ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Performance Information and Retrospective Voting: Evidence from a School Accountability Regime. Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Paper Series. PEPG 15-03
Author: Barrows, Samuel
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Voting,Educational Policy,Accountability,Public Officials,Government Role,School Effectiveness,Boards of Education,Elections,Regression (Statistics),Tables (Data),Credibility,Public Schools,Political Candidates,Correlation,Academic Achievement,Elementary Secondary Education,Achievement Tests,Standardized Tests,State Standards

Governments are increasingly publishing information about the performance of the services they provide, in part to help citizens hold their elected representatives accountable for government service outcomes. Yet there is little evidence concerning the influence of information about government service performance on voter behavior. This paper examines the degree to which school performance information affects incumbent support in school board elections. A regression discontinuity analysis indicates that voters reward incumbents when local schools achieve the highest available measure of school performance. Voters do not respond to information differentiating between schools in the middle of the performance distribution, however, or to information from a source that lacks credibility. The following are appended: (1) Regression Discontinuity Specification; (2) Cross-Validation Procedure to Select Bandwidths; (3) Tables and Figures. [This research has been supported by a Harvard University grant from the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy.]
Status of STEM High Schools and Implications for Practice
Author: Gubbins, E. Jean
Date: 2013-06-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: STEM Education,High School Students,Secondary School Curriculum,Teaching Methods,Administrator Surveys,Teacher Surveys,National Surveys,Difficulty Level,Definitions,Teacher Attitudes,Administrator Attitudes,Student Attitudes,Databases,Program Development,Educational History,Institutional Characteristics,Geographic Location,Magnet Schools,Charter Schools,Special Schools,Admission Criteria,School Culture,Teacher Collaboration,Educational Policy

As a nation, society benefits from an educated populace. At a time when economic, environmental, social, and security issues are the focus of many conversations in businesses, industries, government offices, schools, and homes, policymakers turn their attention to the further development of human capital. Educators acknowledge that they have key responsibilities to develop the talents and abilities of all students to live in a global community that is increasingly accessible through technological advances. They also want students to become life-long learners who know how to learn and who are motivated to continue learning. How do we, as educators, create dynamic learning opportunities for high school students? How do we address issues related to high school students' perceptions of learning environments? Student voices may be sources of guidance and reflection as we consider the reported lack of academic challenge in contrast to rhetoric about the importance of offering rigorous curricula. One way to approach involvement with rigorous and engaging curricula is to capitalize on domains of interest. There has been considerable emphasis on developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) focused schools at all grade levels. The number of STEM high schools alone has tripled in the last decade (2000-2009). To learn more about current STEM high schools across the country, the United States Department of Education commissioned The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) to design and implement a study of STEM high schools. The University of Connecticut and the University of Virginia collaborated to address the following project objectives: to create a searchable matrix of STEM high schools, to document the common and unique curricular and instructional strategies used in STEM high schools, and to create and disseminate surveys for high school administrators and teachers documenting the curricular and instructional strategies used in high schools.
Is Seeing Believing? How Americans and Germans Think about Their Schools. Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series. PEPG 15-02
Author: Henderson, Michael B.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Governance,School Policy,Educational Attitudes,National Surveys,Comparative Education,Context Effect,Institutional Characteristics,Foreign Countries,Cultural Context,Cultural Differences,Educational History,Organizational Culture,Government Role,Local Government,Educational Quality,Educational Finance,Equal Education,Teacher Recruitment,Teacher Education,Teacher Salaries,Teacher Evaluation,Teacher Persistence,Preschool Education,Achievement Tests,International Assessment,Secondary School Students,Tenure,Expenditures,Academic Achievement,Elementary Secondary Education,Public Opinion,Secondary School Teachers,Advanced Placement Programs

What do citizens of the United States and Germany think about their schools and school policies? This paper offers the first broad comparison of public thinking on education in the two countries. We carried out opinion surveys of representative samples of the German and American adult populations in 2014 that included experiments in which we provided additional information to randomly selected subgroups. The paper first describes key characteristics of the U.S. and German education systems and then analyzes how information and institutional context affect public beliefs in the two countries. Results indicate both similarities and differences in the structure of American and German public opinion on schools and school policies. Contains a Methodological Appendix. [Paper prepared for the conference on Public Opinion and the Political Economy of Education, Munich, May 9, 2015. Financial support was provided by the Leibniz Association.]
Assessing Tradeoffs between Observational and Experimental Designs for Charter School Research. Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series. PEPG 15-04
Author: Ackerman, Matthew
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Charter Schools,Observation,Special Education,Lunch Programs,School Effectiveness,Transfer Students,Educational Research,Achievement Tests,Scores,Educational Policy,Achievement Gains,Institutional Evaluation,Evaluation Methods,Statistical Analysis,Evaluation Problems,Error of Measurement,Control Groups,Experimental Groups,Comparative Analysis,Classification,Limited English Speaking,Elementary Secondary Education,Standardized Tests,State Standards

