ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Apprentices &amp; Trainees: Early Trend Estimates. March Quarter 2010
Author: National Centre for Vocational Education Research
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Apprenticeships,Trainees,National Surveys,Trend Analysis,Foreign Countries,Graduation Rate,Vocational Education

This new publication presents early estimates of apprentice and trainee commencements in the March quarter 2010. Indicative information about the current quarter is presented here in response to the demand for more timely data. The most recent figures are estimated, taking into account reporting lags that occur at the time of data collection. The early trend estimates are derived from the National Apprentice and Trainee Collection no.63, March 2010. Data are only available for commencements at the national level and have been seasonally adjusted and smoothed. Early indications show that: (1) Trade commencements continue to trend upward from the June quarter 2009, with the March quarter 2010 figure indicating a particularly large increase; and (2) Non-trade commencements indicate a drop in the March quarter 2010, thus ending the upward trend of the previous three quarters. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)
Parent Involvement in the Boston Pilot Schools: Lessons from a Unique Urban Network
Author: Ouimette, Monique
Date: 2002-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Parent Participation,Academic Achievement,Educational Change,Parent School Relationship,Urban Schools,Public Schools,Participative Decision Making,Parent Teacher Conferences,Exhibits,Student Evaluation,Parent Education,Parent Associations,Communication Strategies,Institutional Autonomy,Governance,School Schedules,Personnel Selection,Budgets,School Councils

Parent involvement in their children's education is widely regarded as a way to help students succeed in school. High parental involvement has been linked to increases in student achievement and engagement in school. As a result, efforts to increase parent involvement in their children's education, both in and out of school, have been included in many school improvement and reform efforts over the last two decades. This paper focuses on preliminary findings of a study on parent involvement in the Pilot Schools. The goal of this paper is to present the range of opportunities that Pilot Schools provide for parents in their communities. As it is the first in a series of reports, it forms a base for  future studies on the impact of parent involvement in the Pilot Schools. A list of autonomies is appended. (Contains 2 footnotes.)
Turning Points: Transforming Middle Schools. Design Overview
Author: Center for Collaborative Education
Date: 2001-01-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Middle Schools,Adolescent Development,Educational Improvement,Improvement Programs,Curriculum Design,Instructional Design,Expectation,School Support,Educational Principles,Educational Practices,Educational Strategies,Cost Effectiveness,Models,Educational Change

Turning Points is a New American Schools design for comprehensive middle school reform coordinated by the Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) in Boston Massachusetts. It focuses on creating a professional collaborative culture and using data-based inquiry to improve teaching and learning for all students. Turning Points seeks to create high-performing schools, especially those serving high percentages of low-income students and students of color. The design is driven by one overarching goal--ensuring success for every student. Based on twelve years of research and practice in urban, rural, and suburban middle schools across the country, Turning Points helps middle schools to strengthen their academic core and to create caring and challenging learning communities that meet the needs of young adolescents. The design grew out of the seminal &quot;Turning Points&quot; report issued by the Carnegie Corporation in 1989, which concentrated on the considerable risks adolescents face as they reach the &quot;turning point&quot; between childhood and adulthood.
Are School Factors Important for Measuring Teacher Effectiveness? A Multilevel Technique to Predict Student Gains through a Value-Added Approach
Author: Subedi, Bidya Raj
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Teaching Experience,Measurement Techniques,Achievement Gains,Mathematics Achievement,Educational Quality,Teacher Characteristics,Multidimensional Scaling,Causal Models,Pedagogical Content Knowledge,Effect Size,Predictor Variables,Teacher Certification,Evaluation Methods,Teacher Evaluation

This paper investigates the effect of teacher quality, represented by teacher level characteristics, on mathematics gain scores employing multilevel (or three-level hierarchical linear model, HLM, based) unconditional and conditional value-added model (VAM). We found the significant effects of teacher's mathematics content certification, teacher experience, and the interaction effects of mathematics content certification with student level predictors. Although school poverty significantly predicted gain scores, the school effect for predicting gain scores was negligible. (Contains 2 tables.)
Report Card on the Unfunded Mentoring Program in Indiana: New Teachers' Voices Are Finally Heard
Author: Freemyer, Jim
Date: 2010-05-01
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Mentors,Teacher Effectiveness,Beginning Teachers,Financial Support,Beginning Teacher Induction,Teacher Persistence,Program Effectiveness,Comparative Analysis,Correlation,Teacher Attitudes

