ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Changing Child Care Supply in New Hampshire and Vermont&apos;s Upper Valley. National Issue Brief #166
Author: Carson, Jess
Date: 2023-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,Child Care,Teacher Supply and Demand,Change,Child Caregivers,Labor Supply,Institutional Survival,Program Termination,School Closing,Child Care Centers

In this brief, authors Jess Carson and Sarah Boege describe changes in the early childhood education and care landscape of Grafton and Sullivan Counties in New Hampshire and Orange and Windsor Counties in Vermont, collectively known as the Upper Valley. The authors find that the Upper Valley lost 25 regulated child care providers serving children under age 5 between 2017 and 2021. However, with closure rates twice as high among family-based providers than among center-based providers and some new providers opening, the net number of slots has remained relatively stable (5,169 slots in 2021). The overall effect has been to consolidate available care into fewer, larger settings across the region. Three-quarters of Upper Valley providers open in 2017 were still open in 2021, reflecting greater stability than in non-Upper Valley portions of New Hampshire (71 percent) or Vermont (65 percent). However, the authors caution that early childhood educator workforce shortages limit the ability of child care providers to remain fully operational. They conclude by noting that workforce-supporting policy proposals differ in intensity across states, building on a stronger foundation of investments in Vermont than in New Hampshire. [This brief is part of the &quot;Early Childhood in the Upper Valley Series.&quot;]
Preface to the Special Issue on Creating and Improving Adaptive Learning: Smart Authoring Tools and Processes
Author: Olney, Andrew M.
Date: 2021-08-19
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Technology,Computer Assisted Instruction,Learning Analytics,Intelligent Tutoring Systems,Instructional Design,Task Analysis,Adaptive Testing,Computer Assisted Testing,Educational Research

Cyberlearning technologies increasingly seek to offer personalized learning experiences via adaptive systems that customize pedagogy, content, feedback, pace, and tone according to the just-in-time needs of a learner. However, it is historically difficult to: (1) create these smart learning environments; (2) continuously improve them based on student learning data; (3) facilitate their alignment with learning objectives and government standards; and (4) customize them to particular environments or users. This special issue of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education (IJAIED), entitled &quot;Creating and Improving Adaptive Learning: Smart Authoring Tools and Processes,&quot; focuses on authoring approaches used to create, improve, align, and customize adaptive learning environments. [This paper was published in the &quot;International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education.&quot;]
Integration in Multiple-Document Comprehension: A Natural Language Processing Approach
Author: Sonia, Allison N.
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Natural Language Processing,Connected Discourse,Reading Processes,Writing Skills,Task Analysis,Protocol Analysis,Essays,Writing Evaluation,Reading Comprehension,Persuasive Discourse,High School Students,College Freshmen,Scores,Computational Linguistics

The constructed responses individuals generate while reading can provide insights into their coherence-building processes. The current study examined how the cohesion of constructed responses relates to performance on an integrated writing task. Participants (N = 95) completed a multiple document reading task wherein they were prompted to think aloud, self-explain, or evaluate the sources while reading and then write an integrated essay based on their reading. Natural Language Processing techniques were used to analyze the cohesion of the constructed responses at both within- and across-text levels. Both within- and across-text cohesion indices were positively related to essay quality; however, across-text cohesion indices exhibited stronger effects. Overall, this study provides evidence that the cohesion of constructed responses can serve as a proxy of the coherence of the mental representations that readers construct during multiple document processing. [This article was published in &quot;Discourse Processes&quot; (EJ1357567).]
Collaborating with Communities and Caregivers: Conditions for Building Authentic Partnerships
Author: Kelly, Olivia A.
Date: 2023-07-19
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Parents,Child Caregivers,School Community Relationship,Partnerships in Education,Equal Education,Interpersonal Relationship,Stakeholders,Social Emotional Learning,Cooperation,Schools

This paper explores insights from the Building Equitable Learning Environment network's (BELE) equity initiatives in partner districts. It focuses on the critical importance of cultivating and sustaining relationships with caregivers and community stakeholders. Given the roles parents and caregivers play in a child's education as their first educators and their primary educators, this brief focuses on building partnerships that cross the boundaries of schools, communities, and homes. When school and community educators build relationships and make conscious and continued efforts to learn from families and communities, they become more adept at creating educational experiences for students that are nurturing and grounded in an understanding of the whole child. These efforts should be sustained year-round and prioritize designing schooling experiences with input from families and using school resources to support the families and communities themselves. [This report was produced by the Building Equitable Learning Environment (BELE) Network.]
Supporting LGBTQ+ Students in California
Author: Children Now
Date: 2023-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: LGBTQ People,Minority Group Students,Safety,Psychological Patterns,Mental Health,Sense of Community,Student School Relationship,Racial Differences,Educational Environment,Elementary Secondary Education,Pupil Personnel Services

