ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Linking Ready Kids to Ready Schools: A View from Pennsylvania
Author: Kellogg Foundation
Date: 2008-12-05
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: School Readiness,Educational Strategies,Change Strategies,Transitional Programs,Articulation (Education),Partnerships in Education,Early Childhood Education,State Standards,State Programs,Educational Improvement,Improvement Programs,Politics of Education,Program Descriptions,Alignment (Education)

Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that are leading the way in ensuring children receive a continuum of care starting at birth and extending throughout childhood so that they can move seamlessly from home to child care to preschool to school, and then from grade to grade. That means children have to be ready for school. It also means that schools have to be ready for them. Change is happening, step by step. In an attempt to foster far-reaching, community-based strategies, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) has invested $57 million to establish incubators in seven states and the District of Columbia through SPARK, Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids. SPARK aims to improve education for at-risk children by engendering partnerships among parents, early education providers, elementary school teachers and principals--to provide seamless transitions. Further, in 2008, hundreds of educators, education experts, community leaders and policymakers gathered in Pennsylvania and three other states at Governors' Forums: Linking Ready Kids to Ready Schools, sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation and ECS. There they traded experiences and ideas for how to smooth transitions for the earliest learners and set them on a path to success. This document is an overview and summary of the Pennsylvania Governor's Forum: Linking Ready Kids to Ready Schools. The forum, supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Education Commission of the States, was held on December 4-5, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This report describes how Pennsylvania is blazing trails as the first state to embark on a comprehensive effort to align learning standards from birth through third grade. It also has established learning standards for infants and toddlers as well as for children in preschool, kindergarten and first and second grades; crafted assessment tools to measure children's achievement and progress as they enter kindergarten; expanded access to full-day kindergarten; created a unified approach to quality standards, professional development, program design and advocacy in early learning; developed a system to track children as they move through early learning, school and government agencies, and changed its certification system to align teachers' preparation with the developmental stage of their students.
Linking Ready Kids to Ready Schools: &quot;Building Policy on State and Community Successes&quot;
Author: Kellogg Foundation
Date: 2009-03-31
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: School Readiness,Child Advocacy,Conferences (Gatherings),Articulation (Education),Transitional Programs,Alignment (Education),Change Strategies,Educational Change,Position Papers,Educational Policy,Partnerships in Education,School Community Programs,Early Childhood Education

More than 200 educators and child advocates from around the country issued a &quot;call to action&quot; during a historic national forum in late March, mobilizing in Washington to develop policies that will link ready kids to ready schools and set America's youngest learners on a path to lifelong achievement. The two-day event in late March--co-sponsored by the Education Commission of the States, Voices for America's Children, the Children's Leadership Council and select members of the Learning First Alliance--was the first national forum to focus on the dual needs of preparing children for school and preparing schools for children. It brought together key educators, academics, community activists and education advocates from 35 states to launch nothing less than a movement intended to fashion a seamless system for children from birth through age eight. Research has shown that early learning is critical to children's long-term educational attainment. The goal is success by third grade. The forum demonstrated not only the acceptance of birth through eight as critical learning years-- a dramatic shift from earlier this decade when educators zeroed in on the pre-kindergarten set--but the connections between early learning and long-term achievement. Early learning now is considered so essential as to ultimately impact America's job market, ingenuity and even national security.
School Principals and School Performance. CALDER Working Paper No. 38
Author: Clark, Damon
Date: 2009-12-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Assistant Principals,Mathematics Tests,Principals,Academic Achievement,Administrator Characteristics,Educational Quality,Scores,Correlation,Educational Attainment,Work Experience,Achievement Tests,Administrator Education,Professional Development,Urban Schools,Experience,Personnel Selection,Labor Turnover,Disadvantaged Schools,Equal Education,Promotion (Occupational),Educational Policy,Individual Characteristics,Public Schools