When lotteries are infeasible, researchers must rely on observational methods to estimate charter effectiveness at raising student test scores. Considerable attention has been paid to observational studies by the Stanford Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), which have analyzed charter performance in 27 states. However, the sensitivity of CREDO's findings to its methodology has not been subject to a thorough, independent evaluation. Our analysis of the CREDO estimates of charter effectiveness in Florida between 2001 and 2009 reveals four main findings that increase confidence in its results: (1) Its use of multiple observations when matching students does not materially affect results; (2) Student participation in programs such as special education and free/reduced price lunch is inconsistently measured across sectors, but matching on these variables only modestly affects CREDO's estimates; (3) Exogenous instrumental variable estimates of charter effectiveness produce qualitatively similar results to CREDO's observational estimates; and (4) Impact estimates differ for oversubscribed and undersubscribed charters, which helps explain why lottery-based studies tend to find larger charter impacts than CREDO does. The following are appended: (1) Other Potential Concerns with CREDO's Methodology; (2) Differential Program Participation; (3) Analysis of Transfer Students Only; and (4) Summary Statistics for Over and Undersubscribed Charter Schools.
What We've Learned, What We Still Need to Know: Insights from the Credit When It's Due (CWID) Research Meeting in Salt Lake City
Author: Bragg, Debra D.
Date: 2016-05-02
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Community Colleges,College Credits,Reverse Transfer Students,Transfer Policy,Research Needs,Educational Research,Educational Change,Educational Planning,Improvement Programs

On February 18-19, 2016, representatives of 10 states participating in the Credit When It's Due (CWID) initiative attended a convening held at the University of Utah. The meeting was led by the CWID Research Team and sponsored by the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation and The Kresge Foundation, on behalf of the CWID Funders Collaborative. The purpose of the meeting was to provide state representatives with an opportunity to discuss the implementation of CWID initiatives in their states, to share information about student participation in reverse credit transfer and research results obtained on state CWID initiatives thus far, and to engage in a conversation about future research needs pertaining to CWID, as well as more expansive questions to guide research concerning community college and university transfer. This brief summarizes some of the major points emerging from the meeting, both regarding CWID and concerning a broader transfer research agenda, including transfer research questions considered important to a substantial proportion of the meeting participants. Such questions represent the interests and concerns of leaders of state-level higher education agencies and boards, as well as leaders of state higher education systems and two- and four-year colleges and universities. The remainder of this brief is organized into two sections: (1) Major findings and observations on CWID and reverse credit transfer, as well as other transfer developments and concerns; and (2) Research questions that need to be addressed concerning CWID and transfer.
Building Capacity: Creating and Leveraging Partnerships
Author: Richie, D.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Capacity Building,Partnerships in Education,Consortia,Community Colleges,Educational Change,Federal Programs,Sustainability,Equal Education,Educational Improvement,Career Education,Biological Sciences,Credentials,Education Work Relationship,School Business Relationship,Curriculum Development

