ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
The Middle School Intervention Project: Use of a Regression Discontinuity Design to Evaluate a Multi-Component Intervention for Struggling Readers in Middle School in Six School Districts
Author: Crone, Deanne A.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Program Effectiveness,Intervention,Reading Difficulties,Grade 5,Grade 6,Evaluation Research,Middle Schools,Regression (Statistics),Research Design,Outcomes of Education,Educational Practices,School Districts,State Departments of Education,Reading Tests,High Stakes Tests,Measurement,Data,Decision Making

The primary aim of the Middle School Intervention Project (MSIP) is to evaluate the impact of a multi-component intervention for struggling adolescent readers on reading outcomes. The intervention consists of: (1) targeted, Tier 2 reading and (2) school engagement interventions, and (3) data-based-decision-making (DBDM) teams to review and act on student data. A critical concept in MSIP is that 6th grade students are screened into the targeted, Tier 2 intervention based on 5th grade reading scores. This screening function allows for a regression discontinuity design (RDD). Use of the RDD allows educators to evaluate existing practices in schools, rather than randomly assign half of the schools to receive a prescribed intervention, as in a traditional RCT. Thus, this study is also a test of RDD as a feasible means for conducting rigorous evaluation research with SEAs and LEAs. The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate the use of RDD to evaluate the impact of a multi-component intervention for struggling readers in middle school. The authors examine the impact of the intervention on the Oregon Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (OAKS), a high-stakes, statewide reading assessment. (Contains 1 table.)
Chronically Low-Performing Schools and Turnaround: Evidence from Three States
Author: Hansen, Michael
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Evidence,Middle Schools,Federal Programs,School Turnaround,Educational Policy,Outcomes of Education,Evaluation Criteria,Definitions,Guidelines,Elementary Schools,Measurement Techniques,School Effectiveness,Standardized Tests,Educational Improvement,Longitudinal Studies,Data Analysis,School Statistics,Evaluation Methods,Low Achievement,Hierarchical Linear Modeling

The criteria for determining the student outcomes that define a school as having &quot;turned around&quot; are not well defined, and the definition of turnaround performance varies across studies. Although current policy initiatives offer guidelines for identifying CLP schools, there is no standard definition or methodology in common usage. This paper summarizes the lessons learned from this exercise of empirically identifying CLP schools and binning them into performance categories based on their trajectories. This paper provides guidance for others charged with a similar task. Specifically, the authors learned the critical importance of using student-level data (rather than school-level aggregate measures), using growth-based measures in conjunction with status-based performance metrics, the stability of these performance metrics over time, and how to empirically recognize turnaround in schools as it occurs. Also, the authors learned that low-performing schools turned around their performance more frequently than one might have presumed based on prior research. In Florida, they identified approximately 15% of chronically low-performing elementary and 14% of chronically low-performing middle schools as turnarounds. Similar rates were observed in North Carolina--13% and 16%, respectively; and even higher in Texas--29% and 31%, respectively. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)
Advancing to Completion: Increasing Degree Attainment by Improving Graduation Rates and Closing Gaps for Hispanic Students
Author: Nguyen, Mary
Date: 2012-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Hispanic American Students,Minority Group Students,Graduation Rate,College Graduates,Private Colleges,Public Colleges,Trend Analysis,Educational Trends,Benchmarking,Achievement Gap,White Students,Disproportionate Representation,Educational Attainment,Statistical Data

This study updates previous Education Trust briefs that looked at public, four-year colleges that successfully improved minority graduation rates and narrowed graduation-rate gaps. This new report examines which four-year, nonprofit colleges--public "and" private--have made the most improvements for Hispanic students. Because for-profit institutions are a distinct subset of colleges, the authors have explored trends in their outcomes in a separate report. In a companion brief, they profile colleges that have made the most progress for another important group of underrepresented students: African Americans. By highlighting this diverse set of institutions, they find that: (1) Institutions can benchmark their progress toward producing more degrees in two ways: Some colleges can focus on making gains in graduation rates for their Hispanic students, while others can focus on closing gaps between Hispanic students and white students; (2) The starting point doesn't matter: Progress is possible for all types of institutions. Some can start by making substantial gains in graduation rates, while others can sustain previous progress made; still others can narrow gaps between Hispanic students and their white peers even if they've had large gaps in the past; and (3) Only when colleges institutionalize the policies and practices that make programs for underrepresented students successful will they bring about a transformative process that benefits all students, and Hispanic students in particular. (Contains 5 figures, 6 tables and 22 notes.) [For related report, "Advancing to Completion: Increasing Degree Attainment by Improving Graduation Rates and Closing Gaps for African-American Students," see ED535504.]
Implementation of Turnaround Strategies in Chronically Low-Performing Schools
Author: Turnbull, Brenda J.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Educational Improvement,Educational Change,School Effectiveness,Low Achievement,Academic Achievement,School Turnaround,Case Studies,Leadership,Elementary Schools,Middle Schools,Interviews,Professional Development,Accountability