We use detailed data from New York City to estimate how the characteristics of school principals relate to school performance, as measured by students' standardized exam scores and other outcomes. We find little evidence of any relationship between school performance and principal education and pre-principal work experience, although we do find some evidence that experience as an assistant principal at the principal's current school is associated with higher performance among inexperienced principals. However, we find a positive relationship between principal experience and school performance, particularly for math test scores and student absences. The experience profile is especially steep over  the first few years of principal experience. Finally, we find mixed evidence on the relationship between formal principal training and professional development programs and school performance, with the caveat that the selection and assignment of New York City principals participating in these programs make it hard to isolate their effects. The positive returns to principal experience suggest that policies which cause principals to leave their posts early (e.g., via early retirement or a move into district administration) will be costly, and the tendency for less-advantaged schools to be run by less experienced principals could exacerbate educational inequality. (Contains 1 figure, 12 tables, and 18 notes.)
What States Can Do to Improve Teacher Effectiveness. K-12 Policy
Author: Jupp, Brad
Date: 2009-12-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Equal Education,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Change,State Government,Definitions,Accountability,Evaluation Methods,Educational Policy,Teacher Competencies,Outcomes of Education,Teacher Education Programs,Program Effectiveness,Correlation,Teacher Certification,Tenure,Career Development,Rewards,Recognition (Achievement)

Today, the national conversation about educational equity and reform offers an extraordinary opportunity to transform the teaching career. Educators and policymakers understand that solutions lie not in tinkering around the edges but in a concerted effort to create systemic change. To succeed, states must make rapid progress in four areas: (1) Define teacher effectiveness; (2) Build better systems to measure teacher effectiveness; (3) Base milestones in the teaching career on measured effectiveness; and (4) Establish and enforce a policy of equitable access to effective teachers and align other reforms to support this effort.
The Value of Value-Added Data. K-12 Policy
Author: Jerald, Craig D.
Date: 2009-11-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Data,Information Utilization,School Districts,Student Evaluation,Academic Achievement,Achievement Gap,Track System (Education),Mathematics Education,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Policy,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Evaluation,Teacher Placement,Faculty Mobility

Researchers demonstrated a quarter century ago that schools could effectively employ value-added statistical methods. At the time, only a few states and districts had accumulated the necessary annual assessment data to take advantage of the breakthrough. Today, every state has the capacity to provide educators with value-added data. Yet most American teachers and administrators still lack access to such information. In its proposed regulations for the Race to the Top program, the U.S. Department of Education has signaled that it wants to change this. Educators should welcome the push. Principals, teachers, and parents will gain valuable information about students' past and predicted performance. School and district administrators will have more information about teachers and the programs intended to hone teachers' skills. Last but certainly not least, teachers will have more information about the effectiveness of their own classroom instruction. If used wisely, such information can lead to better informed decisions that benefit everyone with a stake in improving teaching and learning. (Contains 2 figures and 23 notes.)
Making the Numbers Add up: A Guide for Using Data in College Access and Success Programs. Results and Reflections. An Evaluation Report
Author: Lumina Foundation for Education
Date: 2009-10-00
Type: Guides - General
Subjects: College Bound Students,Access to Education,Guides,Data,Educational Indicators,Role Perception,Use Studies,Partnerships in Education,Check Lists,Data Collection,Organizational Change,Management Information Systems,Research Reports,Policy Formation

The purpose of this guide is to help readers clarify their roles in the college access and success system and to identify how they might use data to create change for students. This guide shows how data can strengthen current programs and support broader changes that ease the path to college for students. This guide illuminates how a long-term data-collection strategy can help organizations both maximize the impact of their own programming and strengthen the connections of their work to other programs, thus improving student experiences and outcomes. Section I presents an overview of the college access and success system, includes a brief description of the various stakeholders and their roles and concludes with an examination of data's role in building the system. Section II focuses on how stakeholders can use data to develop partnerships in increasing college access. Finally, Section III examines how data can improve individual programs. The guide concludes with a brief summary and a checklist on data collection and use. Appended are: (1) About the OMG Center for Collaborative Learning; and (2) Selected electronic resources on data solutions and usage. (Contains 6 figures and 6 footnotes.)
Kinship Care When Parents Are Incarcerated: What We Know, What We Can Do. A Review of the Research and Recommendations for Action
Author: Hairston, Creasie Finney
Date: 2009-05-00
Type: Information Analyses
Subjects: Correctional Institutions,Institutionalized Persons,Parents,Child Welfare,Caregivers,Family Relationship,Parent Role,Foster Care,Grandparents Raising Grandchildren,Child Custody,Family Problems,Social Services,Social Science Research,Public Policy

