ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Researching the Educational Benefits of Diversity. Research Report No. 2005-4
Author: Shaw, Emily J.
Date: 2005-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Student Diversity,Higher Education,College Students,Questionnaires,Racial Bias,Educational Environment,Interaction,Peer Influence,Social Influences,Educational Research,Teacher Attitudes,College Faculty,Student Experience

There are many different ways to research the educational benefits of diversity. Most of the findings from the research in this field suggest that experiences with diversity in higher education result in significant benefits on learning and democracy outcomes. This paper offers several examples of previous studies, as well as recommendations and considerations for institutions interested in designing and carrying out their own research studies on the educational benefits of diversity. Appended are: (1) Explanation of Acronyms; (2) Sample Items from the Diversity Assessment Questionnaire (DAQ); (3) Diversity Experiences; (4) Openness to Diversity/Challenge Scale Items; (5) Independent Variables Investigated by Pascarella, Edison, Nora, Hagedorn, and Terenzini (1996); (6) Modern Racism Scale (MRS); (7) List and Description of Measures Used in Gurin, Nagda, and Lopez (2004); and (8) Interactional Diversity Items from the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ).
Replication of Effects of the &quot;Positive Action&quot; Program in Randomized Trials in Hawai&apos;i and Chicago Schools
Author: Flay, Brian R.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Randomized Controlled Trials,Emotional Development,Social Development,Values Education,Student Behavior,Academic Achievement,Suburban Schools,Rural Schools,Elementary Schools,Grade 2,Grade 3,Grade 4,Grade 5,Grade 6,Grade 7,Grade 8,Poverty,Urban Areas,Comparative Analysis,Intervention,Program Effectiveness

Several social-emotional learning (SEL) or social-emotional and character development (SECD) programs have been shown to be effective at improving SEL/SECD skills, and some have also provided evidence of effectiveness in improving student behavior and academic achievement (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, &amp; Schellinger, 2011). Very few SEL or SECD programs have replicated effects for all three of these domains of outcomes with students of different cultural/ethnic backgrounds in schools of different socioeconomic status and urbinicity. In education research, replication with different populations in different settings is important for understanding the generalizability of findings. In this paper, the author reports results from two cluster-randomized trials of the SEL/SECD program, &quot;Positive Action&quot; (&quot;PA&quot;) across two very different groups of students and contexts: (1) 20 suburban and rural elementary schools (specifically grades 2/3 to grades 5/6) on three Hawai'i islands in 2002-2006; and (2) 14 high-poverty, inner-city Chicago elementary schools (specifically grade 3 to grade 8) in 2004-2010. One table is appended. [The initial phase of the Chicago trial (R305L030072), a component of the Social and Character Development (SACD) Research Consortium, was a collaboration among Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention, Mathematica Policy Research Inc. (MPR), and awardees of SACD cooperative agreements (Children's Institute, New York University, Oregon State University, University at Buffalo-SUNY, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt University).]
The Aftermath of Accelerating Algebra: Evidence from District Policy Initiatives
Author: Clotfelter, Charles T.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Algebra,Board of Education Policy,Required Courses,Middle Schools,Outcomes of Education,Quasiexperimental Design,School Districts,Grade 6,Grade 7,Grade 8,Grade 10,Grade 11,Grade 12,Scores,Achievement Tests,Mathematics Achievement,Student Records

