ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
The Social Security Administration's Youth Transition Demonstration Projects: Implementation Lessons from the Original Projects
Author: Martinez, John
Date: 2010-02-22
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Welfare Recipients,Program Implementation,Federal Programs,Program Evaluation,Disabilities,Intervention,Program Design,Guidelines,Youth,Incentives,Employment Programs,Youth Employment,Demonstration Programs,Program Descriptions,Transitional Programs,Supported Employment,Caseworker Approach,Counseling,Delivery Systems,Agency Cooperation,Technical Assistance,Adolescents,Young Adults,Program Effectiveness,Program Administration

This report focuses on the seven original Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects selected for funding in 2003. Three of the original seven projects were selected for a national random assignment evaluation in 2005; however, this report only focuses on program operations prior to joining the random assignment evaluation for the three projects and all operations for the remaining four original projects. The seven original projects have been in existence for up to six years, during which they have accumulated a rich history that includes both notable achievements and disappointments. Based on our compilation and analysis of that history, we have identified a number of lessons regarding the design and implementation of employment-focused interventions for youth with disabilities. The presentation of these lessons constitutes the core of this report. Appendix A documents the use of Social Security Administration work incentives and YTD waivers by participants in the seven original YTD projects who received either Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. (Contains 12 tables and 21 footnotes.)
College Experiences Survey: Methodological Summary. Final Report
Author: DesRoches, David
Date: 2009-12-31
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Research Methodology,Academic Persistence,Data Collection,Student Attrition,College Students,Student Surveys,Questionnaires,Longitudinal Studies,Interviews,School Holding Power,Computer Uses in Education,Test Construction

In an effort to better understand the factors associated with college persistence and attrition, the Survey Research Center at Princeton University, with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is conducting the College Student Attrition Project. As part of that project, Mathematica Policy Research conducted the College Experiences Survey. The sample frame included the undergraduate entering classes of 1999 from the University of Florida at Gainesville, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Stony Brook University, including all those who later graduated, transferred, or dropped out. The data collection used a mixed-mode approach consisting of a web-based questionnaire with telephone followup. This report summarizes the College Experiences Survey data collection procedures and the results that were obtained. Appended are: (1) Detailed Distribution of Sample; (2) Data Collection Materials; (3) College Experiences Survey Annotated; and (4) Data Documentation Memo. (Contains 4 tables and 2 footnotes.)
First 5 Contra Costa Report on Parent Involvement. Final Report
Author: Duffy, Sarah
Date: 2010-03-05
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Parent Participation,Parent School Relationship,Telephone Surveys,Research Reports,Educational Research,Preschool Education,Preschool Evaluation,Interviews,Parent Attitudes,Family Characteristics,Parent Education,Program Effectiveness,Educational Quality,Barriers

This report presents the results of the Parental Involvement in Pre-School Telephone Interview study completed by Mathematica Policy Research for the First 5 Contra Costa Children and Families Commission. Parent involvement in children's preschool programs and learning experiences is proven to be positively associated with cognitive, academic, social-emotional, and behavioral development. This report provides insight into parent opinions of and involvement with child care programs participating in Preschool Makes a Difference (PMD) and offers First 5 Contra Costa new accounts of how PMD programs help to support the diverse needs of Contra Costa parents. The report is informed by 30 parent interviews conducted in December 2009 and January 2010. Interviewees were selected from a list of 100 parents who had children enrolled in programs participating in Contra Costa PMD and who had previously agreed to be contacted for a possible interview. The first section of the report summarizes the interview process and characteristics of parents who provided interviews. The second section offers an overview of parent responses organized around three core questions: (1) how did parents select afterschool programs, (2) how have programs helped parents become involved with learning at home, and (3) how did parents define quality. Following is a summary of the primary findings. Appended are: (1) Methodology; (2) Final Parent Involvement Interview Protocol; and (3) Coding Guide for First 5 Contra Costa Parent Involvement Report. (Contains 7 tables.)
The Sensitivity of the ACT to Instruction. Issues in College Readiness
Author: ACT, Inc.
Date: 2005-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Feedback (Response),High Schools,Advanced Courses,Core Curriculum,Academic Achievement,Predictive Validity,High School Graduates,Achievement Tests,Secondary School Teachers,College Entrance Examinations,Instructional Effectiveness,College Preparation,Secondary School Curriculum,Educational Assessment,Intervention,Course Selection (Students),Scores,School Readiness,Higher Education,College Bound Students

