ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
A Look at the Education Crisis: Tests, Standards, and the Future of American Education
Author: Boser, Ulrich
Date: 2016-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Educational Change,Common Core State Standards,National Competency Tests,Outcomes of Education,Achievement Gains,Achievement Gap,Minority Group Students,Disabilities,State Policy,Educational Policy,Poverty,Low Income Students,Urban Schools,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Grade 4,Grade 8,Educational Assessment,Educational Quality,Teacher Effectiveness,Educational Equity (Finance),Futures (of Society),Educational Trends,Advanced Placement

In many ways standards-based school reform is at a crossroads. On one side, the movement has made tremendous strides. The Common Core State Standards Initiative, known simply as Common Core, is now strongly established in more than 40 states. Many teachers believe that the new, higher academic standards have helped them improve instruction. And, most importantly, a solid body of data demonstrates that the standards-based reform movement has shown success in raising student outcomes. To look more deeply at the state of the education system--and the state of standards-based reform--the authors of this report analyzed the latest data from two national assessments: the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA). Using data from TUDA and NAEP, this report estimates the absolute number of students at or above proficient for each disaggregated group. The authors started with the overall percentages of students scoring proficient or above or scoring advanced or above on each NAEP exam in 2015. They then compared these data with estimates of the total school-age population for each group. Key findings include: (1) Some states and districts are making clear gains; (2) The state and local policy environment matters; (3) In many locations, students of color and students living in poverty still have extraordinarily low achievement; and (4) When it comes to students performing at the advanced level, outcomes are also rock bottom.
Scaling Innovation for Community Colleges: A Guide to Action
Author: Soricone, Lisa
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Community Colleges,Educational Innovation,Educational Planning,Sustainability,Fundamental Concepts,Strategic Planning,Educational Development,Developmental Studies Programs,Guidelines,Educational Practices,Program Implementation

As community colleges across the country look for ways to promote student success, the need for scaling effective approaches is critical. This guide builds on a framework of four phases of scaling developed in Job For the Future's (JFF's) previous publication, &quot;Thinking Big: A Framework for States on Scaling Up Community College Innovation&quot;: planning, initiating, expanding, and sustaining. With the aim of translating the framework to promote action on the ground, the guide outlines key concepts, questions, and action steps related to each of the four phases. The guide draws on lessons from multiple JFF initiatives designed to promote student success in postsecondary education, and offers examples of key concepts in action. [This guide was written with the assistance of Lara Couturier, Barbara Endel, and Jennifer Freeman. For &quot;Thinking Big: A Framework for States on Scaling Up Community College Innovation,&quot; see ED561274.]
Meta-Majors: An Essential First Step on the Path to College Completion
Author: Waugh, Alexandra
Date: 2016-07-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Community Colleges,Graduation Rate,Two Year College Students,School Holding Power,Academic Persistence,Academic Advising,Majors (Students),Case Studies,Program Implementation,Guidance Programs,Design Requirements,Educational Principles,Career Guidance

A growing body of evidence reveals that a central factor in low completion rates for community college students is the &quot;cafeteria&quot; style approach to college, which provides entering students with a dizzying array of choices and little guidance on navigating those choices. A poor decision on which classes to take can cost community college students a significant amount of time and potentially mean the difference between earning a credential or degree and stopping or dropping out. Meta-majors are a programmatic response to these findings. Designed with the end (college completion) in mind, and using student's interests as a starting point, meta-majors provide structure and narrow choices to support student success. This paper seeks to scale the meta-majors conversation in the field by exploring the concept looking at two in-depth examples from colleges in Ohio and Florida, offering a set of design principles, and posing the key questions to help guide colleges' thinking. Contains endnotes.
Crossing the Divide: An Emerging Typology of Postsecondary Bridging for Opportunity Youth
Author: Almeida, Cheryl
Date: 2016-05-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Postsecondary Education,Access to Education,Equal Education,Transitional Programs,At Risk Students,Skill Development,College Readiness,Nontraditional Students,Low Income Groups,Immigrants,Institutionalized Persons,Correctional Institutions,Disadvantaged Youth,Financial Support

