ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Profile of Children Entering Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP), Fall 2007. First 5 LA Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS). Research Brief
Author: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Date: 2009-04-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Profiles,Preschool Children,Urban Areas,Family Characteristics,Individual Characteristics,Race,Ethnicity,Hispanic Americans,Languages,Family Income,Low Income Groups,School Readiness,Language Skills,Writing Skills,Spelling,Literacy,Mathematics Skills,Interpersonal Competence,Child Health,Immigrants,Employed Parents,Educational Attainment,Parent Background

Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) is working to make high-quality voluntary preschool universally accessible to every 4-year-old in Los Angeles County by building upon the existing early care and education system. This brief provides a snapshot of children and families participating in LAUP center-based programs in the fall of 2007, at the beginning of their preschool year. The data presented in this research brief are part of a larger study: First 5 LA's Universal Preschool Child Outcome Study (UPCOS), conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) and its partners, Juarez &amp; Associates and American Institutes for Research (AIR). The data presented in this brief are based on a sample of 1,586 LAUP children in 98 funded, center-based programs, but is representative of all LAUP children and families. The data presented show that 4-year-olds enrolled in LAUP center-based programs are primarily Latino, most come from low-income families, and they bring diverse linguistic and cultural experiences to their classrooms. When LAUP children entered preschool, they scored within the average range, for the most part, on an array of school readiness measures. &quot;Some of the findings have potential programmatic implications--particularly the differences in language and literacy skills among children from different language backgrounds and the high percentage of LAUP children who are obese.&quot; (Contains combination of 24 notes and references.)
Does the Missouri Teacher Career Ladder Program Raise Student Achievement?
Author: Booker, Kevin
Date: 2009-05-29
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Teaching (Occupation),Teacher Effectiveness,Compensation (Remuneration),Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Professional Development,Faculty Workload,Context Effect,Student Evaluation,Academic Achievement

Although Missouri has had a Career Ladder program for teachers since 1987, very little research has been carried out to measure the program's effects and what has been studied has not been comprehensive. This paper examines the program's effect on student achievement across the state, using longitudinal data on district math and reading scores for 524 Missouri school districts over a nine-year period. Our primary specification compares achievement levels in participating districts with a matched group of non-participating districts. We also applied alternative specifications to identify the impact of the program, for example controlling for prior district scores and measuring variations in district participation over time to identify effects of the program within a given district. Across the range of specifications, the estimated effects of the Career Ladder program range from small positive effects to no effect in both math and reading. We conclude that if the Career Ladder has a positive impact on test scores, it is probably very small. (Contains 10 tables and 10 footnotes.)
Effects of the Missouri Career Ladder Program on Teacher Mobility
Author: Booker, Kevin
Date: 2009-05-28
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: School Districts,Teaching (Occupation),Teacher Persistence,Faculty Mobility,Career Development,Decision Making,Focus Groups,Incentives,Faculty Workload,Noninstructional Responsibility,Professional Development,Context Effect,Program Evaluation

One goal of Missouri's Career Ladder program (CL) is to help school districts that have difficulty retaining teachers, particularly those that are small and rural, by offering their teachers opportunities to earn extra pay for extra work and professional development. This report seeks to estimate the effect Career Ladder Program has had on teachers' career decisions, specifically their decisions to stay in a specific school district or to remain in the teaching field. This report presents evidence suggesting that a school district's participation in the Missouri Career Ladder Program would tend to increase retention in the district and the profession, especially for mid-career teachers. The results reported in this paper are especially useful when combined with other findings on this program. Previously reported analyses using 10 years of district-level test score data failed to find evidence for an impact on test scores (Booker and Glazerman 2009). However, focus groups and interviews conducted by Silman and colleagues (Silman and Glazerman) suggest that the program is popular with participating teachers and is run almost entirely by teachers themselves. Thus, when considering the benefits, there was no measurable test score effect, but a positive effect on retention and possibly a positive effect on teacher well-being generated by increasing their incomes by an amount that likely exceeds their hourly rate for the extra work completed. These findings have several implications for the teaching profession. First, they suggest that small bonuses can affect behavior. Second, the magnitudes of the effect estimates remind people that one should not expect &quot;large&quot; effects from small bonuses. Third, the findings suggest that a bonus program that is &quot;not&quot; tied to student performance but offers additional pay for more work for mid-career teachers can make teachers feel better off even if it does not improve their teaching in an easily measurable way. (Contains 7 tables, 2 figures and 3 footnotes.)
Teacher Bonuses for Extra Work: A Profile of Missouri's Career Ladder Program
Author: Silman, Timothy
Date: 2009-05-29
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: School Activities,Incentives,Focus Groups,Academic Achievement,Program Effectiveness,Profiles,Occupational Mobility,Tutoring,Teaching Methods,Theory Practice Relationship,Teaching Experience,Faculty Development,Achievement Gains,Teacher Morale,Job Satisfaction,Teacher Motivation,Interviews,Merit Pay,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Salaries,Teacher Persistence,School District Size,School Districts,Teacher Evaluation