The ACT is an educational achievement test that measures the typical content and skills learned from college preparatory curricula. Consequently, the ACT can be used not only to predict college success, but also to provide direct feedback to high school teachers about the effectiveness of their teaching. ACT results also assist teachers in adapting instruction to individual students, and assist high school administrators in evaluating their educational programs. Perhaps most important is that ACT results show a student exactly what skills he or she needs to improve upon. In short, the most profound advantage of the ACT is not its predictive validity, but rather the information it provides to intervene and to improve students' chances to do well in college. Since the ACT is a curriculum-based test, how students perform on it depends to a large extent on the courses they take and how well they master their course work. National ACT trends show that students who take a college preparatory core curriculum in high school typically score 2-3 points higher (on a 1-36 point scale) on the ACT subject area tests (in English, mathematics, reading, and science) and the Composite than those who do not. Current ACT research shows that students' academic preparedness for college, as measured by their ACT scores, is the result of the specific courses they take, not just the numbers of years they take. Moreover, taking more advanced courses increases the likelihood that a student will be prepared. These findings were obtained using the high school GPAs, ACT scores, grade level at the time of testing, and high school course work taken for over 1 million ACT-tested 2004 high school graduates. This information was used to show the effects of taking particular course sequences on ACT English, Mathematics, and Science scores, regardless of student' prior achievement and grade level. (Contains 1 figure.)
Career Planning: Students Need Help Starting Early and Staying Focused. Issues in College Readiness
Author: ACT, Inc.
Date: 2005-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Educational Planning,Career Planning,Academic Achievement,Interest Inventories,School Counselors,Career Development,School Readiness,Higher Education,Career Choice,College Choice,College Preparation,Secondary Education

Many students rely heavily on their interests when making college and career choices. Understanding how interests develop and relate to academic achievement will help high school counselors and other educators determine both when and how to help students prepare for college and a career. Students make more informed educational and career plans if they receive individualized and accurate feedback about their interests and academic achievement. ACT's Educational Planning and Assessment System[R] (EPAS) provides academic achievement, career interest, and educational planning information to eighth, tenth, and eleventh/twelfth grade students and their parents. ACT's Interest Inventory is a component of its three EPAS programs (EXPLORE[R], PLAN[R], and the ACT[R]) and is administered to students at each of these grade levels. Because such a large number of schools participate in EPAS, ACT is able to study the academic and career-interest development of students from middle school through high school. The sample for this study was based on 69,987 ACT-tested students who had participated in EPAS between 1997 and 2001. By following these students over time from eighth grade to high school graduation, several important questions were answered about students' academic achievement and career development. The answers to these questions enable counselors, teachers, and parents to assist students during important academic and career transitions.
ACT College Readiness Benchmarks, Retention, and First-Year College GPA: What's the Connection? Issues in College Readiness
Author: ACT, Inc.
Date: 2005-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Grade Point Average,Academic Achievement,School Holding Power,School Readiness,Higher Education,College Bound Students,College Freshmen,Benchmarking,College Preparation,College Curriculum,English Instruction,Science Instruction,Mathematics Instruction

ACT Information Brief 2004-1 showed that retention and cumulative first-year college GPA are related to ACT Composite scores. Overall achievement, as measured by cumulative first-year college GPA, is strongly related to high school preparation, as measured by ACT Composite score, for students who return for a second year of college. This brief expands on these results by exploring the connections between attainment of ACT's college readiness benchmarks and college retention and first-year college GPA. To assist in identifying students who are ready for entry-level college course work, ACT has established &quot;college readiness benchmarks&quot;. These benchmarks represent ACT scores at which students who score as well or better have at least a 50% chance of earning a B or higher and a 75%-80% chance of a C or higher in specific entry-level college courses. Student performance relative to these benchmarks can be used as indicators of subject-specific achievement in high school and of college readiness. This brief illustrates how admissions and institutional research professionals can use the benchmarks as another tool to identify students who are likely to perform well in college and persist after their freshman year. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)
Using ACT Data as Part of a State Accountability System. Issues in College Readiness
Author: ACT, Inc.
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Grades (Scholastic),Elementary Secondary Education,Educational Improvement,Federal Programs,Educational Indicators,Grade 8,Grade 6,Grade 3,Grade 11,Grade 10,Accountability,Public Schools,Tests,Mathematics Instruction,Reading Instruction,Instructional Effectiveness,Student Evaluation,Evaluation Methods,Higher Education

