ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
A First Look at Higher Performing High Schools: School Qualities That Educators Believe Contribute Most to College and Career Readiness. Executive Summary
Author: ACT, Inc.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: College Readiness,State Standards,Educational Change,High School Graduates,High Schools,Career Readiness,High School Students,Academic Standards,High Achievement,Longitudinal Studies,Teacher Attitudes,Institutional Characteristics,Educational Quality,Goal Orientation,Academic Achievement,Educational Environment,Teacher Surveys,Secondary School Teachers,Poverty,Correlation

The Common Core State Standards Initiative represents one of the most significant reforms to US education in recent history. As of June 2012, 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Standards. ACT is pleased to have played a leading role in the development of the Standards. Not only did the initiative draw on its longitudinal research identifying the knowledge and skills essential for success in postsecondary education and workforce training, but its College Readiness Standards[TM] were also among the resources used in the creation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). In &quot;A First Look at the Common Core and College and Career Readiness (ACT 2010),&quot; ACT recognized that the goal of college and career readiness (CCR) changes expectations by setting higher standards for all students to meet as they leave high school. Among ACT-tested high school graduates of 2011, only one in four met all four College Readiness Benchmarks (ACT 2011). While the national CCR rates suggest significant room for improvement, there are high schools across the country where students are advancing more quickly toward CCR. As educators work to improve and prepare for implementation of the CCSS, it is worthwhile to examine the high schools where students are progressing toward CCR at atypically fast rates. What is it about these schools that educators perceive contributes most to their students' growth? Are the school qualities that are deemed most important different for school administrators and teachers? What are educators' general perceptions of the value of the CCSS? How far along are these schools in implementing the CCSS? This study addressed these questions by surveying educators at high schools across the country that have demonstrated strong progress toward CCR. This paper discusses how the findings relate to core practices that can be used to guide coherent approaches to school improvement. [For the full report, see ED541867]
Catching up to College and Career Readiness in Kentucky. ACT Research Report Series. 2014 (4)
Author: Dougherty, Chrys
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: College Readiness,Career Readiness,Grade 4,Grade 8,Grade 11,Scores,Cohort Analysis,Reading Tests,Mathematics Tests,Science Tests,At Risk Students,Elementary School Students,Middle School Students,High School Students,Achievement Tests,Low Income Groups,African American Students,Hispanic American Students,English Language Learners,Special Education,Achievement Gap,Longitudinal Studies,College Entrance Examinations

This report focuses on the extent to which students who are academically far off track in fourth or eighth grade in Kentucky catch up by eighth or eleventh grade. We studied three recent cohorts of Kentucky students whose eighth-grade ACT Explore® scores were more than one standard deviation below the ACT Explore benchmark scores associated with being on track. We found that 5% or fewer of the students who were far off track in eighth grade attained the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks® by the spring of eleventh grade. We did a similar analysis for two cohorts of students beginning in fourth grade, using scores on the Kentucky Core Content Tests in reading, mathematics, and science in grade four and ACT Explore scores in the same subjects in grade eight, and found that catching-up rates ranged from 7% in mathematics to 12% in science. We also found that students from at-risk groups--those who are low-income, African American, Hispanic, English language learners, or in special education--have lower catching up rates than their more advantaged peers. These results are of special concern because a large percentage of students from those groups are far off track in fourth and eighth grade. These findings should underscore the importance of policies and practices that focus on getting students off to a good start in the early grades. These practices are especially important for disadvantaged students. Ongoing research should identify practices that help to accomplish this goal, and state and local policy should support efforts to disseminate and implement those practices. Appended are: (1) Narrowing of Scale Score Gaps in Grades 8-11; and (2) Results by Income, Ethnicity, and Gender.
Validity Decay in STEM and Non-STEM Fields of Study. ACT Working Paper Series. WP-2014-05
Author: Westrick, Paul A.
Date: 2014-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: STEM Education,Validity,College Entrance Examinations,Scores,High School Students,Grade Point Average,Undergraduate Study,Hierarchical Linear Modeling,Meta Analysis,Majors (Students),Gender Differences,College Admission,Admission Criteria,Selective Admission,Nonmajors