The need to support and retain beginning teachers is vital. This study sought to determine if the mentoring programs in Indiana are effectively supporting and retaining new teachers. The study has national ramifications in that it also seeks to determine if withdrawing an annual stipend for mentors to work with new teachers negatively impacts the effectiveness of statewide mentor programs and teacher longevity in education. Can teachers receive the support they so desperately need from mentors whose financial support from the state has been eliminated? This study examined surveys from 1,539 new teachers to assess the effectiveness of their mentor experiences. The data was also compared to similar data from new teachers whose mentors did receive financial support from the state. The study found that new teachers were meeting significantly less often with their mentors than they did before 2005. The research also concluded that lack of financial support for mentors adversely impacted perceived teacher longevity in education and new teacher effectiveness. How often mentors met with teachers positively correlated to (a) how new teachers responded to the question, did having a mentor impact how long you would stay in education, (b) how new teachers responded to did having a mentor make you a better teacher, and (c) how new teachers responded to did having a mentor affect your students' learning. According to the 1,539 new teachers with valid surveys, effective mentoring had a significant impact on their teaching and their perceived longevity in education. Therefore, the decision to cease financial support for mentors has adversely impacted the effectiveness of Indiana's new teacher. (Contains 12 tables.)
How Teachers and School Administrators Connect Large-Scale Assessment with School Improvement Planning
Author: Volante, Louis
Date: 2009-04-16
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Educational Change,Foreign Countries,Decision Making,Educational Improvement,Group Testing,Educational Planning,Interviews,Administrator Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Theory Practice Relationship,Evaluation Utilization,Evidence,Alignment (Education),Educational Administration

This study explored how teachers and school administrators connect large-scale assessment results with school improvement planning. Using a semi-structured format, 20 teachers and 18 administrators were interviewed from two school districts in southern Ontario, Canada. The interview protocol contained a range of questions related to teaching and administrative experience, large-scale assessment knowledge, professional development, and instructional planning in response to large-scale assessment results. Analysis of the interviews followed a constant comparison method and suggested few educators, particularly at the secondary level, were able to use large-scale assessment results in a sophisticated fashion for data-driven decision-making. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to professional development, capacity building, and instructional leadership.
Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters. KIDS COUNT Special Report
Author: Fiester, Leila
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Low Income,Dropouts,Children,Low Income Groups,Reading Achievement,Achievement Gap,Achievement Gains,Reading Improvement,Expectation,Elementary School Students,Attendance,Reading Instruction,Limited English Speaking,Body Weight,Preschool Children,Preschool Education,Elementary Education,Statistical Data,Grade Repetition

Over the past decade, Americans have become increasingly concerned about the high numbers--and costs--of high school dropouts. The time is now to build a similar consensus around this less-recognized but equally urgent fact: The pool from which employers, colleges, and the military draw is too small, and still shrinking, because millions of American children get to fourth grade without learning to read proficiently. And that puts them on the dropout track. This special report highlights the causes and consequences of low reading proficiency and proposes some essential steps toward closing the gap between those who can and cannot read proficiently, raising the bar for what people expect all American children to know and be able to do, and improving the overall achievement of children from low-income families. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure, and 115 endnotes.)
Integration Defended: Berkeley Unified's Strategy to Maintain School Diversity
Author: Chavez, Lisa
Date: 2009-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: School Districts,Urban Schools,Student Diversity,School Desegregation,Desegregation Methods,State Legislation,Desegregation Litigation,School Choice,Community Characteristics,Residential Patterns,Race,Ethnicity,Socioeconomic Status,Racial Composition,Desegregation Plans,Elementary Schools,Middle Schools,High Schools