At least 11% of California youth identify as LGBTQ+. These youth have diverse backgrounds and identities, but one fact remains the same: LGBTQ+ youth continue to face alarming rates of systemic and interpersonal marginalization. In a 2020 national survey, the Trevor Project found that 60% of LGBTQ+ youth experienced discrimination at some point in their lifetime because of their gender or sexual identity. In 2022, this rate increased to 73%. A closer look at what California's youth are saying themselves shows that a renewed commitment from state leaders, schools, and communities is needed to provide proactive, identity-affirming support. California's schools. Nearly 26% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students had attempted suicide in the 12 months prior to responding to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System survey, a rate 4 times higher than that of straight students. This disparity is reflective of California's conflicting sociopolitical landscape. On one hand, California has some of the strongest legal protections for LGBTQ+ children in the country--including a recently-signed law that protects children moving to California in search of safe, gender-affirming resources. On the other hand, despite these legal protections, uneven implementation of policy, a lack of awareness and accountability from school leaders, and the tolerance of interpersonal discrimination in California schools, results in high rates of LGBTQ+ youth who continue to fear for their safety. Urgent work is needed to eliminate disparities in the wellbeing of California's LGBTQ+ youth.
State Bright Spots: SEL and the American Rescue Plan Act. Aligning SEL Efforts across Schools, Families, and Communities. Brief 2 of 3
Author: Miller, Asher A.
Date: 2023-07-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Social Emotional Learning,Emergency Programs,Federal Aid,Pandemics,COVID-19,Educational Improvement,Alignment (Education),Capacity Building,Competence,Schools,Family Involvement,School Community Relationship,State Action

The second of three &quot;bright spot&quot; briefs examines how states are leveraging ARP funds to improve SEL for all students through collaboration among schools, families, and communities. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) provided a $122 billion historic federal investment in K-12 education to help states and districts safely reopen schools and address students' academic, social, and emotional learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. CASEL has recommended three priority areas for social and emotional learning (SEL) investment that can assist states and districts in optimizing ARP for student success: (1) Promote social and emotional learning (SEL) for students; (2) Align SEL efforts across schools, families, and communities; and (3) Support adult SEL competencies and capacity building. This &quot;Bright Spots&quot; brief highlights policy innovations around Priority Area 2--aligning SEL efforts across schools, families, and communities--through state investments in evidence-based SEL to support academic recovery and social and emotional well-being, the need for which was made abundantly clear by the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief for Priority Area 1 was published in December 2022 and an additional brief for Priority Area 3 is forthcoming. [For the Priority Area 1 brief, see ED626379.]
Equivalence Tasks in a Digital Algebraic Notation System Promotes Performance in Middle School Mathematics
Author: Sawrey, Katharine
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Mathematical Concepts,Symbols (Mathematics),Game Based Learning,Algebra,Middle School Students,Equations (Mathematics),Concept Formation,Teaching Methods,Program Effectiveness,Educational Technology,Mathematics Instruction

The concept of equivalence can be elusive to students and can be confounded with unproductive understandings of the equals sign. Using the game-based digital algebraic notation system, From Here to There! (FH2T), students explore ideas of equivalence by dynamically transforming expressions or equations among mathematically equivalent states. In fall of 2019, 409 middle-school students completed a randomized control trial where they worked in either GM or an online problem set control over four half-hour sessions during their math block. We found that students in the FH2T condition showed enhanced performance over the control (p = 0.043, [partial eta-squared] = 0.010). We will describe the FH2T technology, describe our results, and discuss implications for the usefulness of digital environments in mathematics education. [This paper was published in: &quot;ICLS 2020 Proceedings,&quot; ISLS, 2020, pp. 1657-1660.]
Online Tutoring Works: Experimental Evidence from a Program with Vulnerable Children. Discussion Paper No. 1908
Author: Gortazar, Lucas
Date: 2023-03-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Tutoring,Computer Mediated Communication,Electronic Learning,At Risk Students,Instructional Effectiveness,Mathematics Instruction,Secondary School Students,Disadvantaged Environment,Scores,Standardized Tests,Grades (Scholastic),Grade Repetition,Aspiration,Student Motivation,Intention,Evidence,Foreign Countries,Program Effectiveness