There is some evidence to indicate that chronically low-performing schools, whether improving student performance or not, often report pursuing substantially similar policies, programs, and practices. However, while chronically low-performing schools may pursue similar school improvement strategies, there is some evidence that the level and quality of implementation, as well as the coherence, alignment, and persistence of implementation, may lead to different prospects for school turnaround. This study investigated how school improvement efforts were implemented in turnaround (TA) and non-improving (NI) schools, with a focus on the external and internal conditions that were perceived to support these efforts. Findings showed that differences between the TA and NI case study schools were apparent, although the study's necessary reliance on individuals' memories and on a small convenience sample dictate caution in interpreting these findings. With respect to central improvement efforts, respondents in TA schools compared with those in NI schools more frequently cited data use (chiefly for pinpointing individual students' progress and needs), targeted student supports (during or beyond the school day), and the use of common planning time for collaboration. Conversely, more NI case study schools identified adopting new curricula or instructional approaches as central to their work during the study period.
Supervision Practices of School Principals: Reflection in Action
Author: Bouchamma, Yamina
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Principals,Feedback (Response),Teacher Attitudes,Semi Structured Interviews,Structured Interviews,Supervision,Reflection,Teacher Supervision,Teacher Evaluation,Data Collection,Professional Development,Academic Achievement

School principals were invited to perform a reflective analysis of their teacher's supervision practices, with the goal of consolidating the knowledge derived from experience, developing appropriate methods, and adapting their interventions. Data were collected from 12 semi-structured interviews. The interview to the double method was used to facilitate the representation and formalization of professional experience to enable these school leaders to articulate their supervisory practices, and adapt and integrate new attitudes or behaviors towards these practices. Interviews were recorded and later analyzed by using mixed coding. The instructions were organized around knowledge, personal skills (climate, work relations, and attitudes), and know-how (prioritization of the supervision, data collection, feedback, and task-sharing). The discussion focuses on leading for teacher's initial and continued training with emphasis on the practitioners' role. "Components of Professional Practice" is appended to this document. (Contains 1 figure.)
Home for the Helidays: A Guide for Student Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA). Making a Difference Series
Author: Chapman, Robert J.
Date: 2009-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Alcohol Abuse,Caring,Young Adults,Holidays,Family Relationship,Addictive Behavior,Family Environment,College Students,Coping,Guides,Substance Abuse

For many students with addicted family members, the holiday season acts more like a time machine, instantly transporting them back to a time when addicted behavior makes it seem like they have gone, "home for the helidays" rather than home to celebrate caring and sharing with members of the family. Often, students who return to an addicted family unit have been away just long enough for memories of the family's chaotic behavior to have been eroded by time. Still others are paralyzed by the fear of what awaits when they return to this likely chaos. In short, these young adults are all, at the least, anxious about returning home for the holiday season. While this picture is not hard to envision, counselors must prepare themselves to help students "get through" such situations. This paper provides several proactive steps counselors can consider in order to help students prepare for surviving "the holidays."
Evaluation of the Infant/Toddler Systems Building Initiative: Final Report for the Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Program, June 2006-June 2008
Author: Smith-Jones, Janell
Date: 2008-09-16
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Young Children,Mental Health Programs,Consultation Programs,Delivery Systems,Models,Capacity Building,Program Effectiveness,Systems Building,Outreach Programs,Pilot Projects

This report summarizes key activities and contributions and offers recommendations for project operations. The pilot project was very successful in building a solid foundation for the Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Consultation Program. Practitioners and other regional stakeholders clearly indicated that the project is providing a much needed and valued service. At a specific level, ECMH has met the needs of many young children, families, and practitioners through consultation, referrals, and sharing of resources. At a broader level ECMH has increased the awareness and access across regions through the development of resource libraries, provision of networking and educational opportunities, and participation in or facilitation of systems building efforts. Appended are: (1) Summary of 2006/2007 Survey and Interviews; (2) Summary of Outreach and Systems Building Activities; (3) Summary of Consultation Records; (4) Summary of Practitioners' Perspectives of ECMH Consultation Services; (5) Summary of Stakeholders' Perceptions of the Project's Impact on the Northwest, South Central, and Southwest Regional Keys. (Contains 3 figures, 12 tables, and 11 footnotes.)
Selecting Growth Measures for School and Teacher Evaluations. Working Paper 80
Author: Ehlert, Mark
Date: 2012-08-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Outcome Measures,Academic Achievement,Achievement Gains,Scores,Models,Selection,Teacher Evaluation,Institutional Evaluation