In June 2007, the Supreme Court limited the tools that school districts could use to voluntarily integrate schools. In the aftermath of the decision, educators around the country have sought models of successful plans that would also be legal. One such model may be Berkeley Unified School District's (BUSD) plan. Earlier this year, the California Supreme Court declined to review the appellate court's decision upholding the legality of the district's integration plan; the decision noted the district did not use students' race-ethnicity in a way that violated Proposition 209, an initiative that prohibits the preferential or discriminatory use of race-ethnicity in public institutions. This report explores the BUSD plan and examines what it offers as lessons in a time of growing demographic and legal complexity. BUSD's integration plan uses two levels of geography--zoning and planning areas, which are 4-8 block groups that are coded according to their racial-ethnic, economic and educational demographics--in its &quot;controlled choice&quot; plan. While managing families' school preferences and a set of priorities, the plan seeks to maximize school diversity so that each school reflects its zone-wide diversity as measured by the planning areas. What is innovative about BUSD's plan is that every student living in a particular planning area is assigned the same diversity code, based on the area's population characteristics regardless of their own individual characteristics. Drawn from a year-long study of the BUSD integration plan, this report reviews the district's historical commitment to desegregation, describes how the current plan works, analyzes the extent the plan desegregates the schools despite being located in racially and socioeconomically segregated neighborhoods, and discusses the plan's implementation including the policies and practices that promote participation in its controlled choice assignment plan and matriculation once assigned. Academic Achievement is appended. (Contains 9 tables, 9 figures, and 93 footnotes.)[The foreword to this report was written by Gary Orfield.]
CoSN Senior Delegation to Scotland and Netherlands: Real Investment/Real Innovation (November 6-14, 2009)
Author: Spero, Irene, Comp.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Global Approach,Foreign Countries,Technology Uses in Education,Technology Integration,Strategic Planning,Comparative Education,International Educational Exchange,Educational Practices,Classroom Techniques,Change Strategies,Educational Trends,School Visitation,Performance Factors,Educational Innovation,Investment

In November, 2009 The Consortium of School Networking (CoSN) led a United States (US) &quot;Senior Delegation&quot; to the Netherlands and Scotland as part of its ongoing efforts to facilitate a global conversation on the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in education. Building upon the experiences of three previous delegations--Western Europe (2002), Australia (2004), Scandinavia (2007)--the &quot;agenda&quot; included high-level meetings with both public and private-sector officials and visits to schools exemplifying the ways in which ICT is being deployed in classrooms. Guided by the fundamental assumption that the US can learn from other countries, just as other countries can learn from the US, the goals of the delegation were to: (1) Determine how strategic investments in ICT by Scotland and the Netherlands are preparing students for success in a global economy; (2) Explore innovative uses technology, including Web 2.0 collaborative tools, national learning platforms and other cutting edge applications; (3) Discover common challenges in using ICT to transform learning; (4) Identify innovative policies and practices in Scotland and the Netherlands that might be replicated in the US; and (5) Share the findings with interested groups and individuals. The educators the participants met during their visit share many of the same problems they are encountering in the US and grapple with similar issues--how to transform education through the use of ICT, how to engage students for higher achievement, how to measure this achievement, how to retrain teachers to use the new technologies and teaching strategies and certainly how to fund and sustain it. But the approaches and the solutions in addressing these problems are unique. In each of these countries they saw exemplary ICT integration in schools. Students were engaged, working together and there was a seamless, nearly transparent use of technology to support learning. But, as the delegation noted, these innovations are taking place in the US in some classrooms. They each could name classrooms and schools that are utilizing these tools to support learning. The differences are policies that support and encourage innovations to scale up successfully and in a shorter time frame
Looking Collaboratively at Student and Teacher Work. Turning Points: Transforming Middle Schools
Author: Burke, Peggy H.
Date: 2001-01-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Middle Schools,Communities of Practice,Educational Practices,Guidelines,Protocol Analysis,Change Strategies,Educational Change,Educational Principles,Teacher Collaboration,Academic Standards,Evaluation Methods,Student Evaluation,Teacher Evaluation

Looking collaboratively at student and teacher work is a process in which teachers primarily, but also administrators, parents, students, and members of the community, look at student and/or teacher work with the goal of improving student learning. To structure the process and create a safe, caring environment, teachers use a protocol to facilitate the conversation. A protocol is a structured format with a set schedule and specific guidelines for communication among participants. This guide provides six protocols, structured formats that will help a school community engage in the process of collaboratively analyzing and discussing teacher and student work. The protocols help to create a safe climate for sharing work and looking at it from multiple perspectives. They vary in focus and are suited to different goals. (Contains 10 footnotes.)
Theories of Advising
Author: Bailey, Steven J.
Date: 2010-05-18
Type: Opinion Papers
Subjects: Higher Education,Academic Advising,Models,Administrative Organization,College Faculty

