Matthew
Date: 2010-04-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Resource Allocation,Grants,Economic Climate,College Athletics,Universities,Costs,Tuition,Budgets,Taxes,Family Income,Paying for College,Political Attitudes

For most colleges and universities in the United States, intercollegiate athletics is a losing financial proposition. The vast majority ICA departments do not break even and require subsidization from the institution as a whole. When schools are forced to heavily subsidize athletics, ICA serves to impose an "athletics tax" on other dimensions of the school. This tax has become increasingly worrisome due to the limited budget resources in the current economic climate. However, the main story is that the magnitude of the athletics tax is greatly unequal across institutions and that this tax is highly regressive. The schools and athletic conferences that already have well established teams are likewise the well-known and affluent flagship public institutions. Here, the athletics tax is negligible. Yet, at the lesser conferences the picture is less rosy. Athletics impose a much greater tax with an ICA tuition tax that in some cases reaches beyond 15 percent. The policy implications of this are interesting. Liberals should be upset over the regressive nature of the ICA arms race and its perceived unfairness in burdening the relatively less affluent members of society. Conservatives should also be upset because of the inefficiencies and distortions in the allocation of resources implicit in such subsidies. Persons of all political orientations should be concerned by the bundling of services--a student wanting to "buy" academic services that after a period of relative intense study leads to a bachelor's degree, has to also buy entertainment services that she or he might wish to forego. To be fair, the magnitude of the athletic tax at most American institutions is still very small, and it is certainly naive to believe that fixing the problem of exploding ICA costs would have more than a marginal effect on the broader problem of higher education costs rising faster than the incomes of Americans who consume these services. Nonetheless, marginal effects can be important, and there are some schools in America where the ICA tax on students is relatively large, so eliminating or reducing that tax could go a long way towards making college more affordable. (Contains 3 figures, 3 tables, and 13 footnotes.)
University Endowment Reform: A Dialogue
Author: Miller, Charles
Date: 2008-04-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Higher Education,Educational Finance,Educational Change,Tuition,Endowment Funds

In late September 2007, the issue of wealthy university endowments became front page news. Members of the Senate Finance Committee, most notably Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), questioned why some endowments were amassing vast amounts of tax-subsidized wealth while simultaneously raising tuition on average families to greater and greater levels. The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) was pleased to work with the American Enterprise Institute in January of 2008 to host a conference on this intriguing topic. The conference included both those who have called for endowment reform and others that oppose such action. This policy paper includes the remarks of two panelists from that conference, each of whom has very different views on the obligations of university endowments and the necessity for reform. Presenting the case against greater government intervention in endowments is Charles Miller, the chairman of the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Miller claims that endowments are governed by their fiduciary duties to donors and the university and that the endowment reforms proposed, including a mandatory payout, would conflict with these tenets. He firmly believes that focusing so much attention on endowments is a distraction from broader higher education reform ideas that would more directly help students. Arguing in favor of endowment reform is Lynne Munson, executive director of Common Core, and an adjunct research fellow at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Munson claims that far from the myth of higher education being cash-strapped, endowments have in fact hoarded tremendous wealth over the years. She cites statistical evidence that suggests using a small portion of this wealth could help alleviate the tuition burden felt by an increasing number of students. While not the foremost issue facing higher education today, the proper role of endowments remains a hotly contested debate, as the two panelists' remarks will show. CCAP will continue to follow this issue into the future as part of its larger goal of making the nation's system of higher education more accountable, efficient, productive, and less dependent on taxpayer support.
&quot;Griggs v. Duke Power&quot;: Implications for College Credentialing
Author: O'Keefe, Bryan
Date: 2008-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Higher Education,Court Litigation,Academic Degrees,Minimum Competencies,Cultural Literacy,Credentials,Enrollment,Context Effect,Economic Impact,Civil Rights Legislation,Racial Discrimination,Equal Opportunities (Jobs),Barriers,Education Work Relationship,Occupational Tests,Personnel Selection,Decision Making,Politics of Education,School Business Relationship

This paper is about a court case decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1971. Although attorneys recognize that the case is important to businesses, its impact on colleges and universities has been explored by only a few. As this paper will show, &quot;Griggs v. Duke Power&quot; may have enormously boosted the number of students in college and may have increased the differential in income between high school and college graduates. It may have led to higher tuition, without providing commensurate additional value. This paper will describe &quot;Griggs,&quot; the environment from which it emerged, and the subsequent judicial and political activity that created such great constraints on testing. It will discuss testing today and then provide economic information suggesting the magnitude of the changes that &quot;Griggs&quot; may have instigated. This paper suggests that additional scholarly work on the impact of &quot;Griggs&quot; on higher education is appropriate. (Contains 2 figures and 52 endnotes.) [This paper was supported by the Center for Excellence in Higher Education (CEHE).]
An Outcomes Based Assessment of Universities: Using &quot;Who's Who in America&quot;
Author: Vedder, Richard
Date: 2008-03-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: College Outcomes Assessment,Access to Education,Student Costs,Productivity,Measurement Objectives,Measurement Techniques,Academic Standards,Benchmarking,Institutional Characteristics,Graduate Surveys,Higher Education,Value Judgment,Input Output Analysis,Educational Indicators,Educational Quality,Classification,Research Methodology