The purpose of this study was to determine if validity coefficients for ACT scores and high school grade point average (HSGPA) decayed or held stable over eight semesters of undergraduate study in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at civilian four-year institutions, and whether the decay patterns differed from those found in non-STEM fields at the same institutions. Data from 62,122 students at 26 four-year institutions were analyzed in a hierarchical meta-analysis in which student major category (SMC), gender, and admission selectivity levels were considered potential moderators. Analyses for twelve subgroups were run. The results indicated that ACT score validity coefficients for STEM-Quantitative and STEM-Biological majors decayed less over eight semesters than the validity coefficients for non-STEM majors did. This was true for the uncorrected and corrected validity coefficients. For the HSGPA validity coefficients, this was true for the corrected validity coefficients. Tables are appended.
ACT-CCREC Core Research Program: Study Questions and Design. ACT Working Paper Series. WP-2015-01
Author: Cruce, Ty M.
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Research Projects,Research Design,Longitudinal Studies,College Readiness,Program Effectiveness,Grants,State Aid,Academic Achievement,College Attendance,School Holding Power,Low Income Groups,At Risk Students,Outcomes of Education,College Entrance Examinations

This report provides a non-technical overview of the guiding research questions and research design for the ACT-led core research program conducted on behalf of the GEAR UP College and Career Readiness Evaluation Consortium (CCREC). The core research program is a longitudinal study of the effectiveness of 14 GEAR UP state grants on the academic achievement, college going and college retention of low-income and other at-risk students who are eligible to receive grant-funded services. This research program will follow Consortium students and a matched comparison group of non-participants over time using assessment data from ACT Explore®, ACT Plan® or ACT Aspire®, and The ACT®, and college enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) to examine differences in the academic growth and educational outcomes of these two groups.
Catching up to College and Career Readiness in Arkansas. ACT Research Report Series. 2014 (3)
Author: Dougherty, Chrys
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: College Readiness,Career Readiness,Cohort Analysis,Scores,Benchmarking,At Risk Students,Grade 4,Grade 8,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Achievement Gains,Low Income Groups,Minority Group Students,African American Students,Hispanic American Students,English Language Learners,Special Education,Disadvantaged Youth,Achievement Gap,College Entrance Examinations

This report focuses on the extent to which students who are academically far off track in fourth or eighth grade in Arkansas catch up by eighth or eleventh and twelfth grades. We studied two recent cohorts of Arkansas students whose eighth-grade ACT Explore® scores were more than one standard deviation below the ACT Explore Benchmark scores associated with being on track. We found that 9% or fewer of the students who were far off track in eighth grade attained the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks® by eleventh or twelfth grade. We did a similar analysis for two cohorts of students beginning in fourth grade, using scores on the Arkansas Benchmark Exams in literacy and mathematics in grade four and ACT Explore scores in reading and mathematics in grade eight. In this analysis, the percentage of far-off-track fourth-grade students who attained the ACT Explore Benchmark scores in grade eight ranged from 4% in mathematics to 6% in reading. We also found that students from at-risk groups--those who are low-income, African American, Hispanic, English language learners, or in special education--had lower catching up rates than their more advantaged peers. These results are of special concern because a large percentage of students from those groups are far off track in fourth and eighth grade. These findings should underscore the importance of policies and practices that focus on getting students off to a good start in the early grades. These practices are especially important for disadvantaged students. Ongoing research should identify practices that help to accomplish this goal, and state and local policy should support efforts to disseminate and implement those practices. Appended are: (1) Narrowing of Scale Score Gaps in Grades 8-12; and (2) Results by Income, Ethnicity, and Gender.
Learning &quot;about&quot; and &quot;from&quot; Variation in Program Impacts Using Multisite Trials. MDRC Working Papers on Research Methodology
Author: Raudenbush, Stephen W.
Date: 2015-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Program Effectiveness,Research Methodology,Statistical Analysis,Differences,Intention,Participation,Influences,Identification,Computation,Hierarchical Linear Modeling

