ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Predicting Early Fall Student Enrollment in the School District of Philadelphia. Study Snapshot. REL 2022-124
Author: Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic (ED/IES)
Date: 2021-10-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Enrollment,Enrollment Projections,School Districts,Statistical Analysis,Data Analysis,Student Mobility,Class Size,Accuracy,Predictor Variables,Elementary Schools,Neighborhood Schools

Predicting incoming enrollment is an ongoing concern for the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) and similar districts with school choice systems, substantial student mobility, or both. Inaccurate predictions can disrupt learning as districts adjust to enrollment fluctuations by reshuffling teachers and students well into the fall semester. This Study Snapshot highlights key findings from a study that compared the accuracy of four statistical techniques for predicting fall enrollment at the school-by-grade level, using data from prior years, to assess which approach might be the most useful for planning school staffing in SDP. [For the full report, see ED615006. For the appendixes, see ED615008.]
Predicting Early Fall Student Enrollment in the School District of Philadelphia. Appendixes. REL 2022-124
Author: Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic (ED/IES)
Date: 2021-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Enrollment,Enrollment Projections,School Districts,Statistical Analysis,Data Analysis,Student Mobility,Class Size,Accuracy,Predictor Variables,Elementary Schools,Neighborhood Schools

Predicting incoming enrollment is an ongoing concern for the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) and similar districts with school choice systems, substantial student mobility, or both. Inaccurate predictions can disrupt learning as districts adjust to enrollment fluctuations by reshuffling teachers and students well into the fall semester. The &quot;Predicting Early Fall Student Enrollment in the School District of Philadelphia&quot; study compared the accuracy of four statistical techniques for predicting fall enrollment at the school-by-grade level, using data from prior years, to assess which approach might be the most useful for planning school staffing in SDP. This document presents the following two appendixes that accompany the study: (1) Methodology; and (2) Supporting analyses. [For the full report, see ED615006. For the Study Snapshot, see ED615007.]
Innovation Zones: Policy Flexibility to Reimagine and Modernize K-12 Education Post-COVID-19. Issue Brief
Author: Jones, Fred A., Jr.
Date: 2021-06-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: COVID-19,Pandemics,Equal Education,Elementary Secondary Education,Racial Bias,Ethnicity,Educational Opportunities,Educational Change,Educational Innovation,Educational Policy,Barriers,State Government,Educational Practices,State Legislation,School Districts

While the United States is simultaneously recovering from a global pandemic and facing a national reckoning of racial injustice, the effects of COVID-19 continue to exacerbate academic and opportunity gaps that were decades in the making in K-12 systems. Most students are performing worse than before the pandemic. For students of color, there is a growing learning gap that is disproportionately impacting Black, Brown, and Indigenous students. It would be unjust for the American education system to simply return to its pre-COVID form. The entire ecosystem of learning needs transformative change. Innovation, working in concert with more than $190 billion of K-12 federal relief, can be a method to improve outcomes and tailor whole-child efforts to support learners without any system constraints. In particular, state-constructed innovation zones can provide school districts with a mechanism to identify policy barriers and improve flexibility from state regulations and statutes that impede implementation of new instructional models for the 21st-century learner. This policy brief provides an overview of the concept of innovation zones, how states are using them, and why the time is ripe for innovation zones to catalyze largescale systems change for all students.
Racial and Socioeconomic Test-Score Gaps in New England Metropolitan Areas: State School Aid and Poverty Segregation. Research Report 21-2
Author: Bradbury, Katharine
Date: 2021-02-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Tests,Scores,Geographic Regions,Metropolitan Areas,State Aid,Poverty,Racial Differences,Socioeconomic Status,Equal Education,Funding Formulas,Low Income Students,Educational Equity (Finance),Minority Group Students,White Students,Housing,State Policy,School Districts,National Competency Tests,Academic Achievement,Language Arts,Mathematics Achievement,Grade 3,Grade 4,Grade 5,Grade 6,Grade 7,Grade 8,African American Students,Hispanic American Students