This report set out to profile the Missouri Career Ladder program by delving beneath the surface and comparing how the program works in practice (based on stakeholder accounts) with how it works in theory (based on published statutes and regulations). The authors found that in many respects the program operates as one might expect. Districts implement rules that tend to follow the state guidelines, with some local tailoring. Teachers of a given experience level must perform a set of allowed activities in order to receive payments at one of the three Career Ladder levels. While Career Ladder provided opportunities to supplement salaries by offering extra pay for extra work, in most cases it would not qualify as a performance incentive program for teachers. The use of an evaluation tool (the PBTE) to promote teachers along the career ladder suggests that it should provide incentives for teachers to improve their practice. However, the authors found little evidence that the Performance-Based Teacher Evaluation (PBTE) is applied rigorously or implemented uniformly in a way that would motivate teachers to raise their performance. Instead, Career Ladder payments were seen as a reward for longevity and completion (with documentation) of a set of allowable activities such as tutoring, after-school activities, or approved professional development. The authors also sought to explain how districts and teachers came to be in the program. They found that district size matters. Finally, a goal of the analysis was to identify the mechanisms by which Career Ladder might produce positive impacts. They identified plausible routes whereby the program could raise student achievement, improve teacher satisfaction/morale, and improve teaching via productivity and composition effects. Teachers reported that they get to know their students better as a result of tutoring them outside of class. Three appendices are included: (1) Data and Methods; (2) Protocol for District-Level Interviews; and (3) Focus Group Protocol. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures and 11 footnotes.)
Measuring School Effectiveness in Memphis--Year 2. Final Report
Author: Potamites, Liz
Date: 2009-10-23
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Urban Schools,Charter Schools,Awards,School Effectiveness,School Districts,Principals,Teaching Methods,Measurement Techniques,Teacher Effectiveness,Evaluation Methods,Models,Scores,Achievement Gains

New Leaders for New Schools, a nonprofit organization committed to training school principals, heads the Effective Practices Incentive Community (EPIC), an initiative that offers financial awards to effective educators. New Leaders and its partner organizations have received from the U.S. Department of Education tens of millions of dollars in financial support for EPIC. Through this initiative, New Leaders offers financial awards to educators in two urban school districts and a consortium of charter schools. New Leaders contracted with Mathematica Policy Research to help design the methods for identifying effective schools and teachers. This report presents the method used to identify effective schools in the Memphis City Schools (MCS), one of the partner school districts, during the second year of this project. This year's model differs from last year's model in that the authors used a shrinkage estimator to help ensure that schools with small numbers of students in their model were not overrepresented at the top and bottom of the resulting performance measures. A shrinkage estimator is a statistical technique that &quot;shrinks&quot; the school effects toward the average, with greater shrinkage for schools whose results were less precisely estimated--typically smaller schools. Key aspects of the Mathematica model are outlined in this paper, along with a more detailed technical description, found in the appendix. (Contains 1 table, 3 figures and 12 footnotes.)
An Exploratory Analysis of Adequate Yearly Progress, Identification for Improvement, and Student Achievement in Two States and Three Cities. Technical Report
Author: Gill, Brian
Date: 2009-08-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Educational Indicators,Federal Programs,Educational Improvement,Academic Achievement,Identification,Elementary Secondary Education,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Accountability,Regression (Statistics),Quasiexperimental Design,Urban Schools

Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), requires states to establish standards, assessments, and accountability systems to ensure that every child achieves proficiency in reading and mathematics by the year 2014. This report describes exploratory analyses of the effects of components of the No Child Left Behind accountability system on the achievement of students in affected Title I schools. The analyses used school-level and student-level assessment data from two states and three school districts, employing a quasi-experimental regression discontinuity method to examine whether schools that fell short of &quot;adequate yearly progress&quot; (AYP) or were identified for improvement under NCLB showed subsequent improvements in student achievement. The purpose of the analysis was to explore the usefulness of the regression discontinuity method for examining the effects of the NCLB accountability system. This analysis was conducted under the National Longitudinal Study of No Child Left Behind (NLS-NCLB), which is examining the implementation of key NCLB provisions at the district and school levels. This report divides into five parts. Following the Introduction in Part 1, Part 2 contains: Using RD to Examine the Effects of Not Making AYP and Identification for Improvement. Part 3 continues with: School-Level RD Analysis in Two States; and Part 4 presents: RD Analysis of Student-Level Achievement Data in Three Large Districts. Part 5 concludes with: Summary and Implications. Appended are: (1) Supplemental Tables for Subgroups of Students, and (2) Selection of Sites Included in This Report. (Contains 23 exhibits.)
School Meal Program Participation and Its Association with Dietary Patterns and Childhood  Obesity. Final Report
Author: Gleason, Philip
Date: 2009-07-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Obesity,International Schools,Lunch Programs,Breakfast Programs,Nutrition,Child Health,Eating Habits,Comparative Analysis,Body Composition,Body Weight,At Risk Persons,Racial Differences,African Americans,Whites,Food,Gender Differences,Hispanic Americans,Family Characteristics,Social Services,Employment Level,Parent Influence

We used data from the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment III Study to examine the dietary patterns of school meal program participants and nonparticipants and the relationship between school meal participation and children's BMI and risk of overweight or obesity. School Breakfast Program (SBP) participants consumed more low nutrient energy dense (LNED) baked goods and more calories at breakfast than non participants. National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participants had lower intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and a lower percentage of calories from LNED foods and beverages than nonparticipants. Overall, NSLP participation was not significantly related to students BMI, though participants were less likely to be overweight or obese than non-participants among black students but more likely to be so among "other race" students. SBP participants had significantly lower BMI than non-participants, possibly because SBP participants are more likely to eat breakfast and eat more at breakfast, spreading calorie intake more evenly over the course of the day. A section on Dietary Patterns of School Meal Participants and Nonparticipants: Supplemental Tables is appended. (Contains 40 tables, 4 figures and 41 footnotes.)
Factors Associated with School Meal Participation and the Relationship between Different Participation Measures. Final Report
Author: Moore, Quinn
Date: 2009-05-27
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Middle Schools,Student Attitudes,Lunch Programs,Breakfast Programs,Parents,Certification,Student Participation,Low Income Groups,Institutional Characteristics,Correlation,Evaluation Methods,Costs,Social Attitudes,Social Bias,Elementary Schools,High Schools,Racial Differences,Gender Differences,Age Differences,Family Characteristics,Family Income,Employment Level,Social Services,Hispanic Americans,Whites,African Americans,Parent Influence

This report investigates three important aspects of National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) participation using recently collected data on a large, nationally representative sample of students certified for free and reduced-price meals during the 2005-2006 school year. First, we examine the factors that influence the participation decisions of children from low-income households. In this analysis, school type and student attitudes toward school meals emerged as factors with particularly strong relationships for both school lunch and school breakfast participation. Second, we examine the relationship between school meal certification status and participation using meal certification error as a natural experiment. The most policy-relevant finding from this analysis is evidence that eliminating the reduced-price certification category would increase lunch participation among students eligible for reduced-price meals under the current program rules, but that it would not increase breakfast participation. Finally, we explore the extent to which parent reports of student NSLP/SBP meal participation accurately represent actual school meal participation as determined from school administrative records. This analysis suggests that using parent reports on a short period of time leads to overstatements of actual school meal participation over longer periods, and could cause researchers to incorrectly identify the relationship between participation and other factors. Appendices include: (1) Supplemental Tables for the Analysis of Factors Related to School Meal Participation; (2) Stigma and the Grade Structure of Elementary and Middle Schools; (3) Variation in Participation Over the School Year; (4) Subgroup Findings Related to Individual-Level Comparisons of Parent Reports to Administrative Records; and (5) Factors Associated with Participation. (Contains 29 tables, 3 figures and 33 footnotes.)
Understanding Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Caseloads after Passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Final Report
Author: Pavetti, LaDonna
Date: 2009-09-21
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: State Surveys,Welfare Services,Administrators,Legislation,Public Policy