The present paper, which is intended for a diverse audience of evaluation researchers, applied social scientists, and research funders, provides a broad overview of the conceptual and statistical issues involved in using multisite randomized trials to learn &quot;about&quot; and &quot;from&quot; variation in program effects across &quot;individuals,&quot; across policy-relevant and theoretically relevant &quot;subgroups&quot; of individuals, and across program sites. Learning about variation in program effects involves detecting and quantifying this variation. Learning from variation in program effects involves studying the factors which predict or explain it. The paper is divided into four sections, plus a brief final discussion. The first section introduces the concepts and issues involved. Section 2 focuses on detecting and quantifying variation in effects of program &quot;assignment,&quot; which are often referred to as effects of intent to treat (ITT). Section 3 extends the discussion to variation in effects of program &quot;participation,&quot; which are often referred to as a complier average causal effect (CACE) or a local average treatment effect (LATE). Section 4 considers &quot;moderators&quot; of program effects (individual-level or site-level factors that influence the sign and magnitude of these effects) and &quot;mediators&quot; of program effects (individual-level or site-level &quot;mechanisms&quot; by which these effects are produced). Appendices include: (1) Characterizing the Impact of an Intervention on the Mean and Variance of Outcomes and Program Impacts for a Population of Individuals; (2) Derivation of the HLM [hierarchical linear model] Estimator of the Cross-Site Mean and Variance of Program Impacts.
The Relative Costs of New York City's New Small Public High Schools of Choice
Author: Bifulco, Robert
Date: 2014-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Public Schools,High Schools,School Choice,Costs,Expenditure per Student,Admission (School),Small Schools,School Districts,Control Groups,Graduation Rate,Tables (Data),High School Students,Teaching Experience,Teacher Salaries,Secondary School Teachers

Building on prior research by two of the present authors, which uses lottery-like features in New York City's high school admissions process to rigorously demonstrate that new small public high schools in the district are markedly improving graduation prospects for disadvantaged students, the present paper demonstrates that these graduation benefits do not come at the cost of higher expenditures per graduate. The basis for these findings are two cost comparisons: (1) a &quot;descriptive&quot; comparison of per-pupil operating costs for the new small high schools with those for all other district high schools, and (2) an &quot;experimental&quot; comparison of per-pupil operating costs for the new small high schools with those attended by their control group counterparts. The descriptive comparison demonstrates that the new small schools spend a little more per pupil than the average district high school and a lot more than the largest of these other schools. By contrast, results of the experimental comparisons together with previous findings of two of the present authors about the substantial positive effects of the new small schools on high school graduation rates indicate that &quot;the cost per high school graduate is substantially lower for the small-school enrollees than for their control group counterparts.&quot; This seemingly counter-intuitive result occurs because control group counterparts (1) attend high schools with annual per-pupil costs that are about the same as those for the new small schools, (2) are more likely to attend a fifth year of high school because they do not graduate in four years, and (3) are less likely to graduate from high school at all. Three appendices include: (1) Supplementary Tables; (2) Computation of Adjusted Spending Measures; and (3) Estimating Mean Expenditures for Target SSC Enrollees and Their Control Group Counterparts.
Noncollege-Bound Students: A Closer Look. Issue Brief
Author: ACT, Inc.
Date: 2013-02-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Noncollege Bound Students,College Readiness,Enrollment,College Entrance Examinations,Longitudinal Studies,Outcomes of Education,Comparative Analysis,College Bound Students,Student Characteristics,Educational Attainment,College Graduates,Graduation Rate,College Preparation

It was estimated that 92% of 2004 high school graduates in the United States planned to continue their education after high school. Why might students not plan to go to college? Common concerns include inadequate academic preparation, a lack of understanding of the enrollment process, and the perceived economic benefit of college attendance. This brief examines the academic preparation of high school students who do not plan to go to college, hereafter referred to as noncollege-bound students. Despite the overwhelming majority of high school graduates who plan on going to college, only 68% of the 2010 graduating cohort actually enrolled in a higher education institution after high school (United States Department of Education, 2011, Table 210). Of those that do enroll, many are underprepared for first-year college courses in English Composition, College Algebra, Biology, and social sciences. For example, among high school graduates meeting no College Readiness Benchmarks, about 50% still enrolled in college the fall after high school (ACT, 2012). Noncollege-bound students are less likely to take the practical steps needed for college admissions and enrollment, and thus are potentially closing the door on future opportunities including the possibility of a higher education. For example, while almost 82% of all 2004 graduates took or planned to take a college entrance exam, only about 33% of noncollege-bound students took either the ACT or SAT. The information gleaned from noncollege-bound students presents an opportunity to identify issues related to enrollment and success in college. This brief reports on a longitudinal study of noncollege-bound students who nevertheless enrolled in college and documents their outcomes. Students who participated in ACT statewide adoption programs in Colorado and Illinois where all public high school students took the ACT regardless of their post-high school plans were examined. Technical notes are appended.
Math Matters: MDRC's Projects in Math for Low-Income Students, from Preschool to College
Author: MDRC
Date: 2015-06-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Mathematics Instruction,Low Income Groups,Learning Activities,Teaching Methods,Mathematics Achievement,Preschool Education,Elementary Schools,Middle Schools,Elementary School Mathematics,Secondary School Mathematics,College Mathematics,Community Colleges,Remedial Mathematics,Elementary Secondary Education,Intervention,Developmental Studies Programs,Mentors,Course Content,Job Skills,Readiness