In 2008, the California State Board of Education voted to require all students to enroll in algebra by 8th grade. This policy initiative, yet to be actually implemented, represents the culmination of a decades-long movement toward offering algebra instruction before the traditional high school years. Nationally, the proportion of 8th grade students enrolled in algebra doubled between 1988 and 2007 (Perie, Moran and Lutkus, 2005; Walston and McCarroll 2010), reaching rates over 50% in three states and the District of Columbia. The movement to offer algebra instruction before high school has been inspired in large part by correlational research documenting significant differences in later-life outcomes between those students who enroll in algebra by 8th grade and those who do not. But correlation need not imply causation, and it is unclear whether accelerated algebra enrollment--particularly when not accompanied by complementary curriculum reform in earlier grades--yields positive or negative effects (Loveless, 2008). This paper provides a quasi-experimental estimate of the causal impact of accelerating the introduction of algebra coursework. The research is based on explicit policy initiatives in two large North Carolina school districts in 2002/03 and it is supplemented with observations from eight additional large North Carolina Districts. Two tables and two figures are appended.
The Impact of Project GLAD on Students' Literacy and Science Learning: Year 1 Results from a Cluster-Randomized Trial of Sheltered Instruction
Author: Deussen, Theresa
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: English Language Learners,Teaching Methods,Second Language Learning,Student Needs,Language of Instruction,Randomized Controlled Trials,Reading Comprehension,Grade 5,Elementary School Students,Program Effectiveness,Vocabulary,Writing Achievement,Science Achievement,Comparative Analysis,Faculty Development,Elementary School Teachers,Reading Tests,Pretests Posttests

With the increased population of English learners (ELs), educators need programs that help students access academic content while learning to understand, speak, read, and write English (Tharp, Estrada, Dalteen, &amp; Yamaguchi 2000; Echevarria, Short &amp; Powers, 2006). ELs come into U.S. schools needing to learn the same grade-level content as their nonEL peers, but with the additional challenge of learning English--usually the language of instruction--as well. Although some approaches separate the two tasks, many researchers and practitioners call for integrating them, so that students do not miss content area instruction while they are learning English. One way to combine the two is sheltered instruction, which provides intentional linguistic and other supports to ELs to facilitate their learning of grade-level content (Echevarria, Short &amp; Powers, 2008). As a recent review of the research makes clear, however, there is limited evidence to show the effectiveness of sheltered instruction (Goldenberg, 2013). Since the early 1990s, Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) has made claim to be a program that helps teachers meet diverse language and content needs within the mainstream classroom (Brechtel, 2001). Project GLAD is a multi-component K-12 instructional model designed to build academic English and grade-level content knowledge for students at varying levels of English language proficiency. The study discussed herein was a two-year cluster randomized trial in fifth-grade classrooms from 30 Idaho schools across 21 different districts. It focused on two research questions: (1) What is the impact of Project GLAD teacher training on fifth-grade students' reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing and science achievement in the treatment classrooms during the first of implementation, compared to a &quot;business as usual&quot; control group? and (2) Is the program impact different for ELs? Twelve tables are appended.
The Futility of Propensity Score Methods in a Statewide Study of International Baccalaureate (IB)
Author: May, Henry
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Advanced Placement Programs,Correlation,College Preparation,Observation,High School Students,Dual Enrollment,College Credits,Outcomes of Education,Educational Research,Models,Predictor Variables,Scores,Student Records,Student Participation,Statistical Analysis,Longitudinal Studies,Regression (Statistics),Multivariate Analysis

With the goal of increasing students' academic readiness for college, high schools in the United States are increasingly offering &quot;credit-based transition programs,&quot; including International Baccalaureate (IB), Advanced Placement (AP), and dual enrollment. Existing research points to the promise of IB, AP, and other credit-based transition programs for improving students' academic readiness for college; however, conclusions about program effects are often limited by potential issues of selection bias. Despite strong statistical controls and assumptions to address selection, observational research may not be able to determine whether differences in outcomes are caused by program participation or are simply an artifact of the unmeasured characteristics of schools, students, and families that correlate with the decision to participate in these optional programs. To address this knowledge gap and inform future studies of the impacts of IB and other credit-based transition programs, this paper makes three contributions: (1) A review of existing literature is used to produce an empirically-based conceptual model of selection into IB; (2) The conceptual model is used to identify the characteristics of students and schools that participate in the IB Diploma Programme using data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Florida Education Data Warehouse. The conceptual model also allows researchers to identify key predictors for which there are no data available; and (3) A test of the ability of the available data to adjust for observed selection bias using propensity score methods, with the degree of bias reduction reported for each predictor is described. The data used in this study come from the Florida K-20 Education Data Warehouse (FL-EDW) and the U.S. Department of Education's Common Core of Data (CCD). The subset of data from FL-EDW has student-level records for 20,373 students who participated in an IB Diploma Programme and graduated between 2002 and 2007, and student-level records for 86,008 randomly sampled students who did not participate in an IB Diploma Programme and graduated over the same time period. This study reveals that, when looking at the statewide population in Florida, the selection bias associated with voluntary participation in IB is very large, and that mechanisms for dealing with selection bias using propensity scores may not be sufficient. Tables and figures are appended.
The Transactional Influence of Parents and Children in a Parent-Administered School Readiness Program
Author: Mathis, Erin T.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Parent Influence,School Readiness,Parents as Teachers,Early Intervention,Literacy Education,Reading Skills,Kindergarten,Preschool Education,Home Visits,Randomized Controlled Trials,Comparative Analysis,Parent Participation,Program Effectiveness,Program Evaluation,Reading Aloud to Others,Educational Games,At Risk Students,Structured Interviews,Observation,Pretests Posttests,Parenting Skills,Emergent Literacy,Reading Fluency,Reading Tests,Elementary School Students

