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Education Policy
compiled by education new york online
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Scroll down to read entries organized by topic alphabetically OR use the topic links at the right to jump to categories of interest.
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Updated Friday August 24, 2007 04:44 PM
Academic AchievementNew Kids on the Block| Date Captured | Tuesday August 14, 2007 10:27 AM | | By Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Jeffrey R. Kling, Greg J. Duncan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn write, "In the end, we were surprised and disappointed by the inability of the Moving to Opportunity experiment to help poor children succeed in school. After following more than 5,000 MTO children over five years, we can offer some tentative conclusions about policy interventions designed to improve student performance. Moving poor families to neighborhoods that, while less poor, have schools that are only marginally better than those in the original neighborhoods is unlikely to solve the children’s academic problems. Interventions might be more profitably focused on factors more directly related to the child, family, and school. The question remains whether these same conclusions will hold after a full decade of living in new neighborhoods, especially for the youngest children who, because of the MTO program, will have spent their entire lives outside of public housing projects. We will be collecting additional data next year and look forward to learning more."
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| Relocating Poor Families to More-Affluent Neighborhoods Doesn’t Necessarily Lead to Improved Student Achievement| Date Captured | Tuesday August 14, 2007 10:21 AM | | A randomized evaluation of the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program--a federal housing program piloted in five major U.S. cities that sought to relocate poor families by providing housing vouchers--shows that, contrary to expectations, moving families out of high-poverty neighborhoods has no overall positive impact on children’s learning.
Using data on more than 5,000 children between the ages of 6 and 20, researchers Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Jeffrey Kling, Greg Duncan, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn compared the educational outcomes of children whose families were offered housing vouchers through a lottery with those of children in families who entered the lottery but were not offered vouchers.
During the first four years of the program, more than 4,000 families applied for the housing vouchers in the five pilot cities--Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
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| The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children? | Date Captured | Tuesday October 24, 2006 07:51 AM | | The Thomas B. Fordham writes, "The Fordham Report 2006: How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children? appraises each state according to thirty indicators across three major categories: student achievement for low-income, African-American, and Hispanic students; achievement trends for these same groups over the last 10-15 years; and the state's track record in implementing bold education reforms. In this, the inaugural edition, just six states can claim even moderate success over the past 15 years at boosting the percentage of their poor or minority students who are proficient in reading, math or science. The study also finds that California, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, New York, and Texas are national leaders in education reform--leading the nation with a dedication to solid standards, tough accountability, and greater school choice can yield better classroom results." READ THE REPORT BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK.
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| Education Policy Should Not Be Based on Programs that Cannot be Replicated | Date Captured | Thursday September 14, 2006 12:06 PM | | Education Finance and Accountability Program at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University (EFAP) Director John Yinger writes, "The use of additional funds does not, of course, guarantee success. Many schools undoubtedly use policies and practices that cost more than equally effective alternatives. But one cannot identify these alternatives simply by looking at a few successful schools. Instead, we need to continue evaluating a wide range of programs to determine which ones can raise student performance under what circumstances and at what cost." |
| A Closer Look at Charter Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling| Date Captured | Tuesday August 22, 2006 10:34 AM | | NCES, "The school sample comprised 150 charter schools and 6,764 traditional public schools. The report uses hierarchical linear models (HLMs) to examine differences between the two types of schools when multiple student and/or school characteristics are taken into account. After adjusting for student demographic characteristics, charter school mean scores in reading and mathematics were lower, on average, than those for traditional public schools. The size of these differences was smaller in reading than in mathematics. Results from the second analysis showed that in reading and mathematics, average performance differences between traditional public schools and charter schools affiliated with a public school district were not statistically significant, while charter schools not affiliated with a public school district scored significantly lower on average than traditional public schools." Braun, H., Jenkins, F., and Grigg, W. (2006). A Closer Look at Charter Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling
(NCES 2006-460). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education
Sciences. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. |
| On the Public-Private School Achievement Debate| Date Captured | Wednesday August 02, 2006 06:28 PM | | Paul E. Peterson and Elena Llaudet discuss methodological problems with NCES's study requested by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), "The results from the Alternative Models should not be understood as showing that private schools outperform public schools. Without information on prior student achievement, one cannot answer questions about schools’ efficacy in raising student test scores. The NCES analysis is at serious risk of having produced biased estimates, because its adjustment for student characteristics suffered from two sorts of problems: a) inconsistent classification of student characteristics across sectors and b) inclusion of student characteristics open to school influence. To avoid bias, classification decisions must be consistent for both groups under study. This rule was violated repeatedly in the NCES study." PEPG 06-02. Program on Education Policy and Governance Department of Government, FAS Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. |
| Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling| Date Captured | Friday July 14, 2006 06:41 PM | | This NCES study compares mean 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading and mathematics scores of public and private schools in 4th and 8th grades, statistically controlling for individual student characteristics (such as gender, race/ethnicity, disability status, identification as an English language learner) and school characteristics (such as school size, location, and the composition of the student body). |
| Magnet Schools and Student Achievement| Date Captured | Friday June 30, 2006 08:48 AM | | Author: Dale Ballou, Ellen Goldring and Keke Liu. This study estimates the impact of attending a magnet school on student achievement for a mid-sized Southern district, using admissions lotteries to sort students into “treatment” and “control” groups. Study finds a positive magnet school effect on mathematics achievement until add controls for student demographics and prior achievement. This suggests that despite random assignment in the lotteries, treatment and control groups differ with respect to student characteristics that have an independent impact on achievement. The most likely explanation is differential patterns of attrition among lottery winners and losers.