This report examines the involvement of the child welfare system in children's care and protection when parents are incarcerated, with a focus on kinship care. Kinship care is defined as care in which relatives other than a child's parent assume parenting responsibilities for the child. It is a common care arrangement for children of incarcerated parents. There are three main forms of kinship care. Formal kinship care, also called relative foster care, refers to care provided by relatives when children are under the custody of the child welfare system. Voluntary kinship care typically refers to care provided by relatives when children are involved in the child welfare system, but not under the state custody. Private kinship care refers to private arrangements that families make without child welfare system involvement. Given the significant role these grandparents and other relative caregivers are playing in the lives of children of incarcerated parents, there is an urgent need to collect and analyze existing research, as well as conduct new research in key areas. There is also a need to share knowledge broadly across disciplines and provide opportunities for ongoing feedback from those directly involved in kinship care relationships, including children, parents and caregivers. This report also describes what current research says, and explores what people need to know and what they can do to develop more effective and compassionate social policies and programs. Furthermore, the knowledge and experience the author has gained from several years of research and consultation on family-oriented correctional programs, as well as communications with prisoners and their family members, provide context for the topics covered and the interpretation of research findings. (Individual sections contain footnotes.) [An earlier version of this report appears as a chapter entitled "Kinship Care When Parents are Incarcerated" in Gleeson, J. & Hairston, C.F. (Editors). Kinship Care Improving Practice Through Research. Washington, D.C.: CWLA Press, 1999.]
Rebuild the Nation's Child Welfare System. Issue Brief
Author: Annie E. Casey Foundation
Date: 2009-01-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Social Services,Child Welfare,Administrative Organization,Organizational Change,Child Abuse,Child Neglect,Parent Child Relationship,Foster Care,Federal Government,Public Policy,Economic Climate,Government Role,Financial Policy

More than 800,000 American children spend some time in foster care each year, most because they have been victims of child abuse or neglect. The families of 3.5 million children are investigated or assessed for alleged maltreatment each year, and more than 900,000 children are determined to be victims--three-quarters of them neglected, and one-quarter physically or sexually abused. To assist these children, the nation's child welfare systems spend more than $25 billion per year, of which more than $12 billion comes from the federal government. Yet there is broad consensus that these systems, despite the extraordinary efforts of many committed managers, supervisors, and frontline workers, fail to produce the results needed. Too many of the children who encounter them remain unsafe, and too many do not have basic needs such as education and health care met. Most important, far too many of these children and youth are left without the permanent, supportive family every child needs to grow into a healthy and productive adult. The current economic crisis will create ever-higher demands on already over-stretched child welfare systems--and even more reason to ensure that every dollar invested in child welfare is spent wisely. The incoming administration and Congress have an extraordinary opportunity to drive real reform of child welfare nationally, by changing federal policies that are fundamentally misaligned with the goals they are supposed to promote. This paper provides recommendations that most likely will solve these problems such as: (1) Change federal fiscal policy to better promote permanence and well-being; (2) Promote innovation, evaluation, and widespread implementation of policies and practices supported by strong evidence; and (3) Improve both oversight and support of state child welfare systems.
Disaster Preparedness Resource Guide for Child Welfare Agencies
Author: Berne, Rebecca
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Welfare Services,Child Welfare,Public Agencies,Natural Disasters,Emergency Programs,Crisis Management,Best Practices,Resource Materials,Planning

This guide offers best practices for disaster management at child welfare agencies. Its recommendations are firmly rooted in published disaster-related research and the advice of human service and preparedness experts. It is not a reinvention of disaster management--much quality work has been done in this field--but a synthesis of experts' recommendations, geared specifically toward child welfare agencies. A number of previously published resources on disaster management helped to inform this guide's recommendations and they are referenced throughout the guide and in the Index of Resources. The guide's recommendations are meant to be adaptable for use by agencies in states and tribes across the United States. The hypothetical scenarios that begin each section of the guide are designed to prompt agencies to consider the full range of possible disasters (&quot;all-hazards&quot;) alongside the most likely events. The guide also highlights ways in which each element of a disaster management plan must suit the particular challenges faced by child welfare populations. It is organized according to common phases of disaster management:  mitigation and preparedness, response, and recovery. A discussion on pandemic preparedness is appended. An index of resources is also included. (Contains 78 endnotes.)
The Final Report of the Higher Education Work Group
Author: Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, Frankfort.
Date: 2009-11-03
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Higher Education,Student Financial Aid,Planning Commissions,Statewide Planning,Change Strategies,Research Reports,Educational Improvement,Improvement Programs,School Readiness,College Transfer Students,Operating Expenses,Cost Effectiveness,Educational Change,Educational Policy