Accountability in the nation's public schools has become a matter of considerable urgency since the 2001 amendment of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. Under this most recent version of the ESEA, as of the 2007-08 academic year states and districts must assess the mathematics and reading proficiency of students each year in grades 3 to 8 and at least one year in grades 10 to 12, and must also assess the science proficiency of students at least one year in grades 3 to 5, at least one year in grades 6 to 9, and at least one year in grades 10 to 12. By means of these assessments, each school must demonstrate "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) toward the goal of achieving proficiency of all its students in all subjects by the year 2014, although the definitions of and standards for proficiency can vary substantially by state. The data derived from subject-area assessments and used by schools to demonstrate progress are referred to as "accountability measures". Depending on the system a school chooses to use to indicate progress, its accountability measure will typically be one of four types: status, improvement, growth, or value-added. This brief summarizes a study in which data from one or more of ACT's three college readiness assessments--EXPLORE[R] (grade 8 or 9), PLAN[R] (grade 10), and the ACT[R] test (grade 11 or 12)--were used to generate all four types of accountability measure. The study was based on a sample of 73,240 students in 1,019 cohorts at 485 high schools across the United States who graduated from high school between 2002 and 2006. At least half the students in each cohort had taken all three assessments. This brief explains and illustrates each of the four accountability measures generated from EXPLORE, PLAN, or ACT data. It also evaluates the appropriateness of each type of measure in assessing the academic effects of schools on student learning, by examining its associations with factors that are outside the school's control. (Contains 4 tables and 5 footnotes.)
What Kind of Test Preparation Is Best? Issues in College Readiness
Author: ACT, Inc.
Date: 2005-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: High Schools,Learning Readiness,Achievement Tests,Academic Achievement,Test Preparation,Comparative Analysis,Scores,Student Evaluation

The ACT is an achievement test--it indicates whats students are ready to learn next by measuring what they currently know and can do. Given the content and philosophy of the ACT, the approach that is most likely to increase ACT scores is high school coursework, because much of the knowledge and skills that are taught in high school are being measured on the ACT. The ACT was designed to reflect high school course taking, and as such it is a good measure of overall high school preparation by subject area and of student readiness for college or work after high school. It would stand to reason that long-term learning in school, rather than cramming and coaching, would be the obvious best form of test preparation for the ACT. Earning high scores on the ACT is not simply a matter of innate ability or short-term preparation, but reflects a level of achievement resulting from planning, hard work, and dedication. This paper describes the findings of several studies conducted to examine the effects of short-term and longer-term test preparations.
Partnering with Families for Early Learning Home Visit Observations. Better Beginnings
Author: Hallgren, Kristin
Date: 2010-04-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: School Readiness,Home Visits,Parent Participation,Observation,Educational Objectives,Early Childhood Education,Infants,Evaluation Methods,Parent Child Relationship

In 2006, the Gates Foundation launched the Early Learning Initiative to improve the school readiness of Washington State's children through three main strategies: (1) development of high-quality, community-wide early learning initiatives in two communities; (2) enhancement of statewide systems that support early learning; and (3) support for implementation of promising practices. Both Early Learning Initiative demonstration communities are implementing a program called Partnering with Families for Early Learning (PFEL) as part of the home-based early learning (HBEL) services for the Early Learning Initiative. PFEL is a newly designed home visiting program that draws on several curricula, including Partners in Parenting Education and Promoting First Relationships. This brief provides an overview of the observation instruments and describes the content and quality of the observed PFEL home visits. (Contains 6 tables and 10 footnotes.)
Developing Home-Based Early Learning Systems in East Yakima and White Center. Better Beginnings
Author: Hallgren, Kristin
Date: 2010-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Delivery Systems,School Readiness,Pregnancy,Low Income Groups,Females,Models,Evaluation,Educational Improvement,Early Childhood Education,Partnerships in Education

In 2006, the Gates Foundation launched the Early Learning Initiative to improve the school readiness of Washington State's children through three main strategies: (1) development of high-quality, community-wide early learning initiatives in two communities; (2) enhancement of statewide systems that support early learning; and (3) support for implementation of promising practices. This brief summarizes the communities' progress in developing home-based early learning (HBEL) services based on an implementation study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research during the first year of service delivery. It provides an overview of the need for HBEL services in East Yakima and White Center, how the communities selected programs to implement, and how they prepared for service delivery. It then describes the implementation of two established home visiting models and the piloting of a newly developed model. The brief concludes by highlighting key lessons learned and by describing the next steps for continuing to develop the HBEL service delivery system. (Contains 1 table and 5 footnotes.)
Evidence Scan of Work Experience Programs. Mathematica Reference Number: 06747-100
Author: Sattar, Samina
Date: 2010-05-19
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Work Experience Programs,On the Job Training,Internship Programs,Program Effectiveness,Youth Programs,Adult Programs,Evidence,Outcomes of Education,Employment,Gender Differences,Females