We provide evidence from a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of a novel, 100-percent online math tutoring program, targeted at secondary school students from highly disadvantaged neighborhoods. The intensive, eight-week-long program was delivered by qualified math teachers in groups of two students during after-school hours. The intervention significantly increased standardized test scores (+0.26 SD) and end-of-year math grades (+0.48 SD), while reducing the probability of repeating the school year. The intervention also raised aspirations, as well as self-reported effort at school.
The Role of Standardized Tests in College Admissions. A Civil Rights Agenda for the Next Quarter Century
Author: Zwick, Rebecca
Date: 2023-06-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Civil Rights,College Entrance Examinations,College Admission,Intelligence Tests,Admission Criteria,Social Differences,Educational History,Standardized Tests,Armed Forces,Test Construction,Culture Fair Tests,Futures (of Society),Access to Education,Equal Education,High School Students,Grades (Scholastic),Individual Characteristics,Scores,Academic Achievement

Colleges and universities have become increasingly concerned that requiring standardized test scores for admission is an impediment to campus diversity, and these objections have grown with the recent focus on societal inequities. In addition, the pandemic led to the cancellation of test administrations, which, in turn, caused many institutions to eliminate admissions test requirements. These developments present an opportunity to reconsider the role of college admissions testing. The report begins by recounting the history of college admissions in the US, the relationship of admissions tests to intelligence testing and military testing, and the motivations for developing standardized exams to replace the admissions methods used at the turn of the twentieth century. Next, it describes the college admissions tests used today, along with their role in the admissions process, their advantages and limitations, and the ongoing debates about their fairness. Finally it discusses the future of admissions and admissions testing and end with a discussion of the concept of meritocracy as it applies to college admissions.
Teaching Word Problem Solving to Students with Autism and Intellectual Disability
Author: Root, Jenny R.
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Word Problems (Mathematics),Problem Solving,Students with Disabilities,Autism Spectrum Disorders,Intellectual Disability,Teaching Methods,Instructional Effectiveness,Curriculum Implementation,Mathematics Education

Word problem solving is the premise for students to generalize their problem solving skills to real world problems. This includes students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). Modified Schema-based Instruction (MSBI) is one strategy that research has shown is effective for teaching students with ASD/ID to acquire and generalize problem solving skills. The key word strategy is an ineffective strategy for teaching students to problem solve, especially since problems in everyday life do not contain key words. This article provided a practitioner friendly 7-step strategy for implementing MSBI with learners who have ASD/ID. [This is the online first version of an article published in &quot;TEACHING Exceptional Children.&quot;]
Online Tutoring System (MoFaCTS) for Anatomy and Physiology: Implementation and Initial Impressions
Author: Banker, Amanda M.
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Intelligent Tutoring Systems,Anatomy,Physiology,Retention (Psychology),Community Colleges,Community College Students,Reading Comprehension,Cloze Procedure

The Mobile Fact and Concept Textbook System (MoFaCTS) is an individualized online tutoring system designed to increase information comprehension and retention. It is being implemented in community college anatomy and physiology (A&amp;P) courses for further system development. A&amp;P was selected because it is a very challenging and highly in demand course. MoFaCTS was used to create Cloze (fill-in-the-blank) questions from the course text which students use to practice the course material. The system provides correction and feedback to the student, repeating questions to improve recall. The system also produces detailed progress reports for both faculty and students. A survey given to students showed a moderately positive impression of the systems, with A&amp;P II students responding more positively on some survey items. [This article was published in &quot;HAPS Educator&quot; (EJ1361207).]
How to Optimize Student Learning Using Student Models That Adapt Rapidly to Individual Differences
Author: Eglington, Luke G.
Date: 2022-06-21
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Computer Assisted Instruction,Intelligent Tutoring Systems,Learning Processes,Individual Differences,Models,Error Patterns,Mastery Learning,Instructional Design,Decision Making,Simulation