The nation has made an unprecedented investment in community colleges to simultaneously increase college completion and stimulate economic recovery. One of the most substantial investments was the Trade Adjustment Act Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program of the United States Department of Labor (U.S.DOL). Beginning October 2011, the TAACCCT program was intended to support the efforts of community colleges to develop training programs and build their capacity to innovate (United States Department of Labor, 2011). The Transformative Change Initiative (TCI) recognized the potential importance of TAACCCT to enhance community colleges' ability to better serve all students. Through professional development, research, evaluation and networking, TCI invited these colleges to share what they were learning and ways in which they were changing their policies and practices with the goal of improving student outcomes. TCI collaborated with 24 consortia to publish &quot;Strategies for Transformative Change&quot; briefs that describe specific strategies that each consortium implemented. Looking across these briefs, a number of key topical areas are identified under which the grant-funded innovations (strategies) could be organized, including partnerships, career pathways, and intrusive student support, and examine how the consortia engaged in capacity building to accomplish their goals. How did TCI think of capacity building? Thinking went beyond the question of short-term changes and a focus on compliance to long-term change that has the potential to improve performance while sustaining access. Evidence was looked at for changes that were accompanied by data and other indications that colleges were focusing on activities that would allow them to create structures and processes to engage in deep and collective capacity building necessary to sustain change (Sharratt &amp; Fullan, 2013; Kezar, 2014). This brief is one in a series that focuses on capacity building of TAACCCT funded consortia. This brief describes ways in which it was seen of three consortia creating and leveraging partnerships to accomplish their goals of preparing individuals for living-wage employment and providing skilled workers for industry. While the colleges used various methods to broaden participation and buy-in to meet students' and employers' needs, there were similarities in their approaches to building capacity.
Building Capacity: Creating Curriculum Pathways
Author: Richie, D.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Capacity Building,Curriculum Development,Community Colleges,Investment,Energy Education,Information Technology,Manufacturing,Nursing Education,Change Strategies,Improvement Programs,Academic Achievement

The nation has made an unprecedented investment in community colleges to simultaneously increase college completion and stimulate economic recovery. One of the most substantial investments was the Trade Adjustment Act Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program of the United States Department of Labor (U.S. DOL). Beginning October 2011, the TAACCCT program was intended to support the efforts of community colleges to develop training programs and build their capacity to innovate (United States Department of Labor, 2011). The Transformative Change Initiative (TCI) recognized the potential importance of TAACCCT to enhance community colleges' ability to better serve all students. Through professional development, research, evaluation and networking, TCI invited these colleges to share what they were learning and ways in which they were changing their policies and practices with the goal of improving student outcomes. TCI collaborated with 24 consortia to publish &quot;Strategies for Transformative Change&quot; briefs that describe specific strategies that each consortium implemented. Looking across these briefs, a number of key topical areas were identified under which the grant-funded innovations (strategies) could be organized, including partnerships, career pathways, and intrusive student support, and how the consortia engaged in capacity building to accomplish their goals was examined. How did TCI think of capacity building? Thinking went beyond the question of short-term changes and a focus on compliance to long-term change that has the potential to improve performance while sustaining access. Evidence that changes were accompanied by data and other indications that colleges were focusing on activities that would allow them to create structures and processes to engage in deep and collective capacity building necessary to sustain change was looked at (Sharratt &amp; Fullan, 2013; Kezar, 2014). This brief is one in a series that focuses on capacity building of TAACCCT funded consortia. This brief describes ways in which three consortia were seen creating curriculum pathways to prepare individuals for living-wage employment and provide skilled workers for industry. Each of the three consortia focused on a different program area--nursing, energy, and information technology--and the colleges used various methods to create pathways to improve retention and accelerate time to completion. This brief will summarize the factors that were critical to the capacity-building and identify the similarities in their approaches.
Transforming Nursing Programs to Reduce Time to Completion. Strategies for Transformative Change
Author: Hudson, A.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Nursing Education,Time to Degree,Community Colleges,Academic Achievement,Health Personnel,College Faculty,Two Year College Students,College Curriculum,Advisory Committees,Accreditation (Institutions),Nursing,Outcomes of Education,Educational Change,Transformative Learning,Certification,Statewide Planning,Health Services,Curriculum Development,Program Descriptions

This brief focuses on the efforts of the nursing programs at Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas (PCCUA) to reduce time to completion, increase achievement, and enhance student support. To accomplish these goals, PCCUA involved healthcare providers, faculty, students, college curriculum committees, the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, and the Arkansas State Board of Nursing.
The University as a Sanctuary
Author: University of Southern California, Pullias Center for Higher Education
Date: 2017-01-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Universities,Undocumented Immigrants,Educational Environment,Politics of Education,Safety,Federal Legislation,Public Policy,Relocation,Resistance to Change,Activism,Higher Education,Presidents,Government School Relationship,Campuses,Legal Problems,Refugees