This study, being conducted through the Center for Improving Research Evidence (CIRE) at Mathematica Policy Research for the venture philanthropy organization REDF (formerly The Roberts Enterprise Development Fund), presents the evidence on the effectiveness of interventions that include work experience as a strategy to improve employment outcomes for populations with barriers to employment. The study reviewed 26 years of rigorous research for studies of effectiveness, gathering information from 27 evaluations. Work experiences provide participants with an opportunity to practice being in a work environment and applying general or specific skills relevant to holding a job that may help them eventually find independent and unsubsidized employment. Key findings include: (1) For adults, the strongest evidence was for both paid and unpaid work models with programs lasting up to 6 months or a year; (2) The evidence on work experience programs for youth is mixed; while some studies showed strong impacts, others did not; (3) For youth, linking occupational learning with paid or unpaid work experience placements can have a positive impact on employment, earnings and academic outcomes; (4) All youth programs that demonstrated strong impacts incorporated some level of academic and vocational training, job search and placement assistance, and other supports into the program model; (5) Limited evidence is available on long-term impacts; (6) Strength and consistency of implementation is an important consideration, as are local factors; several studies found impacts at some sites and not others; (7) Most studies did not attempt to isolate the impact of work experience versus other components; and (8) Studies indicate particular effectiveness of employment programs for women. Appended are: (1) List of Studies Reviewed; and (2) Tables of Evidence. (Contains 3 tables and 6 footnotes, and a Bibliography.) (This study, was conducted through the Center for Improving Research Evidence (CIRE) at Mathematica Policy Research for the venture philanthropy organization REDF.]
Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Final Report. NCEE Study Snapshot. NCEE 2010-4032
Author: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (ED)
Date: 2010-06-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Private Schools,Low Income,Scholarships,Educational Vouchers,School Safety,Graduation Rate,Participant Satisfaction,Parent Attitudes,Scores,Academic Achievement,Program Effectiveness,Program Evaluation,Federal Legislation,Outcomes of Education

Called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) since its inception, the federally funded program provided scholarships of up to $7,500 for low income residents of the District of Columbia to send their children to participating private schools. Overall, low-income students who were awarded vouchers to attend private schools through the OSP were performing at similar levels in reading and math 4 to 5 years later as students who also applied to the OSP, but were not awarded scholarships. However, students awarded vouchers graduated at significantly higher rates than did their counterparts, according to parent reports. The OSP also had a positive impact on parents' satisfaction with their child's school and their perceptions of the school's safety, but students themselves rated school satisfaction and safety the same whether they received a voucher or not. (Contains 2 figures.) [This snapshot was based from the following study: Wolf, Patrick, Babette Gutmann, Michael Puma, Brian Kisida, Lou Rizzo, Nada Eissa, and Matthew Carr. (2010). &quot;Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Final Report.&quot; Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (ED510451).]
What Works in Student Retention? Fourth National Survey. Community Colleges Report
Author: ACT, Inc.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Community Colleges,Student Attrition,School Holding Power,Academic Persistence,National Surveys,Graduation Rate,Educational Practices,Questionnaires,Institutional Characteristics,Transfer Policy,Distance Education,Time to Degree,Academic Support Services,Student Personnel Services,Student Characteristics

This report presents the findings for community colleges that participated in ACT's 2010 What Works in Student Retention survey. The report contains information pertinent to only these institutions. A copy of the survey instrument to which all colleges and universities in this study responded can be found in Appendix B of this report. The survey was mailed to the Chief Academic Affairs Officers at 949 community colleges, [approximately] 28% of the total 3,360 surveys mailed. A total of 1,104 responses were received, of which 305 ([approximately] 32%) were from community colleges. In sections I and II of this report the full base of respondents and computed percentages were based on the number of individuals responding to each item unless otherwise noted with the inclusion of the word "blank," in which case blanks were included in the total number of respondents for the item. This report is divided into four sections: Section I: Background Information; Section II: Retention and Degree-Completion Rates; Section III: Factors Affecting Student Attrition at Your School; Section IV: On-Campus Retention Practices; and Section V: Top Three Retention Practices. Appended are: (1) Data for Community Colleges; and (2) What Works in Student Retention Instrument. (Contains 15 tables.)