In this paper, the authors examine how policy and structural changes states made in response to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) may influence the level and composition of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseload. This paper grew out of a 50-state survey Mathematica Policy Research conducted on diversion programs which revealed that states were providing cash assistance to some families with children outside of their TANF programs in order to meet the higher effective work participation rates established by the DRA (Rosenberg et al. 2008). This paper also draws on field visits Mathematica conducted to state and local welfare offices to study innovative strategies states were employing to increase the number of recipients participating in work activities (Pavetti et al. 2008). All analyses of caseload data rely on the official TANF caseload numbers published by the Administration for Children and Families. The audience for this paper includes researchers, policy makers, and program administrators who use TANF caseload data to assess the functioning of the program. The primary aim of the paper is to provide readers with background information  that can improve their ability to interpret changes in the TANF caseload (or more broadly in the receipt of public cash assistance), especially during these challenging economic times and as policy makers consider the reauthorization of the program. The authors start with a description of state cash assistance caseloads for families with children prior to the DRA, which provides important contextual information for understanding state responses to the DRA and their potential influence on TANF caseloads. In the second section, they describe the DRA provisions directly related to TANF. In the third section, they describe policy and structural changes made in response to the DRA and discuss their influence on state TANF caseloads. The final section offers their conclusions. (Contains 5 figures and 1 table.)
Making Connections: Using Social Network Analysis for Program Evaluation. Issue Brief. Number 1
Author: Honeycutt, Todd
Date: 2009-11-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Evaluation Research,Program Evaluation,Formative Evaluation,Network Analysis,Social Networks,Feedback (Response),Partnerships in Education,Surveys,Evaluators

Social network analysis (SNA) is a methodological approach to measuring and mapping relationships. It can be used to study whole networks, all of the ties within a defined group, or connections that individuals have in their personal communities. The resulting graph-based structures illustrate the composition and effectiveness of networks on a variety of levels. Programs that can benefit from a social network perspective are common in evaluation research. As part of a process evaluation, SNA can shed light into the "black box" of how and why people and groups interact. This brief introduces the concepts behind SNA and illustrates how to use this method in process and outcome evaluations. (Contains 4 figures, 1 table, and 1 footnote.)
A Paradigm Shift to Improve Academic Performance
Author: Rulloda, Rudolfo B.
Date: 2009-11-15
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Computer Literacy,Models,High School Students,Academic Achievement,Citizenship Education,Mentors,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Dropouts,At Risk Students,Educational Change,School Business Relationship,Partnerships in Education,Vocational Education,Employment Opportunities

A shift to computer skills for improving academic performances was investigated. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 increased the amount of high school dropouts after the Act was enacted. At-risk students were included in this research study. Several models described using teachers for core subjects and mentors to built citizenship skills, along with computer skills, might increase academic performances. The use of business partnership provided the possibility to enhancing job opportunities for high school dropouts still seeking employment.
Update on the Governor's Proposed 2009-10 Budget. Report 09-01
Author: Woolfork, Kevin
Date: 2009-01-09
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Higher Education,Elementary Secondary Education,Budgets,Grants,Income,State Officials

On December 31, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released the summary of his proposed budget for fiscal year 2009-10, including proposed changes to the current year (2008-09) budget. The complete budget was released on January 9, 2009. The budget plans assume current-year General Fund revenues of $91 billion--down from September's $102 billion estimate. Budget year revenues are projected at $98 billion. The 2009-10 budget will begin with a $13.7 billion deficit carryover from 2008-09 if no actions are taken. The Governor proposes a mix of spending reductions, tax and fee increases internal fund borrowing, securitizing the California State Lottery, and selling Reimbursement Warrants to close the budget gap. The budget also includes proposals to relax environmental and labor regulations to accelerate public works projects. Herein, the impact of budget proposals on higher education and K-12 education is highlighted. The Legislative Analyst's review of the proposed budget is also presented. (Lists 3 online resources.)
Access and Equity for all Students: Students with Disabilities. Report 09-02
Author: Humphrey, Karen
Date: 2009-03-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Higher Education,Advisory Committees,Disabilities,Access to Education,Equal Education,Homosexuality,Federal Legislation

Access and equity for all students in higher education continues to be a high priority for the California Postsecondary Education Commission. Recent work in this area has focused on students with disabilities as well as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) students. The Commission formed an Access and Equity for All Students Advisory Committee in spring 2008 to discuss challenges faced by these students, the data available, and recommendations to expand opportunities and improve outcomes. At the Commission's March 2009 meeting, a panel of advocates and students discussed issues faced by students with disabilities, similar to a panel for LGBT experts presented in December. This report summarizes the status of research on students with disabilities and introduces the panel. At the June 2009 meeting, Commission staff and the advisory committee will offer policy recommendations on improving access and equity in higher education for both groups of students.