In an increasingly technological world, developing basic math skills is crucial. Headlines regularly be-moan the international ranking of American students on math proficiency, and students from low-income families do worse in math than their more affluent peers. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that employment in occupations related to science, technology, engineering, and math is only going to grow in the coming decades. What can be done to promote more effective math education? This two-page document describes several projects that MDRC has developed over the past several years--from preschool to postsecondary education- that seek to improve the performance of low-income students in math.
Educational and Other Benefits of a Facebook Group forUniversity Students and Graduates in Specific Disciplines
Author: Malouff, John M.
Date: 2015-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Social Networks,College Graduates,Psychology,Student Attitudes,Communities of Practice,Foreign Countries,Undergraduate Students,Vocabulary,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Teaching Methods,Reading Comprehension,Receptive Language,Comparative Analysis,Cooperative Learning,Pretests Posttests,Statistical Analysis,Tests,Direct Instruction,Peer Teaching,Immersion Programs,Teacher Qualifications,Instructional Materials

This article describes a department-coordinated Facebook group for psychology students and graduates. An evaluation of the postings in the past year by the group, with 900 members, showed that the group averaged 2.5 postings per day. The most common types of postings involved (1) information about recent research findings, (2) information about applications of psychological principles, (3) invitations to participate in a study, (4) information related to discipline-relevant work or volunteering, and (5) entertaining information related to the discipline. Anonymous evaluation of the group by 32 members showed that they found valuable and entertaining information on the group page and felt more connected to other students and to the university due to the page. The evaluation also showed that some members were graduates. The findings suggest that department-coordinated Facebook groups have potential to supplement formal university education in psychology and other disciplines and to help students and graduates feel part of a community, even after graduation. Other departments can establish an educational Facebook group by following a simple process.
Pre-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching Geometric Transformations Using Geometer's Sketchpad
Author: Belbase, Shashidhar
Date: 2015-05-00
Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Student Attitudes,Geometric Concepts,Technology Uses in Education,Mathematics Instruction,Secondary School Mathematics,Constructivism (Learning),Grounded Theory,Reflection,Interviews,Attitude Measures,Attitude Change,Ethics,Cognitive Processes,Emotional Response,Experience,Educational Technology

This study of &quot;Preservice Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching Geometric Transformations (GTs) using Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP)&quot; aimed to explore the beliefs hold by preservice secondary mathematics teachers about teaching geometric transformations with Geometer's Sketchpad. In this study, I applied three methodological iterations. The first iteration was a pilot study of Preservice Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching Mathematics with Technology. The second iteration was a study of Beliefs about Teaching Geometric Transformations Using Geometer's Sketchpad: A Reflexive Abstraction. The third and final iteration was the study of Preservice Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching Geometric Transformations Using Geometer's Sketchpad. This study used five assumptions of radical constructivist grounded theory (RCGT)--symbiotic relation between the researcher and the participants, the participants and the researcher's voice, research as a cognitive function, research as an adaptive function, and praxis as quality criteria--synthesized from radical constructivist epistemology and grounded theory methodology. Five task-based interviews in the problematic contexts of teaching GTs by using GSP were administered with each of the two participants. The first analytical and interpretive approach generated six major categories associated with beliefs about action, affect, attitude, cognition, environment, and object of teaching GTs with GSP. The constructivist re-interpretation approach entered into epistemic scaffolding with holistic findings of the participants' beliefs in terms of reflective and reflexive beliefs that were associated with their anticipated practices of using GSP for teaching GTs. Some implications of the study have been discussed. Two appendices are included: (1) Task Situations and Questions for Interviews; and (2) Letter from the Institutional Review Board (IRB).