This study examines changes in parent support and child emergent literacy skills over time as children moved from Head Start into kindergarten. It compares the transactional parent-child influences in families randomly assigned in Head Start to receive an enriched home visiting program that emphasized parents as teachers relative to a control group. In addition, it examined the impact of pre-intervention levels of parental support on change over time in child emergent literacy skill acquisition. It thus tested the logic model of the intervention--REDI-P (Research-based Developmentally-Informed-Parent)--and assessed moderation of intervention impact. Children and their parents were recruited from 26 Head Start Programs in three counties of Pennsylvania for a randomized-trial evaluation of a home visiting intervention designed to increase parental involvement in interactive reading and learning games. The Head Start programs served a range of small urban, suburban, and rural communities. Participants included two cohorts of children recruited in sequential years (total N = 210; mean age at time 1 = 4.8; 55% girls; 20% Hispanic; 25% African-American; and 55% European American). The caregivers who participated in this study (hereafter referred to as &quot;parents&quot;) were 88.57% mothers, 4.27% fathers, 5.24% grandmothers, and 1.92% other (e.g. other relative, stepparent, or foster parent). Data was collected from home visits, structured interviews, recorded parent-child interaction sessions, and pre- and post-test assessments conducted by research assistants. Findings suggest that the REDI-P program improved supportive parenting skills for the sub-group of parents with initially poorer skills in this area. These changes emerged primarily in the context of parent-child reading and teaching activities, which were the direct focus of the intervention and did not appear to generalize more broadly. Additionally, parents who entered the program with more supportive parenting skills were able to take the most advantage of the teaching games and activities provided by the program, and their children showed the greatest gains in literacy skills. Tables and figures are appended.
Teacher Spillover Effects across Four Subjects in Middle Schools
Author: Yuan, Kun
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Middle School Teachers,Value Added Models,Statistical Analysis,Teacher Influence,Academic Achievement,Scores,Mathematics Teachers,English Teachers,Science Teachers,Social Studies,Student Characteristics,Models,Language Arts,Grade 6,Grade 7,Grade 8,Urban Schools

Value-added modeling (VAM), one class of statistical models used to estimate individual teacher's or school's contribution to student achievement based on student test score growth between consecutive years, has become increasingly popular in the last decades. Despite the increasing popularity of VAM, many researchers are concerned about the quality of value-added (VA) scores as a measure of teaching and call for more research on VAM. One area of VAM that needs more research is about teacher spillover effects (TSEs). In this study, the author studied TSEs across four types of teachers, including math, ELA, science, and social studies, on student achievement in each of the four subjects. When estimating teachers' value-added scores, the author used models similar to what is commonly used in the practice, which estimate teachers' annual effects and control for teacher or classroom aggregates of student variables. By using models that are commonly used in the practice, the author expected to understand the magnitude of TSEs and the consequence of ignoring such effects for estimating own-subject teachers' value-added scores in the common practice. Specifically, the author addressed the following two research questions: (1) Do TSEs exist across teachers of math, English Language Arts (ELA), science, and social studies on any of the four subjects at the middle school level?; (2) If so, how does controlling for TSEs affect the relative stance and variation of own-subject teachers' effects? Data came from an urban school district in the Southern United States. Data used for analysis followed students at grades 6-8 and their math, ELA, science, and social studies teachers from 2006-07 to 2008-09. Results from both types of value-added models showed consistent evidences of teacher spillover effects at all three grade levels in middle schools, especially from ELA teachers to students' achievement on the other three subjects. Consistent with most prior studies on teacher spillover effects, this study found evidence of TSEs. Tables are appended.
The Impacts of the Chicago Welcoming Schools' Safe Passage Program on Student Safety and Crime
Author: Curran, F. Chris
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Safety,Crime,Violence,Educational Environment,Urban Schools,Low Income Groups,Disadvantaged Schools,Attendance Patterns,Stress Variables,Program Effectiveness,Neighborhoods,Effect Size,Elementary Secondary Education,Databases,Records (Forms),Crime Prevention