Test-score data show that both low-income and racial-minority children score lower, on average, on states' elementary-school accountability tests compared with higher-income children or white children. This report explores the relationship between racial and socioeconomic test-score gaps in New England metropolitan areas and two factors associated with unequal opportunity in education: state equalizing school-aid formulas and geographic segregation of low-income students. The report first explores the degree to which state school aid is progressive, that is, distributed disproportionately to districts with high fractions of students living in poverty; more progressive distributions are associated with smaller test-score gaps in high-poverty metropolitan areas. The second factor explored is poverty segregation; test-score gaps are larger in metropolitan areas where, compared with white children or higher-income children, minority children or low-income children go to school with, or are in school districts with, more students from low-income families. States can alter either or both of these factors via policy changes. States set the terms--and thereby the progressivity--of school-aid policy. Statewide affordable housing policies, such as those in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, if applied more comprehensively, might reduce concentrations of poverty and provide more low-income families access to the higher-quality schools in low-poverty suburban districts.
The Alignment between easyCBM© Mathematics and Literacy Assessments and State and National Standards. Technical Report #2101
Author: Sáez, Leilani
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Curriculum Based Assessment,Mathematics Tests,Reading Tests,State Standards,National Standards,Academic Standards,Language Arts,Elementary Schools,Middle Schools,Alignment (Education),Common Core State Standards,Literacy

In this technical report, we present the results of a 2020-2021 study of the alignment between the easyCBM© mathematics and literacy assessments and the content standards adopted in the fifty U.S. states. The study used a three-wave process. First, a team of researchers gathered the status of state standard information for mathematics and English language arts (ELA) standards across grades K-8 for all 50 U.S. states. Three main groups were identified: CCSS Adopted (20 -- ELA &amp; Math), CCSS Revised (24 -- ELA, 28 -- Math) and State Unique (6 -- ELA, 2 Math). Next, the team analyzed the alignment between the standards and the easyCBM© literacy measures. Finally, the team analyzed the alignment between the standards and the easyCBM© mathematics measures. This technical report describes the process used in the alignment study and provides the results of the analysis.
Transition Intervention in High School and Pathway through College. Working Paper No. 255-0821
Author: Xu, Zeyu
Date: 2021-08-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Transitional Programs,Intervention,College Bound Students,College Readiness,Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,High School Seniors,Educational Attainment,College Credits

A number of school districts and states have implemented transition intervention programs designed to help high school students graduate ready for college. This study estimates the effectiveness of a transition program implemented statewide in Kentucky for high school seniors called Targeted Interventions (TI). Using 11 years of linked panel data, this study tracks the college progression of seven cohorts of students as they move from high school into college. Using a difference-in-regression discontinuity design, we estimate the program's impact on college credit attainment and transfer as well as the extent to which the program has helped reshape pathways through college. We find that the TI program significantly increased the likelihood that students would take at least 15 credits during the first term in college, a key measure that has been shown to be predictive of college completion. These early effects, however, do not translate into statistically significant impacts on the likelihood of transfers from a 2-year to a 4-year college, or the likelihood of earning enough credits to graduate from college. We discuss some possible explanations for why the TI program did not lead to observable improvements in college transfer or credit accumulation.
A Path to Equity: From Expanded Pre-Kindergarten Access to Success in Elementary School. Research Brief
Author: Connors, Maia C.
Date: 2021-06-00
Type: Reports - Research-practitioner Partnerships
Subjects: Public Schools,Preschool Education,Elementary Education,School Schedules,At Risk Students,Access to Education,Proximity,Attendance,Geographic Location,School Districts,Educational Policy,Equal Education,Enrollment,Grades (Scholastic),Mathematics Achievement,Low Income Students,African American Students,Program Effectiveness,Minority Group Students,Correlation,Outcomes of Education