Soon after the election of Donald J. Trump as President-elect of the United States, many faculty, students, and staff throughout the country campaigned to have their campuses designated as &quot;sanctuaries.&quot; Although the concept of a sanctuary dates to the ancient Greek and Roman empires, it has special historical significance for the United States. For decades, sanctuaries have offered a wide range of individuals--including conscientious objectors to war and faith-based social activists--protection from targeted political prosecution (Lippert, 2013). Nevertheless, the call for a college or university to become a sanctuary is relatively new. The impetus for the call concerns President-elect Trump's repeated demand to reverse the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy and deport all undocumented individuals from the United States. Approximately 730,000 individuals who have applied and been approved for DACA are amongst those who might be deported (Hipsman, Gómez-Aguiñaga, &amp; Capps, 2016). When President Obama made DACA official through an executive order, eligible undocumented students were offered a glimmer of hope. In return for registering with the U.S. government, students were assured that they would not be deported. Furthermore, they would be eligible for work permits that required renewal every two years. Even though DACA does not offer a path to citizenship, it enables students to study and work in the United States as long as they follow the rules. Insofar as DACA is an executive order, it can be rescinded by a subsequent administration. The result is that the Trump administration will have the names of individuals who could be potentially arrested and deported. Many of the 730,000 &quot;childhood arrivals&quot; attend a postsecondary institution. This report offers a brief overview of what the traditional understanding of a sanctuary has been and consider the current calls for colleges and universities to become sanctuaries. The report delineates the specific points that have been articulated across institutions, as well as the potential consequences of an institution calling itself a &quot;sanctuary.&quot; Finally, the report offers possible steps for those working in higher education to consider during the coming years of the Trump Administration. [The primary contributors for this report are William G. Tierney, James D. Ward, Zoe Corwin, Federick Ngo, Michelle Cadena, Arely Acuna Avilez, Marissiko Wheaton, Carlos A. Galan, and Michael Lanford.]
Building a Foundational Model for Credit for Prior Learning. Strategies for Transformative Change
Author: Kamps, A.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Models,College Credits,Prior Learning,Community Colleges,Educational Improvement,Partnerships in Education,Consortia,Program Implementation

&quot;Making the Future: The Wisconsin Strategy,&quot; under the leadership of Northeast Wisconsin Technical College (NWTC), received a Round Two U.S. Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance for Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant. The consortium brought together all 16 colleges in the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) to develop, improve, and expand adult educational training pathways to careers in advanced manufacturing. The colleges have collaborated to implement Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) practices throughout each of their autonomous districts to help attract and retain adult students. Identifying early within the grant period that colleges had various levels of application, the consortium laid the foundation for building CPL policies and procedures within the individual institutions through process mapping. This paper discusses the major factors that influenced the statewide implementation of CPL and significant aspects of the credit for prior learning model implementation.
Achieving Sustainability through Targeted Curriculum Change. Strategies for Transformative Change
Author: Audant, B.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Sustainability,Educational Change,Consortia,Integrated Curriculum,Skill Development,Adult Students,Acceleration (Education),Mathematics Curriculum,Cooking Instruction,Community Colleges,Change Strategies

Integrated academic skills instruction was one of the core elements of the CareerPATH consortium that provided math, reading, writing, and English language skills instruction &quot;contextualized&quot; to occupational training. Its goal was to engage adult learners and accelerate their progress in college and careers. The focus of this brief is the integration of applied mathematics into a Culinary Arts program at Kingsborough Community College.
Implementing a Military Transitions Program. Strategies for Transformative Change
Author: Mikulka, D.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Program Implementation,Veterans Education,Transitional Programs,Partnerships in Education,Consortia,Community Colleges,Student Needs,Student Personnel Services

In 2011, Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas was awarded a $19.6 million Round 1 TAACCCT grant through the Department of Labor to provide industry-relevant, hands-on training for high-demand, high-wage careers. The consortium, Technical Retraining to Achieve Credentials (TRAC-7), was led by Washburn University, and included seven Kansas community and technical colleges: Washburn Institute of Technology, Cloud County Community College, Dodge City Community College, Salina Area Technical College, Garden City Community College, Flint Hills Technical College, and Highland Community College. TRAC-7 created a Military Transitions Program to support unemployed, underemployed, and transitioning Kansas veterans and service members (SM). Central to this work was the active development of collaborative partnerships with military offices, workforce centers, and other government and non-profit organizations who work with veterans and SMs. The program was facilitated by a Military Transitions Director hired by TRAC-7 and is being continued through Kansas Technical Retraining Among Industry-targeted Networks (KanTRAIN), a $11.9 million Round 4 TAACCCT grant awarded to Washburn University in 2014. This brief report describes how the military transitions program was implemented and key factors that facilitated its implementation.