The specifics of how growth models should be constructed and used to evaluate schools and teachers is a topic of lively policy debate in states and school districts nationwide. In this paper we take up the question of model choice and examine three competing approaches. The first approach, reflected in the popular student growth percentiles (SGPs) framework, eschews all controls for student covariates and schooling environments. The second approach, typically associated with value-added models (VAMs), controls for student background characteristics and aims to identify the causal effects of schools and teachers. The third approach, also VAM-based, fully levels the playing field so that the correlation between school- and teacher-level growth measures and student demographics is essentially zero. We argue that the third approach is the most desirable for use in educational evaluation systems. Our case rests on personnel economics, incentive-design theory, and the potential role that growth measures can play in improving instruction in K-12 schools. Data Description is appended. (Contains 4 tables, 3 figures and 23 footnotes.)
Research-Practice Collaboration in NYC: Evaluating the Implementation and Impact of the Expanded Success Initiative
Author: Kemple, James
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Cooperation,Expertise,Higher Education,Partnerships in Education,Research and Development,Theory Practice Relationship,Achievement Gap,Ethnic Groups,Males,College Readiness,Career Readiness,African American Students,Hispanic American Students,High Schools

The Research Alliance for New York City Schools is committed to conducting rigorous, non-partisan research studies on topics that matter to the city's public schools. One of the core functions of the Research Alliance is to conduct research in collaboration with other researchers at NYU, at other universities, and at other organizations across the city and country. Building diverse research teams enables authors to conduct the highest quality studies with multi-disciplinary experts that reflect the complexity of challenges in education. While independent of the New York City Department of Education (DOE), the Research Alliance also works with DOE to identify important questions for research and to provide valid and reliable evidence to help solve problems and build capacity in schools throughout NYC. Recently, the authors have begun collaborating with the Department on the evaluation of a district-wide led initiative designed to improve the college and career readiness for young men of color. This panel will highlight the opportunities and challenges of their partnership as well as the operational and political realities of working with the city's schools. By using this particular evaluation as an anchor, their research team and the project's director at the DOE will present their process for site selection and recruitment; data collection and analysis; as well as reporting and dissemination of results to inform the development of the initiative. (Contains 2 tables.)
Investigating the Role of Human Resources in School Turnaround: Evidence from Two States
Author: Hansen, Michael
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Human Resources,Human Capital,Standardized Tests,Longitudinal Studies,Data Analysis,Comparative Analysis,School Statistics,School Turnaround,Improvement Programs,Elementary School Teachers,Middle School Teachers,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Improvement,Educational Policy,Educational Change,Academic Achievement,Achievement Gains,Labor Turnover,Faculty Mobility

Teachers are generally recognized as the schooling factor accounting for the highest proportion of student learning outcomes (Aaronson et al., 2007; Hanushek, 1986). This implies the quick and dramatic improvement in school performance observed in turnaround (TA) schools was associated with a major change in the performance of its teachers. This change could be manifest in one of two ways--either the teachers in the school dramatically improve or previously ineffective teachers are replaced with effective teachers. This paper seeks to understand how each of these potential changes in the school's human capital stock contributed to turnaround in Florida and North Carolina. Specifically, the study investigates the following research question: is the improved achievement observed in successful turnaround schools most strongly associated with workforce &quot;development&quot; or &quot;turnover&quot; (or, some combination of the two)? The results suggest TA schools improved through a combination of improving the stable teachers who had been in the school even when it was performing poorly and bringing in relatively effective talent into the school. Recommendations and limitations based on findings are also presented. Appended are: (1) References; and (2) Tables and Figures. (Contains 2 tables.)
A Parents' Guide to Alcohol, Drinking, & Choosing a College. Making a Difference Series
Author: Chapman, Robert J.
Date: 2009-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: College Students,Drinking,At Risk Students,Alcohol Abuse,Guides,Parents,College Environment,Self Evaluation (Individuals),Attitudes,Values,Family Relationship,Generational Differences