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| The Nation’s Report Card: Science 2005| Date Captured | Wednesday May 24, 2006 10:52 AM | | May 2006
Authors: Wendy S. Grigg, Mary A. Lauko, and Debra M. Brockway.
This report presents results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2005 science assessment. In addition to national results for grades 4, 8, and 12, fourth- and eighth-grade results are reported for 44 participating states and the Department of Defense schools. The report also includes sample assessment questions and examples of student responses. Of the 37 states and jurisdictions that participated in both the 2000 and 2005 fourth-grade science assessments, nine showed gains in average scores and none showed declines. Of the 37 states and jurisdictions that participated in the 2000 and 2005 eighth-grade assessments, 11 showed gains and 4 showed declines. |
| The Early Reading and Mathematics Achievement of Children Who Repeated Kindergarten or Who Began School a Year Late| Date Captured | Friday May 12, 2006 10:38 AM | | This Statistics in Brief examines the association between kindergarten enrollment status (e.g., repeating kindergarten or delaying entry into kindergarten) and children’s first grade reading and mathematics achievement. Based on the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), the statistics in brief reports that in the fall of 1998 5 percent of all children in kindergarten were repeating kindergarten and 6 percent were attending kindergarten for the first time even though they were age-eligible to do so a year earlier (i.e., delayed entry). In terms of children’s first grade performance by kindergarten enrollment status, at the end of first grade, children who repeated kindergarten have lower reading and mathematics knowledge and skills than those who started on time. At the end of first grade, children whose kindergarten entry was delayed, in general, demonstrate slightly higher reading knowledge and skills than those who started on time. In mathematics at the end of first grade, children whose kindergarten entry was delayed kindergarten are behind their classmates who began kindergarten on time. |
| Explaining the Short Careers of High-Achieving Teachers in Schools with Low-Performing Students| Date Captured | Saturday December 03, 2005 01:47 PM | | March 2005. Don Boyd (U at Albany), Hamp Lankford (U at Albany),Susanna Loeb (Stanford University) Jim Wyckoff (U at Albany). |
| AccountabilityGive schools more time to comply with Contract for Excellence | Date Captured | Monday May 14, 2007 08:56 AM | | Legislative Gazette reports, "Educators and lawmakers alike praised Gov. Eliot Spitzer for his landmark investment in public schools, but a Senate bill passed unanimously last week would allow certain schools more time to comply with new accountability measures the increased funding is tied to." |
| School districts advised to protect computer data| Date Captured | Sunday April 22, 2007 09:43 AM | | Times Herald-Record reports, "Threats to computer data pose a major challenge to school district financial controls, according to a top state official." |
| Boosting Accountability in New York's Schools| Date Captured | Friday April 20, 2007 09:12 AM | | How to Meet the Governor's Historic Challenge, Thursday, March 8, 2007. A panel of state and national education experts gathered at the state Capitol in Albany March 8 to examine and debate Gov. Spitzer's historic education reform plan, which aims to hold New York schools more accountable than ever before. This page features a link to a slide presentation by one of the featured speakers, and also includes streaming audio of the event including
John C. Reid, Assistant Secretary for Education
State of New York; Thomas W. Carroll, President, Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability; Paul E. Peterson
Director, Program on Educational Policy and Governance
Kennedy School of Government; Moderator:
David F. Shaffer, President, Public Policy Institute of New York State;
Panelists:
Carl Hayden,
Chancellor Emeritus,
New York State Board of Regents;
Richard C. Iannuzzi,
President, New York State United Teachers;
Timothy G. Kremer,
Executive Director, New York State School Boards Association;
Thomas L. Rogers,
Executive Director, New York State Council of School Superintendents;
Sol Stern,
Contributing Editor, City Journal and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
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| | Reading First: States Report Improvements in Reading Instruction, but Additional Procedures Would Clarify Education's Role in Ensuring Proper Implementation by States | Date Captured | Friday March 23, 2007 01:54 PM | | GAO-07-161, February 28, 2007. GAO recommends that Education establish control procedures to guide departmental officials and contractors in their interactions with states, districts, and schools to ensure compliance with statutory provisions. GAO also recommends that Education establish and disseminate clear procedures governing its monitoring process. Education, in its response to a draft of this report, agreed with GAO’s recommendations. |