Theories have been shown that when advisors do their job of advising, there may be more to the eye than what it seems. We need to show the whole picture of the different aspects to a difficult and precise way of communicating to students about how they should be advised properly and with the least amount of effort available for them to learn on their own. Ethical and moral ways of advising should then become second-nature for professional advisors. How can most of us direct these efforts to become better learning tools for our advisees?
Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2007-08 (Fiscal Year 2008). First Look. NCES 2010-326
Author: Zhou, Lei
Date: 2010-05-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Expenditures,Educational Finance,State Departments of Education,Data Collection,Public Education,Income,Public Agencies,Federal Government,Education,Surveys,School Districts,Public Schools,Vocational Education,Charter Schools,Special Education,Statistics,Statistical Data

The Common Core of Data (CCD) is an annual collection of public elementary and secondary education data by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. The data are reported by state education agencies (SEAs). The finance data are reported to the U.S. Census Bureau, which acts as the data collection agent for NCES. The data are collected through an online data collection site. Student membership data are reported to the U.S. Department of Education's ED&quot;Facts&quot; data collection system. This report presents findings on public education revenues and expenditures using fiscal year 2008 (FY 08) data from the National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS) of the CCD survey system. Programs covered in the NPEFS include regular, special, and vocational education; charter schools (if they reported data to the SEA); and state-run education programs (such as special education centers or education programs for incarcerated youth). While the tables in this report include data for all NPEFS respondents, the discussion in the text is limited to the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Appendices include: (1) Methodology and Technical Notes; and (2) Common Core of Data Glossary. (Contains 8 tables, 3 figures, and 3 footnotes.) [For the Fiscal Year 2007 edition, see ED504440.]
Head Start: Undercover Testing Finds Fraud and Abuse at Selected Head Start Centers. Testimony before the Committee on Education and Labor, House of Representatives. GAO-10-733T
Author: Kutz, Gregory D.
Date: 2010-05-18
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Preschool Education,Integrated Services,National Programs,Low Income Groups,Deception,Family Income,Eligibility,Enrollment,Investigations,Grants,Federal Aid

The Head Start program, overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services and administered by the Office of Head Start, provides child development services primarily to low-income families and their children. Federal law allows up to 10 percent of enrolled families to have incomes above 130 percent of the poverty line--GAO (Government Accountability Office) refers to them as &quot;over-income.&quot; Families with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty line, or who meet certain other criteria, are referred to as &quot;under-income.&quot; Nearly 1 million children a year participate in Head Start, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided an additional $2.1 billion in funding. GAO received hotline tips alleging fraud and abuse by grantees. In response, GAO investigated the validity of the allegations, conducted undercover tests to determine if other centers were committing fraud, and documented instances where potentially eligible children were put on Head Start wait lists. The investigation of allegations is ongoing. To perform this work, GAO interviewed grantees and a number of informants and reviewed documentation. GAO used fictitious identities and bogus documents for proactive testing of Head Start centers. GAO also interviewed families on wait lists. Results of undercover tests and family interviews cannot be projected to the entire Head Start program. In a corrective action briefing, agency officials agreed to address identified weaknesses. (Contains 2 footnotes and 2 tables.)
Guide to Curriculum Development. Turning Points: Transforming Middle Schools
Author: Lummis, Ben
Date: 2001-01-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Adolescent Development,Curriculum Development,Middle Schools,Educational Principles,Educational Strategies,Curriculum Design,Instructional Design,Design Preferences,Change Strategies,Educational Change,Educational Needs,Student Needs,Curriculum Guides,Educational Improvement,Improvement Programs

The educational needs of middle school students are truly unique. In no other period of PreK-12 education can one find such a wide range of physical, social, and cognitive development among students. For students, the middle school years can be a time of both great vulnerability and great responsiveness to change. These years are highly formative for behavior patterns in education and health that have enduring, lifelong significance. The challenge for middle schools is to help provide the building blocks of adolescent development and preparation for adult life. Developing curriculum that meets the needs of middle school students is a complex process that rarely follows a prescribed pattern. Teachers may come up with ideas for projects, themes, and activities on the way to work, in the middle of class, during a conversation with a colleague, and even in the shower. Some teachers begin with a theme while others start with habits of mind they want their students to acquire. Some teachers use state frameworks and standards as a starting point to curriculum development. Still others build a unit from an idea for a project. The purpose of this guide is not to dictate how teachers should develop their curriculum, but rather to propose that certain basic principles, supported by Turning Points work in schools, underpin curriculum development. The purpose of this guide is to communicate the Turning Points approach to curriculum development, teaching, and assessment. It offers specific tools which teachers and schools can use as they design curriculum, develop assessment tasks, and create the classroom practices that will lead to significant student learning and growth.