An important component of many Adaptive Instructional Systems (AIS) is a 'Learner Model' intended to track student learning and predict future performance. Predictions from learner models are frequently used in combination with mastery criterion decision rules to make pedagogical decisions. Important aspects of learner models, such as learning rate and item difficulty, can be estimated from prior data. A critical function of AIS is to have students practice new content once the AIS predicts that they have 'mastered' current content or learned it to some criterion. For making this prediction, individual student parameters (e.g., for learning rate) are frequently unavailable due to having no prior data about a student, and thus population-level parameters or rules-of-thumb are typically applied instead. In this paper, we will argue and demonstrate via simulation and data analysis that even in best-case scenarios, learner models assuming equal learning rates for students will inevitably lead to systematic errors that result in suboptimal pedagogical decisions for most learners. This finding leads us to conclude that systematic errors should be expected, and mechanisms to adjust predictions to account for them should be included in AIS. We introduce two solutions that can adjust for student differences &quot;online&quot; in a running system: one that tracks systemic errors of the learner model (not the student) and adjusts accordingly, and a student-level performance adaptive feature. We demonstrate these solutions' efficacy and practicality on six large educational datasets and show that these features improved model accuracy in all tested datasets. [This is the online version of an article published in the &quot;International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education.&quot;]
Essential Components for Math Instruction: Considerations for Students with Extensive Support Needs
Author: Root, Jenny
Date: 2022-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Mathematics Instruction,Teaching Methods,Evidence Based Practice,Special Needs Students,Students with Disabilities,Program Implementation,Prompting,Vocabulary,Visualization,Problem Solving,Word Problems (Mathematics),Teaching Guides

In this article, we focus on pairing instructional approaches with a strong evidence base in math with evidence-based practices for students with extensive support needs. To do so we draw on two sources. We use the 2021 Practice Guide from the Institution for Education Sciences (Fuchs et al., 2021). In addition, we use identified evidence-based practices specific for teaching mathematics to students with extensive support needs (Root et al., 2021; Spooner et al., 2017). We describe considerations for implementation of these practices identified by the IES practice guide by describing how to implement them with learners with ESN using additional evidence-based practices and supports. [This is the online version of an article published in TEACHING Exceptional Children.&quot;]
The Causal Impact of Maternal Educational Curricula on Infant Health at Birth. Discussion Paper No. 1915
Author: Cuevas-Ruiz, Pilar
Date: 2023-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Infants,Child Health,Neonates,Mothers,Educational Change,Curriculum,Parent Background,Body Weight,Premature Infants,Outcomes of Education,Labor Market,Employment Qualifications,Family Planning,Foreign Countries,Secondary Education,Program Effectiveness,General Education,Educational Policy,Enrollment Trends,Academic Education,Vocational Education

We provide the first causal evidence of the returns to maternal educational curricula on offspring's health at birth. Educational programs that aim to deliver more general knowledge may potentially improve women's earning potential and maternal prenatal investment by increasing the portability of skills across occupations and improving women's ability to make informed decisions about fertility options and health behavior. We study the impacts of a comprehensive educational reform that postponed students' curriculum choices and integrated more general education into the high school system on infant health outcomes. Using a dose-response difference-in-differences (DiD) model research design applied to linked population registries, we find that the reform led to a significant reduction in the incidence of very low birth weight (less than 1,500 grams) and very preterm birth (less than 33 gestation weeks). Overall, the reform's positive effects on infant health at birth seem to be driven by increased mothers' labor market opportunities and better family planning, rather than increased ability to avoid risky behaviours or increased women's earnings via different occupational choices or assortative mating. [This report received additional funding from Fundación Ramón Areces and the Spanish National Research Plan 2017-2020.]
S.P.I.R.E. ESSA Level III Study Grades 3-5, 2022-2023
Author: Chase, Paul A.
Date: 2023-08-04
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Elementary School Students,Intermediate Grades,Evidence,Reading Achievement,Reading Programs,Reading Instruction,Instructional Effectiveness,Scores,Standardized Tests

EPS contracted with LXD Research, a third-party research company, to examine the relationship between progress in S.P.I.R.E. and student reading outcomes at Martin County School District in Florida. LXD Research analyzed 192 students from grades 3-5 in 13 elementary schools who use S.P.I.R.E./i.S.P.I.R.E. reading intervention that uses an Orton-Gillingham approach. The Martin County School District's largest racial/ethnic group is Hispanic (48%), and over one-third of students (38%) had a Limited English Proficiency class or were still being monitored. Researchers used S.P.I.R.E. progress level and the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) to understand the impact of the intervention program on student's learning outcomes. LXD Research found that students who completed more lessons in S.P.I.R.E. had higher literacy achievement at the end of the study, and these relationships were statistically significant. For all grades, students who completed more S.P.I.R.E. levels had higher spring FAST achievement (t(190) = 2.9, p &lt; 0.01, Cohen's d effect size = 0.44). For all grades, S.P.I.R.E. ending level was significantly correlated with spring FAST achievement (r(190) = 0.43, p &lt; 0.01) for students in Grades 3-5. After controlling for grade, race, LEP status, gender, and Fall FAST scores in an Analysis of Covariance, S.P.I.R.E. significantly predicted spring FAST achievement for students across Grades 3-5. This study provides results to satisfy ESSA evidence requirements for Level III (Promising Evidence) given the study design and positive, statistically significant findings.