Students' ability to succeed academically in the school setting depends heavily on factors that students face outside of the school walls. One such contributor is the presence of a safe environment for students to travel to and from school. Unfortunately, for many students in urban and economically depressed environments, the daily commute to and from school represents a risky undertaking riddled with potential violence and crime. The presence of such low-safety environments around schools has the potential to result in increased absenteeism as well as increased levels of stress among students, both of which contribute to decreased academic performance. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the Safe Passage program on crime around Chicago public schools. Specifically, the author seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) What is the effect of the Safe Passage program on the number of criminal incidents within the vicinity of CPS schools?; (2) Does the impact of the Safe Passage program on criminal incidents differ by crime type?; and (3) Does the Safe Passage program reduce criminal incidents around schools or redistribute criminal incidents within the vicinity surrounding schools? The Chicago Safe Passage program operates with the goal of increasing the safety of students as they travel to and from school. The data utilized for this study are drawn from both public data sources in addition to data generated uniquely for the purposes of this study. Data on crimes were acquired through the City of Chicago's Data Portal. Utilizing a difference-in-differences methodology, the author found that the Safe Passage Program reduces total crimes by approximately 0.15 standard deviations in the vicinity of a Safe Passage School. In the context of educational interventions, this effect size represents a reasonably large effect. Additionally, given the societal cost associated with crime, even small reductions in crime can produce reasonably large economic returns. Consistent with the location of the intervention, he found the largest reduction in crime to be among those occurring outside. A table is appended.
Supply and Demand in the Higher Education Market: College Enrollment. Research Brief
Author: Kumar, Amal
Date: 2015-02-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Higher Education,Educational Supply,Educational Demand,College Admission,Trend Analysis,High School Graduates,Racial Distribution,College Attendance,Data Analysis,Enrollment Trends,Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators

Higher education in the United States is a complex and multilayered system where open-access community colleges coexist with highly selective, 4-year institutions to which only a handful of students each year gain access. Each institution plays a unique role in this marketplace, and students across the spectrum engage with the system at different--and often, multiple--levels. Much of the national debate about postsecondary education in the United States in recent years has centered on the pervasive gaps in access to, and success in, higher education--across racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, or gender lines. This discourse typically takes a narrow view, focusing on one type of institution (e.g., for-profit colleges) or one type of student (e.g., low-income, first-generation students). Much of this popular narrative misses the forest for the trees, failing to situate individual students' contexts in the larger narrative of supply and demand in the higher education marketplace. This research brief, along with its companion brief, aims for a wider lens by including the universe of postsecondary institutions in the United States and situating the racial/ethnic gaps in college enrollment in the context of the changing American demographic. This brief takes a data-based approach to describing trends in college admission, primarily focusing on how the changing face of the U.S. high school graduate has translated into the shifting demographic of the U.S. first-time college student. Data used in the following analyses come from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the Private School Survey, as well as from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). This brief unfolds in three parts: First, the authors briefly describe the high-level trends in high school graduation and college enrollment, paying special attention to the outcomes of different race/ethnic groups. They then disaggregate college enrollment by college institution level and examine how different racial/ethnic groups interact with the system at different levels, and finally, briefly identify a few key trends in the migration patterns in higher education market. A bibliography is included. [For the companion brief &quot;Supply and Demand in the Higher Education Market: College Admission and College Choice,&quot; see ED562849.]