In October 2008, Governor Steven Beshear formed the Higher Education Work Group (HEWG), a bipartisan body of prominent business, education, and policy leaders. As a first step, the Governor called on the group to propose measures that could be implemented immediately to improve college access and affordability in the Commonwealth. HEWG recommends that the Governor consider the actions presented in this report to improve state financial aid, college transfer, and the efficiency of Kentucky's colleges and universities. All but three of the recommendations require no new revenue; the recommendations requiring additional funding (IB, 3D, and 3G) are included only for future consideration or action when economic conditions improve. The 14 recommendations in the Executive Summary represent the highest priorities of the HEWG. Seven additional recommendations appear in the body of the report (two on student financial aid, two on transfer, and three on cost containment). This final report reflects the consensus view of the HEWG and marks the completion of its gubernatorial charge. Appended to this report is the Governor's Revised Charge; a Letter from Coalition of Faculty Senate Leadership (COSFL); and an Executive Summary of the HEWG's January Report. (Contains 10 endnotes and a glossary.)
A Need For Correction: Reforming New York's Juvenile Justice System. Child Welfare Watch. Vol. 18, Fall 2009
Author: White, Andrew
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Collected Works - Serial
Subjects: Health Services,Mental Health Programs,Child Welfare,Juvenile Justice,Guidelines,Psychiatric Services,Therapeutic Environment,Mental Disorders,Institutionalized Persons,Child Abuse,Correctional Institutions,Delinquent Rehabilitation,Juvenile Courts,Delinquency,Youth Problems,State Agencies,State Government,Public Policy,Private Sector,Group Homes,Family Involvement,Community Programs

In the wake of a U.S. Justice Department investigation that found widespread use of excessive force by staff at upstate psychiatric care facilities for mentally ill children, this new edition of Child Welfare Watch identifies shortcomings in mental health services and explores possible solutions, including the expansion of alternatives to incarceration for juvenile delinquents. Contents include: (1) Recommendations and Solutions; (2) Where the Sick get Sicker; (3) Private Institutions, Public Costs; (4) Admissions of Juvenile Delinquents and Juvenile Offenders to Institutions 1998-2008; (5) How New York's Juvenile Justice System Works; (6) Homes for Teens, Not Lock-Ups; (7) Keeping it in the Family; (8) On the Same Page; (9) What are the Alternatives?; (10) Snapshot of Juvenile Justice in NYC 2008; and (11) Watching the Numbers.
Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills
Author: Institute of Museum and Library Services
Date: 2009-07-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Library Role,Museums,Program Effectiveness,Public Libraries,Educational Technology,Library Services,Information Literacy,Communication Skills,Computer Literacy,Critical Thinking,Thinking Skills,Problem Solving,Creativity,Civics,Global Approach,Consciousness Raising,Citizenship Education,Labor Force Development,Library Skills,Self Evaluation (Groups)

This paper describes a project that underscores the critical role of this nation's museums and libraries in helping citizens build such 21st century skills as information, communications and technology literacy, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, civic literacy, and global awareness. Recognizing that every individual requires these competencies to succeed in 21st century life and work, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) offers the &quot;Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills&quot; project to: (1) Support museums and public libraries in envisioning and defining their roles as institutions of learning in the 21st century; and (2) Enhance understanding among policymakers and other stakeholders about the integral roles museums and libraries play in creating an engaged citizenry and competitive workforce. &quot;Museums, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills&quot; includes three components: (1) The Report, which outlines a vision for the role of libraries and museums in the national dialogue around learning and 21st century skills; this report also includes case studies of innovative audience engagement and 21st century skills practices from across the country; (2) The Self-Assessment Tool, which allows museums and libraries to determine where they fit on the continuum of 21st century skills operations and programming; and (3) The Online Self-Assessment, an interactive survey that quickly analyzes an institution's 21st century strategies and describes next steps for action. (Contains 8 footnotes.)