This study summarizes recent and continuing research conducted by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) on the metrics used for measuring college performance. Unlike other rankings, this study does not concentrate on the inputs of college education such as endowment size, number of faculty, or the educational preparation of students as measured by SAT scores, etc. Instead, it focuses on the &quot;outputs,&quot; namely the success of students after graduation. Using the names of entrants in Marquis Publishing's 2008 edition of &quot;Who's Who in America&quot; as their standard for measuring high levels of success, the authors collected the names of over 5,200 individuals, along with their educational background. This is more than a 5 percent sampling of all names listed in this standard reference work. From this sample, they then calculated which colleges produced the most successful graduates. The results thus far have been both fascinating and surprising. They have found that while going to top ranked schools as measured by standard college rankings does correlate with success, it is a weaker relationship than many may have previously believed. The study reveals that the &quot;industry standard,&quot; &quot;U.S. News &amp; World Report&quot; (&quot;USNWR&quot;) rankings, on the whole, is only weakly related to graduate success. This suggests that the characteristics contributing to the value of a student's education differ substantially from what is typically assumed. The goal of this study is hopefully to serve as both an impetus and road map for future research into new ways of evaluating the value added component of higher education. Appended are: (1) Raw Scores; and (2) Weighted Index. (Contains 5 figures, 1 table, and 5 notes.)
The $7,376 "Ivies": Value-Designed Models of Undergraduate Education
Author: Fried, Vance H.
Date: 2008-08-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Undergraduate Study,Educational Quality,Cost Effectiveness,Models,Educational Change,Efficiency,Commercialization,Operating Expenses

Is it possible to get an "Ivy" education for $7,376 a year? Can a college provide high-quality undergraduate education at a reasonable cost? In this paper, the author explores if cost can be reduced and quality improved through the use of new "value-designed" models of undergraduate education. A value-designed model allows one to appeal to customers seeking the greatest value. These are the students--or perhaps more often, their parents--who are looking for a high-quality product at a relatively low price. To be able to charge a relatively low price, a college must have either a large subsidy from public or private sources or low costs. In this paper, the author focuses on the cost side of providing a high-quality education. Appended are: (1) College of Entrepreneurial Leadership and Society (CALS); and (2) Estimated Operating Expenses for CELS. (Contains 53 notes.)
Over Invested and over Priced: American Higher Education Today
Author: Vedder, Richard
Date: 2007-11-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Higher Education,Student Costs,Tuition,Educational Finance,Enrollment,Academic Persistence,Role of Education,Screening Tests,Financial Support,Public Sector,Economic Development,Human Capital,Criticism,Outcomes of Education,College Graduates,Access to Education,Reputation,Governance,Decision Making,Efficiency,Cost Effectiveness

The prevailing view among leaders in the university community is that America is not investing enough in higher education. A recent survey of the American economy by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) echoed that concern. After all, college graduates are dramatically more productive than those without higher education preparation, and America is falling behind other nations in the proportion of the adult population with college degrees. National competitiveness and economic well-being are at risk, or so it is argued. The conventional wisdom downplays the concerns about rising costs, particularly soaring tuition fees. One argument is that the cost explosion is an illusion: &quot;net tuition fees&quot; have risen less dramatically than gross tuition fees (published rates). Americans think college costs are greater than they really are. Yet the author thinks most of these arguments are flawed, even downright wrong. An excellent case can be made that Americans are &quot;over invested&quot; in universities, that too many students attend school, that much of their investment is wasted. Moreover, the rise in costs--to society, to taxpayers, and especially to consumers--is excessive, and has been made more so by well meaning but inappropriate public policies. The law of unintended consequences looms large in any discussion of America's colleges and universities. In this paper, the author discusses why universities are overpriced and provides 12 reasons for rising prices.
Trends in the Higher Education Labor Force: Identifying Changes in Worker Composition and Productivity
Author: Bennett, Daniel L.
Date: 2009-04-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Postsecondary Education as a Field of Study,Higher Education,College Administration,Labor Force,Employment Patterns,Enrollment Trends,Comparative Analysis,Compensation (Remuneration),Productivity,Trend Analysis