In 2013-14, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the nation's third-largest school district, implemented several changes to the policies governing its pre-kindergarten (pre-k) application and enrollment process. Two policy changes that were central to the school district's strategy focused on increasing access to full-day pre-k for high-priority student groups: (1) increasing the overall number of full-day pre-k classrooms within school buildings; and (2) intentionally placing those full-day pre-k classrooms in neighborhoods with a large proportion of age-eligible, high-priority children and historically low rates of enrollment in CPS pre-k. This research examines whether and how access--defined as the distance to the closest school with full-day school-based pre-k and the number of full-day pre-k classrooms near potential students' homes--was related to pre-k enrollment and ongoing learning outcomes in early elementary school. In other words: Does the geographic placement of full-day pre-k classrooms within a school district matter? In prior work, it was found that after these policy changes in Chicago, there were more equitable patterns of pre-k access and enrollment. This brief presents new findings: Geographic placement of full-day pre-k matters not only for more equitable pre-k access and enrollment, but also for academic outcomes in early elementary school. Students--especially in high-priority student groups--who were eligible to enroll in pre-k after the policy changes had higher math scores and grades in early elementary school than did students eligible for pre-k before the policy changes. These benefits are partly explained by the fact that Black students and those living in lowest-income neighborhoods lived closer to full-day school-based pre-k options post-policy, which in turn was related to increased enrollment in full-day pre-k, higher kindergarten entry skills, and ultimately better 2nd grade academic outcomes.
Navigating the Maze: Understanding CPS Graduates&apos; Paths through College. Research Report
Author: Nagaoka, Jenny
Date: 2021-05-00
Type: Reports - Research-practitioner Partnerships
Subjects: Public Schools,Urban Schools,High School Graduates,Enrollment,College Graduates,College Transfer Students,Stopouts,Enrollment Trends,Racial Differences,Gender Differences,Two Year Colleges,Colleges,College Students,Academic Persistence,Grade Point Average,College Entrance Examinations

Over the past decade, the college enrollment rate for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) graduates has steadily increased, but the college completion rate has remained relatively flat. At the same time, practitioners have realized that the &quot;traditional&quot; path through college--enrolling in one institution and remaining enrolled through graduation--is not the norm for most CPS graduates. In order to ensure more students who begin college finish with a diploma, there needs to have a better understanding of what happens to students between the point at which they first enroll and the point at which they exit post-secondary education. In this report, this question is unpacked by looking at six years of patterns of college enrollment, non-enrollment, and completion for the approximately 63,000 CPS students who graduated high school between 2010 and 2012. By examining the timing, type, and frequency of transitions students are experiencing, and how those differ by student groups, it is hoped to understand the ways in which high schools can better prepare students to navigate the post-secondary landscape, where higher education needs to adjust their structures and supports, and where research should delve deeper to better understand why students are making the transitions observed.
Homeschooling in Uncertain Times: COVID Prompts a Surge. White Paper No. 237
Author: Heuer, William
Date: 2021-09-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Elementary Secondary Education,COVID-19,Pandemics,Home Schooling,School Closing,Educational Policy,Educational History,Parent Role,Decision Making,Online Courses

This paper focuses on the increase in families who have chosen to homeschool their children in grades K-12 since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic. This update includes interviews with families who opted to homeschool their children in the conventional approach, rather than continue with the hasty remote learning that educators tried to transfer from the classroom in March of 2020 and then the blended approach of online learning/classrooms-with-masks format that many districts used during the 2020-2021 school year. This report follows a study authored in June of 2017, &quot;Homeschooling: The Ultimate School Choice,&quot; also published by the Pioneer Institute. It covered the history of homeschooling, demographics on homeschoolers, the economics around homeschooling and legislation affecting homeschooling. The authors of this report include several recommendations on how policy makers and education administrators can accommodate the growth in homeschooling and assist families who chose this manner of education for their children. The authors also urge policy makers and education officials to do more to acknowledge homeschooling as a viable educational choice. Districts and states can do more to provide direction and information for parents who are considering non-traditional options. [Foreword written by Kerry McDonald. For &quot;Homeschooling: The Ultimate School Choice,&quot; see ED588847.]
The Roles of State Aid and Local Conditions in Elementary School Test-Score Gaps. Working Papers. No. 21-2
Author: Bradbury, Katharine
Date: 2020-11-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: State Aid,Educational Finance,Elementary School Students,Public Schools,Achievement Gap,Scores,Low Income Students,Minority Group Students,Achievement Tests,Educational Equity (Finance),School Districts,Metropolitan Areas,Standardized Tests,Community Characteristics,Elementary Secondary Education,Racial Segregation,Socioeconomic Status