Through Job For the Future's (JFF's) work with communities around the country on the Back on Track model, postsecondary bridging strategies have emerged as a particularly critical and especially replicable component of programming for vulnerable youth. This issue brief offers a typology of evidence-informed bridge programming, drawing on frontrunner programs that have designed their strategies specifically for this population and that have attained early indicators of success. Hopefully, this typology will inform the design and support the scale of bridging programs that provide a critical leg up for vulnerable segments of the opportunity youth population to earn the postsecondary credentials that are so essential to thriving in today's economy. Contains one endnote.
Building the Workforce of the Future
Author: González-Rivera, Christian
Date: 2016-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Labor Force Development,Career Development,Job Skills,Skill Development,Job Search Methods,Labor Conditions,Low Income Groups,Program Evaluation,Interviews,City Government,Barriers,Industry,School Business Relationship,Labor Problems,Capacity Building,Urban Areas

&quot;Building the Workforce of the Future&quot; is an in-depth, independent report on the first eighteen months of Career Pathways, New York City's sweeping new strategy for workforce development. In November 2014, Mayor de Blasio launched a sweeping new approach to workforce development in New York City. Unlike the previous model, which prioritized connecting workers with available jobs as quickly as possible, the administration's new Career Pathways framework focuses on helping jobseekers and workers to build the skills required to be more competitive in the labor force. Career Pathways emphasizes training and education for workers and jobseekers, deeper connections with the city's employers, and a commitment to improving working conditions for the city's lower-wage workers. This report aims to provide an independent assessment of the progress made since the launch of Career Pathways. Based on interviews with more than 30 workforce development experts, the study details where the administration's new approach to workforce development has achieved success or taken important steps forward, where it has stalled, and what challenges have limited the new system's effectiveness. The study also includes a series of recommendations to bolster Career Pathways and includes endnotes. [Additional research support for this report was provided by Brittany Prieto and Billy Richling.]
Investing in Cultural Participation and Financial Sustainability: Cross-Cohort Analysis of the Arts Regional Initiative, 2009-2014. Insight: Lessons Learned from Our Grantmaking Programs
Author: James Irvine Foundation
Date: 2016-01-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Arts Centers,Nonprofit Organizations,Financial Support,Sustainability,Capacity Building,Leadership Responsibility,Persistence,Agency Cooperation,Cultural Pluralism,Ethnic Diversity,Grants,Participation

Between 2009 and 2014, The James Irvine Foundation invested $13.4 million through the Arts Regional Initiative to build the capacity of a group of nonprofit arts organizations in California locales outside of major arts centers. The aim was two-fold: to increase cultural participation and improve financial sustainability. The following lessons, which are presented in this report, emerged from Harder+Company Community Research analysis of the Initiative: (1) It is possible to increase cultural participation; (2) Combining key approaches maximizes participation; (3) Organizations can achieve new capacities; (4) Increased capacity cannot ensure financial sustainability; (5) Partnerships and executive leadership matter; and (6) Commitment level correlates with benefit. The Initiative intentionally focused on nonprofit arts organizations working in regions of California characterized by changing demographics and lacking robust financial support for the nonprofit arts sector. The following are appended: (1) Regional Contexts; and (2) Arts Regional Initiative Phase II Grantees.
Innovation Zones: Creating Policy Flexibility for Personalized Learning. Issue Brief
Author: Patrick, Susan
Date: 2016-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Innovation,Educational Policy,Student Needs,State Legislation,State Policy,Student Centered Learning,Models,Agency Role,Capacity Building

There is a new state education policy concept termed either innovation zones or districts of innovation. State education agencies interested in shifting their role from enforcing compliance to one of supporting innovation and building capacity in districts are working to spur new innovative instructional models and create space for competency-based pathways in student-centered learning models. States set up an innovation zone by passing enabling legislation to set up a program and/or offering certain waivers or exemptions from administrative regulations and statutory provisions. Explore this issue brief to learn more about innovation zones or districts of innovation, why they are so important to catalyze the development of new learning models and examples of legislative language.
How High Schools and Colleges Can Team up to Use Data and Increase Student Success. Ready or Not: It's Time to Rethink the 12th Grade Series
Author: Grady, Michael
Date: 2016-08-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: College School Cooperation,High Schools,Graduation Rate,College Graduates,Grade 12,High School Seniors,Student Adjustment,Elementary Secondary Education,College Readiness,Barriers,Leadership Responsibility,Governance,Capacity Building,Partnerships in Education