Higher education is a labor-intensive industry whose primary service, instruction, is delivered by a lecturer, accompanied by administrative support and various other services. Growing student enrollment necessitates some additional staffing; however, one would think that the recent and ongoing technological boom would have lessened the labor burden at colleges, but a close examination of the data suggests otherwise. In fact, the data reveals that colleges have generally increased their staff relative to enrollment and the number of degrees awarded, especially in the back office. This report will analyze employment trends and labor productivity at institutions of higher education over the past 20 years. The author finds that colleges have altered the composition of their work force by steadily increasing the number of managerial positions and support/service staff, while at the same time disproportionately increasing the number of part-time staff that provides instruction. Meanwhile, employee productivity relative to enrollment and degrees awarded has been relatively flat in the midst of rising compensation. Appended are: (1) Glossary; and (2) Definition of Job Categories. (Contains 29 figures, 1 table, and 11 footnotes.)
How Students' Beliefs about Their Intelligence Influence Their Academic Performance. Information Capsule. Volume 1012
Author: Blazer, Christie
Date: 2011-06-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Intelligence,Student Attitudes,Correlation,Theories,Self Actualization,Student Motivation,Positive Reinforcement,Intervention

Students' academic success may be influenced not only by their actual ability, but also by their beliefs about their intelligence. Studies have found that students enter a classroom with one of two distinct conceptions of their intellectual ability: some students believe their intelligence is expandable (growth mindset), while others believe their intelligence is a fixed trait (fixed mindset). A review of the research suggests that students with growth mindsets outperform their classmates who hold fixed mindsets. In addition, the adoption of a growth mindset may decrease or even close achievement gaps. This Information Capsule also summarizes strategies that teachers can use to foster growth mindsets. For example, studies indicate that teachers should emphasize effort and progress over final outcomes; encourage in-depth learning; and praise students for their effort, not for their intellect.
2009-10 Overview of M-DCPS' Academic Performance. Information Capsule. Volume 1005
Author: Blazer, Christie
Date: 2010-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Achievement Gap,Scores,Racial Differences,Elementary School Students,High School Students,Middle School Students,Achievement Gains,Mathematics Achievement,Science Achievement,Writing Achievement,Reading Achievement,School Districts,Comparative Analysis

This Information Capsule answers the most frequently asked questions about M-DCPS' academic performance during the 2009-10 school year. M-DCPS earned a performance grade of &quot;B&quot; in 2010 and was only four points short of an &quot;A.&quot; Over half of the District's schools (57 percent) earned an &quot;A.&quot; Overall, the District's performance on the FCAT improved from 2009 to 2010. The percent of students receiving higher scores in Writing and Science increased at the elementary and senior levels. The percent of students earning higher scores in Reading and Mathematics increased at all middle school grades tested and at selected elementary and high school grades. White students continued to score higher than Black or Hispanic students in all subject areas and grade levels, although the District made some progress closing the achievement gap. (Contains 8 figures and 2 tables.)
The Bachelor's Degree Is Obsolete? Common Sense
Author: Sloane, Wick
Date: 2008-00-00
Type: Opinion Papers
Subjects: Bachelors Degrees,Educational Change,Higher Education,Literacy,Numeracy,Educational Innovation,Student Costs,Educational Finance,Federal Aid,Equal Education

Why don't we eliminate the bachelor's degree? The author believes it's only common sense. In this essay, the author questions the outlay in time and dollars of the bachelor's degree. He believes that the need is not for millions of people with expensive four-year degrees. The real need is for millions of citizens with the critical thinking and communication skills to sustain a sound economy and a just society. To achieve this, he proposes a national literacy program in ten years.
Strategies for Reducing Math Anxiety. Information Capsule. Volume 1102
Author: Blazer, Christie
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Mathematics Instruction,Mathematics Anxiety,Teaching Methods,Classroom Techniques,Teachers,Parents,Students,Prevention,Intervention,Barriers,Skill Development,Attitude Change,Student Attitudes,Relevance (Education),Critical Thinking,Active Learning,Cognitive Style,Computation,Cooperative Learning,Feedback (Response),Manipulative Materials,Educational Technology,Evaluation Methods,Student Evaluation,Drills (Practice),Study Habits