Equal educational opportunity is a core American value. Yet many children of low-income or minority racial or ethnic status attend public schools that are lower quality compared with those that white children or high-income children attend. And data indicate that, on average, low-income or minority children score lower on states' elementary-school accountability tests compared with higher-income children or white children. Such test-score gaps serve as evidence of unequal educational opportunity. This study uses information from metropolitan areas and from school districts to understand which factors are strongly related to the size of racial and socioeconomic test-score gaps. One key factor is the degree to which state aid to school districts is distributed progressively--that is, distributed disproportionately to districts with high fractions of students living in poverty--with progressive distributions associated with smaller test-score gaps in high-poverty metros or districts. Second, test-score gaps are larger in metropolitan areas and districts where poverty segregation is greater, that is, where, compared with white children or higher-income children, minority children or low-income children go to school with, or are in school districts with, more students from low-income families.
Using Longitudinal Student Mobility across Schools and Districts to Identify At-Risk Students. Research Brief. CALDER Policy Brief No. 25-0421
Author: Goldhaber, Dan
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Student Mobility,At Risk Students,Identification,Elementary Secondary Education,Outcomes of Education,Academic Achievement,Graduation Rate,Longitudinal Studies,Public Schools

We use comprehensive administrative data from three states to document the relationships between geographic mobility and student outcomes during K-12 schooling. We focus specifically on &quot;nonstructural&quot; mobility events--which we define as school or district changes that do not occur naturally as the result of planned transitions between schools--and on longitudinal measures that capture these events cumulatively for students. We show that the number of nonstructural moves experienced by a student is a powerful indicator of low academic performance and graduation rates. Longitudinal information on student mobility is unlikely to be readily available to local practitioners--i.e., individual districts, schools, or teachers. However, due to recent investments in longitudinal data systems in most states, this information can be made available at low cost by state education agencies.
A Strategic City-Based Framework for Effectively and Efficiently Educating Students with Disabilities
Author: Rhim, Lauren Morando
Date: 2021-06-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Charter Schools,Students with Disabilities,Special Education,COVID-19,Pandemics,Acceleration (Education),Access to Education,Educational Opportunities,School Districts,Achievement Gap,Partnerships in Education,State Boards of Education,Accountability,Enrollment,School Choice,Parent Education,Inclusion,Program Implementation,Educational Finance,Resource Allocation,Human Capital,Capacity Building,Alternative Assessment

Charter schools' autonomy and flexibility provides them with the opportunity to find ways to close the performance gap between students with and without disabilities, but deep-seated, systemic challenges often cause individual charters to struggle to do so on their own. For cities with an established charter sector, a city-wide, collaborative strategy involving all stakeholders to overcome these systemic challenges is proposed. By working together, charter schools can fulfill their potential with regard to educating students with disabilities. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying effective strategies to accelerate learning for students with disabilities and optimize the flexibility extended to charter schools is essential. This brief introduces critical components of a strategic, city-based framework, along with details regarding how this multi-pronged approach can drive systemic and sustainable change that will lead to better access and outcomes for students with disabilities. Each component has value independently, but when combined in a coherent manner so that each augments the others, the framework has the potential to ensure that students with disabilities have access to a robust continuum of educational opportunities in districts that have widespread public school choice and, in particular, charter schools. If individual charter schools, regional government officials, authorizers, and funders work together to create a new system that spreads the responsibility, incentivizes schools to support students with disabilities, and nurtures talent to support these goals, charter schools can be agents of change for closing the gap between students with disabilities and the general education population. [This paper is the result of a collaboration with Pathway 2 Tomorrow: Local Visions for America's Future (P2T).]
How to Design a State Education Aid Formula That Is Equitable, Adequate, and Politically Feasible: The Case of Connecticut. Working Papers. No. 21-1
Author: Zhao, Bo
Date: 2020-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: State Aid,Funding Formulas,School Districts,Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Equity (Finance),Educational Finance,Finance Reform,Costs,Public Education,Politics of Education

After being sued for inequity and inadequacy in school funding, many states have reformed their education aid policies. Using Connecticut as an example, this paper shows how to design a state education aid formula that can effectively address funding inequity and inadequacy while taking political feasibility into account. It first develops a measure of the gap between education cost and revenue capacity, both of which are estimated using school district characteristics that are outside the direct control of local officials at any given point in time. It then uses each district's cost-capacity gap to evaluate the state's existing education aid distribution. This paper shows that while larger-gap districts, on average, receive greater amounts of state aid per pupil under Connecticut's existing distributions, significant inequity and inadequacy remain. This paper proposes, as a potential solution, a gap-based formula that allocates state aid to close the cost-capacity gaps. The formula includes tools such as minimum and maximum levels of aid to increase its political appeal. The research method and the formula design that this paper presents are sufficiently general and flexible to be adapted easily and applied to other states.