In today's digital age, it is widely accepted that effective use of data is essential to improving just about anything, and increasing college and career success is no exception. Yet, despite its proliferation, student information remains surprisingly underutilized, even in efforts to ease the critical transition from high school to college. This report is part of a series that encourages high schools and higher education to share responsibility for improving college completion rates by co-designing, co-delivering, and co-validating supportive experiences for all 12th-grade students through the first year of college, especially those who so often struggle in this period. An overriding question this report addresses is how to realize the largely untapped potential of K-12 and higher education systems to use data more effectively to help ease student transitions to college. This and other questions are explored using cooperative strategies that high schools and colleges can employ to use data to inform the closer collaboration needed to promote postsecondary readiness and success. The report is presented in three sections. The first section summarizes the case for school-college partnerships to lead this work. The second identifies essential elements of collaboration that secondary and postsecondary institutions should keep in mind and highlights promising practices from the field. The third addresses the challenges of creating and sustaining data collaborations between K-12 and higher education systems and recommends specific steps that each can take to establish and maintain meaningful partnerships. Endnotes are included.
Six Effective Approaches for TechHire Initiatives: Lessons from the Field
Author: Smith, Tara
Date: 2016-05-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Information Technology,Employment Opportunities,Employment Potential,Job Skills,Labor Demands,Skilled Workers,Ecology,Partnerships in Education,Labor Force Development,Job Training,Technical Education,Federal Programs

Information technology jobs are among the fastest growing occupations in the country, spanning many industries, yet over a half million IT job openings are unfilled. Many of these jobs do not require university degrees and could be filled by unemployed or underemployed Americans if they obtain training in a community college or certificate program. To meet the growing demand for skilled tech workers and to foster opportunities for entering the tech field, the Obama Administration announced the launch of the TechHire initiative in 2015. TechHire is a network of regions across the country that are working to build an ecosystem where government, employers, training providers, and other stakeholders work together in collective action to achieve a unified goal--developing a pipeline of diverse talent to meet employers' rapidly growing IT workforce demands. This brief provides profiles of six TechHire communities that demonstrate six innovative and effective approaches for tech industry training. Each of the communities profiled employs one or more of the following approaches: (1) Encourage strong employer participation across a variety of roles; (2) Design accelerated and stacked programs focusing on technical and practical skills; (3) Emphasize the importance of students learning the tech industry work culture; (4) Expand opportunities for underrepresented populations; (5) Use systems change as a key program driver; and (6) Leverage and braid funding across federal and other funding streams These approaches and the lessons learned are discussed in detail, along with community profiles.
Chugach School District: A Personalized, Performance-Based System. Insights from the Field. CompetencyWorks Report
Author: Sturgis, Chris
Date: 2016-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: School Districts,Educational Change,Competency Based Education,Performance Based Assessment,Academic Achievement,Mastery Learning,Case Studies,Student Empowerment,Individualized Education Programs,Information Management,Culturally Relevant Education,Faculty Development,Teaching Skills,School Culture,Home Schooling,Program Implementation

This paper explores how an Alaskan school district shifted from a traditional K-12 education system to a personalized, performance-based system, embedded in the culture of the community, which led to increased student achievement. Chugach School District (CSD) first implemented competency education over twenty years ago, paving the way in developing a system founded on student advancement upon demonstrated mastery. This case study explores how CSD created the infrastructure to support a performance-based system, expanding learning beyond the classroom, embracing the culture of the community and developing educator growth.
Student-Centered Learning: Functional Requirements for Integrated Systems to Optimize Learning
Author: Glowa, Liz
Date: 2016-05-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Student Centered Learning,Transformative Learning,Electronic Learning,Learning Processes,Elementary Secondary Education,Integrated Learning Systems,Individualized Instruction,Information Systems,Educational Technology,Feedback (Response),Concept Mapping,Scoring Rubrics,Portfolio Assessment,Cooperative Learning