Approximately 93 percent of Americans indicate that they experience some level of math anxiety. Math anxiety is defined as negative emotions that interfere with the solving of mathematical problems. Studies have found that some students who perform poorly on math assessments actually have a full understanding of the concepts being tested; however, their anxiety interferes with their ability to solve mathematical problems. Researchers believe that implementation of strategies to prevent or reduce math anxiety will improve the math achievement of many students. This Information Capsule summarizes strategies that teachers, parents, and students can use to prevent or reduce math anxiety.
Out-of-School Factors Affecting Academic Achievement. Information Capsule. Volume 1004
Author: Romanik, Dale
Date: 2010-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Teacher Effectiveness,Achievement Gap,Low Achievement,Accountability,Public Schools,Class Size,Neighborhoods,Poverty,Low Income Groups,Performance Factors,Cultural Influences,Social Influences,Sociocultural Patterns,Economic Factors,Political Influences,Academic Standards,Testing,Educational Change,Change Strategies,Educational Improvement,Parenting Styles,Family Environment,Family Role,Literacy

This Information Capsule is the third in a series of papers addressing factors contributing to low academic achievement. The two previous papers addressed issues relevant to class size reduction and teacher quality/preparation. The premise of this Information Capsule is that there is no single smoking gun relative to improving school performance. Solving the challenges confronting education cannot be solved by one, two or even three reform strategies. Neither "fad" nor popular flavor of the month reform strategy will do the job. Rather, the case can be made that a comprehensive approach comparable to the War on Poverty of the 1960s or the present War on Terror is what is needed to make substantial headway in solving the economic, social, and familial problems reflected in today's public schools. The popular assumption is that bad schools are the most important reason for low achievement. To remedy the situation one need only address school outcomes by developing high standards, testing, and school accountability measures without addressing the underlying problematic "inputs." This paper will address what these inputs are and the dramatic impact they have on educating students. It goes without saying that improvements should be made in public schools; however, it is also clear that schools are not the sole problem. Public schools are mirrors reflecting the sociocultural, economic, and political problems existing in the neighborhoods and communities in which they are located. Schools do not cause the achievement gap. The gap between high and low income children exists far before formal education begins. Schools are forced to play catchup and generally diminish the inequalities produced by the out-of-school factors discussed in this Information Capsule. Unfortunately, long standing generational inequalities are not easily remedied or eliminated.
What the Research Tells Us: Teacher Quality and Teacher Preparation. Information Capsule. Volume 1002
Author: Romanik, Dale
Date: 2010-08-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teacher Certification,Academic Achievement,Teacher Effectiveness,Credentials,Teaching Experience,Class Size,Teacher Salaries,Teacher Competencies,Teacher Education Programs,Teacher Characteristics,Educational Attainment,Graduate Study,Alternative Teacher Certification,Pedagogical Content Knowledge,Literacy

This Information Capsule examines a number of important factors associated with teacher quality. Although a clear consensus has not been reached regarding what actually constitutes teacher quality, it is still believed to be the single most important school-related factor affecting student achievement. In fact, a number of researchers have reported that improving teacher quality is more valuable to improving student achievement and more cost effective than class size reduction. Factors associated with teacher quality and addressed in this Capsule include: personal attributes, college degrees, teaching experience, education coursework, certification, teaching out-of-field, subject area competence, literacy level, academic credentials, and teacher salaries. Subsequent to the discussion of these areas, a section follows concerning teacher preparation programs and the importance of their influence on teacher quality.
Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing. Information Capsule. Volume 1008
Author: Blazer, Christie
Date: 2011-01-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: High Stakes Tests,Program Effectiveness,Dropout Rate,Testing Programs,Test Anxiety,Standardized Tests,Literature Reviews,Curriculum,Stress Variables,Disproportionate Representation,At Risk Students,Minority Group Students,Low Income Groups,Low Achievement,Teaching Styles,Test Preparation,Barriers,Teacher Morale,School Holding Power,Classification,Scores,Professional Development,State Standards,Academic Achievement,Student Motivation

High-stakes testing is one of the most controversial issues in American education. Advocates contend that these tests encourage students to work harder, provide teachers with a stronger understanding of students' strengths and weaknesses, and allow educators to target failing schools for extra help. Critics claim that they narrow and distort the curriculum, hold students and teachers with inequitable resources to the same standards, and solidify class and ethnic disparities. This Information Capsule reviews research conducted on the unintended consequences of high-stakes testing programs, such as narrowing of the curriculum, higher levels of student test anxiety, and increased pressure on teachers. In addition, high-stakes tests have been found to have a disproportionately negative impact on low-performing, low-income, and minority students. Although the majority of unintended consequences are negative, researchers have found that high-stakes tests have some positive effects on education, including increased teacher professional development, better alignment of instruction with state content standards, more effective remediation programs for low-achieving students, and increased use of data to inform instruction. The research is mixed on the impact of high-stakes testing on dropout rates, students' levels of academic achievement and motivation, and on the consequences of publishing test scores. This report also includes a brief review of studies that have examined the full costs of high-stakes testing.