Parents have enough to think about as they prepare for their son or daughter's college education without having to worry about drinking or how to prepare him/her for what some think is a "collegiate rite of passage." This guide provides basic information about alcohol, drinking, and college. It includes simple suggestions intended to help prepare parents for the realities of alcohol and collegiate life.
The Strategic Data Project: Improving Strategic and Management Decisions in Educational Agencies through the Effective Use of Data
Author: Kane, Thomas J.
Date: 2012-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Educational Research,Nonprofit Organizations,Public Agencies,School Districts,Program Descriptions,Program Development,Strategic Planning,Data,Decision Making,Theory Practice Relationship,Partnerships in Education,Educational Policy,Capacity Building,Data Analysis,Educational Improvement,Teacher Effectiveness,College Readiness,Improvement Programs

Launched in 2008, the Strategic Data Project, housed at the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, seeks to bridge the divide between educational research and practice in order to transform the use of data in education to improve student achievement. Through the project, the authors build robust research partnerships with educational agencies--currently including 32 school districts, state education agencies, charter management and other non-profit organizations--in order to grow the analytic capacity of the agencies while also fostering more strategic and informed use of data for informing policy and practice. The proposed panel on the Strategic Data Project will have two primary aims. First, the authors will share background on the genesis of the Strategic Data Project, provide an overview of its key components and highlight how these components contribute to the effectiveness of each partnership overall. After providing a broad overview of the Strategic Data Project, including a summary of selected diagnostic analyses across several partner agencies, the authors will turn to the second aim of the proposed panel: to highlight the work of data fellows placed within two of their partner agencies.
Student Blogs: Virtual Communities or Predator Menus? Making a Difference Series
Author: Chapman, Robert J.
Date: 2009-09-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Student Personnel Services,Web Sites,Electronic Publishing,Social Networks,Journal Writing,Self Esteem,Language Usage,Internet,Student Personnel Workers,Administrator Role,Feedback (Response),College Students,Information Technology

One interactive resource that may present the potential to significantly affect the personal lives of today's collegians is the virtual collegiate community, e.g., Facebook or MySpace. These are examples of a virtual communities or social networks, where students can post information about themselves in order to make connections, both on and off campus. It occurs to the author that these online communities--or should he say student entries about themselves IN these communities--may be useful when discussing issues related to self-esteem, self-respect, students concerns about how they are perceived, etc. By talking about how students refer to themselves in their profiles, e.g., the language they use, the images they post, etc., educators may be able to invite students to recognize that they all teach others how they would like to be treated in the way they present themselves in public. Regardless of what one thinks about such a practice, it is not without its proponents and critics. For example, even though the Internet is public, do administrators who visit student blogs and then ask about what is posted there run the risk of being perceived as voyeurs? Even if an administrator has the best of intentions when accessing student blog information to help students see the big picture, does this represent a step too far in the quest to help students? Those who lean towards either pole in such a debate are likely to articulate arguments for their positions quite well. But what about those in the middle who are genuinely wrestling with both the pros and the cons of this question? How DOES a serious student affairs professional discern what is voyeurism and entrapment from what is providing realistic feedback on how students present themselves in public? Some additional questions and points-of-view to be considered when deciding to use Facebook or other online blogs in student affairs efforts are presented.
What Works and Why We Don't Have Enough of It: Voices of Families from Allegheny County's Family Support Centers. Phase I Evaluation: What Matters Most to Families
Author: Bell, Sheila
Date: 2007-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Family Programs,Human Services,Program Effectiveness,Parent Attitudes,Program Attitudes,Family Needs,Interpersonal Relationship,Caring,Family Involvement,Problems,Persistence

The purpose of this report is to listen to families about &quot;what&quot; mattered most to them and &quot;how&quot; family support has impacted their lives. The findings of this report represent a synthesis of families' voices from 8 focus groups and 35 individual interviews, conducted at centers, office meetings, and homes--with over 100 family members across 13 family support centers in Allegheny County. Findings revealed that families need a &quot;hub&quot; that both link them to basic necessities and services and provide a safe and caring place for children to grow and for families to be with each other. These needs are continuous and not bound by age limits. &quot;When it works,&quot; Family Support plays an enormously important and positive role in the lives of the families. Its comprehensive goals and flexible execution enables continuous and responsive support for the needs of the whole family. The resourceful and persevering staff can support families to grow, give back, and lay solid foundations for caring relationships to develop in the larger community. But family support &quot;can not do and be everything.&quot; Over time, its mission has been increasingly crowded without added financial resources or expanded human capacity. There are mismatches between what mattered most to families and what is prioritized and &quot;counted&quot; by the system. The authors hope the voices of families can spur a pragmatic examination of system-wide and site level policies and help refocus the family support mission and service delivery to intersect &quot;the most universally achievable outcomes with the most unmet needs.&quot;