The realities of the 21st-century learner require that schools and educators fundamentally change their practice. &quot;Educators must produce college- and career-ready graduates that reflect the future these students will face. And, they must facilitate learning through means that align with the defining attributes of this generation of learners.&quot; Today, we know more than ever about how students learn, acknowledging that the process isn't the same for every student and doesn't remain the same for each individual, depending upon maturation and the content being learned. We know that students want to progress at a pace that allows them to master new concepts and skills, to access a variety of resources, to receive timely feedback on their progress, to demonstrate their knowledge in multiple ways and to get direction, support and feedback from--as well as collaborate with--experts, teachers, tutors and other students. The result is a growing demand for student-centered, transformative digital learning using competency education as an underpinning. International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) released this paper to illustrate the technical requirements and functionalities that learning management systems need to shift toward student-centered instructional models. This comprehensive framework will help districts and schools determine what systems to use and integrate as they being their journey toward student-centered learning, as well as how systems integration aligns with their organizational vision, educational goals and strategic plans. Educators can use this report to optimize student learning and promote innovation in their own student-centered learning environments. The report will help school leaders understand the complex technologies needed to optimize personalized learning and how to use data and analytics to improve practices, and can assist technology leaders in re-engineering systems to support the key nuances of student-centered learning. Three appendices are included: (1) Understanding Education Technology Standards (Brandt Redd); (2) Data and Application Design for a Student-Centered Learning Integrated System; and (3) Glossary.
Addressing the 61st Hour Challenge: Collaborating in El Paso to Create Seamless Pathways from High School to College
Author: Hoffman, Nancy
Date: 2016-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: High Schools,Higher Education,Acceleration (Education),Dual Enrollment,College Preparation,College School Cooperation,First Generation College Students,Low Income Groups,English Language Learners,Hispanic American Students,Academic Persistence,Transitional Programs,Planning,Leadership,Academic Advising,Student Personnel Services

Jobs for the Future and the Greater Texas Foundation's new report documents an early college program in El Paso, Texas that has enabled over a thousand students to earn a bachelor's degree, and holds lessons for early college advocates and leaders. Texas has been at the forefront of the early college movement since early college--which integrates college courses with high school requirements, along with student supports--began over a decade ago. The University of Texas at El Paso has been particularly successful in reaching the goal of graduating large numbers of early college high school students with minimal loss of college credit in the transfer to university, an issue which is identified in this report as the 61st Hour problem. In efforts to resolve the 61st Hour issue, the high school and higher education institutions in the El Paso region have come together in efforts so effective that they are close to implementing a truly seamless system from 9th grade through the bachelor's degree. [This report was written with Valerie Lundy-Wagner.]
Dee-Mack Intermediate School
Author: Northwest Evaluation Association
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Elementary Schools,Intermediate Grades,Educational Assessment,Data,Decision Making,Ability Grouping,Individualized Instruction,Academic Achievement,Enrichment Activities,Intervention,School Effectiveness,Rural Schools

Frank Reliford, the Principal at Dee-Mack Intermediate since 2005, is familiar to almost every child in the community. 260 Students attend Reliford's school, and their status is a point of pride: Dee-Mack Intermediate is consistently one of the highest performing schools in the state. The change in student performance correlates to the introduction of NWEA's Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) assessments at the school. The way they chose to use their assessment data has made all the difference. Reliford's solution was a new mandate for differentiated instruction throughout the school. He recognized that MAP data could be used to identify learning levels and guide instruction for high achievers--just as they had done with struggling Dee-Mack students. The Illinois State Board of Education recognized these accomplishments by awarding Dee-Mack Intermediate the Academic Excellence Award, an honor given to schools that have 90% or more of their students meeting or exceeding math and reading proficiency standards over three consecutive years.
Employment Realities of Recent Junior/Community College and University Graduates and Premature Leavers with Disabilities
Author: Jorgensen, Mary
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: College Graduates,Dropouts,Community Colleges,Two Year Colleges,Universities,Employment,Disabilities,Comparative Analysis,Individual Characteristics,Unemployment,Grades (Scholastic),Educational Attainment,Job Satisfaction,Barriers,Foreign Countries

The goal of the current descriptive and comparative study is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the employment realities of recent junior/community college and university graduates and premature leavers (i.e., those who drop out before completing their program of study) with disabilities. We investigate the following research questions related to employment: (a) What are the characteristic of individuals who are employed and of individuals who are not employed? (b) Why are unemployed individuals unable to find work? and (c) Why do some individuals stay out of the labour force (i.e., not employed or looking for work: Statistics Canada, 2008a)? We also examine (d) the role of the following in finding employment: grades, highest qualification attained, and type of disability/impairment as well as (e) job satisfaction and its relation to program of study. Between 11% and 14% of current junior/community college and university students have a disability both in Canada (Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities, 2012) and the United States (Snyder &amp; Dillow, 2012). Therefore, understanding the transition of well-educated youth with disabilities from postsecondary studies to employment is of great importance. Understanding this transition is vital given that postsecondary students with disabilities graduate at the same rate as students without disabilities, with the main difference being that they take additional time to do so (Jorgensen, Fichten, Havel, Lamb, James, &amp; Barile, 2005; Wessel, Jones, Markle, &amp; Westfall, 2009).