| Spitzer promises no taxes, more ‘investment’| Date Captured | Wednesday January 03, 2007 02:55 PM | | AP reports, "Most of Spitzer's address underscored his campaign promises, including a $6 billion property tax cut over three years and billions of dollars more for schools. Wednesday's proposals include:
--Longer school days and school years, after-school programs and better teachers as well as greater accountability for school spending.
'There will be no more excuses for failure,' Spitzer said. 'The debate will no longer be about money, but about performance; the goal will no longer be adequacy, but excellence; the timetable will no longer be tomorrow, but today.'"
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| A TEST OF LEADERSHIP: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education, A Report of the Commission Appointed by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings| Date Captured | Sunday November 12, 2006 07:52 AM | | Pre-Publication Copy September 2006. CONCLUSION: In short, the commission believes it is imperative that the nation give urgent attention to improving its system of higher education. The future of our country’s colleges and universities is threatened by global competitive pressures, powerful technological developments, restraints on public finance and serious structural limitations that cry out for reform. Thid report has recommended strategic actions designed to make higher education more accessible, more affordable, and more accountable, while maintaining world-class quality. Our colleges and universities must become more transparent, faster to respond to rapidly changing circumstances and increasingly productive in order to deal effectively with the powerful forces of change they now face. But reaching these goals will also require difficult decisions and major changes from many others beyond the higher education community. The commission calls on policymakers to address the needs of higher education in order to maintain social mobility and a high standard of living. We call on the business community to become directly and fully engaged with government and higher education leaders in developing innovative structures for delivering 21st-century educational services—and in providing the necessary financial and human resources for that purpose. Finally, we call on the American public to join in our commitment to improving the postsecondary institutions on which so much of our future—as individuals and as a nation—relies.Working together, we can build on the past successes of U.S. higher education to create an improved and revitalized postsecondary system that is better tailored to the demands, as well as the opportunities, of a new century.
U.S. Department of Education, A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education. Washington, D.C., 2006. |
| Suffolk County Court Special Grand Jury| Date Captured | Tuesday September 26, 2006 05:52 AM | | September 19, 2005; Term 1E. Grand Jury Report, CPL 190.85(1)(c). READ REPORT ON EDUCATION NEW YORK ONLINE. |
| Official Response from the Board of Education to the Comptroller's Audit (including Appendices)| Date Captured | Monday August 07, 2006 11:35 PM | | William Floyd UFSD response to State of New York, Office of the State Comptroller draft Audit Report of Examination dated May 16, 2006, "Given the extraordinary time and money that was invested in improving its practices, the
Board, the administration and the taxpayers of the District looked forward to your office
conducting a neutral, objective, impartial and constructive audit of our current practices.
Specifically, we looked forward to knowing - - in accordance with your stated purpose - - what
current practices should be corrected or improved. We hoped to rely on your considerable
expertise in following your recommendations as they pertained to 'current and emerging
fiscally related problems.'" |
| No Child Left Behind Act: Education Actions Needed to Improve Local Implementation and State Evaluation of Supplemental Educational Services (full study)| Date Captured | Saturday August 05, 2006 10:36 AM | | GAO-06-758 August 4, 2006. "GAO examined (1) how SES [supplemental educational services] participation changed between school years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005; (2) how SES providers are working with districts to deliver SES; (3) how states are monitoring and evaluating SES; and (4) how the Department of Education (Education) monitors and supports state implementation of SES." |
| NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT: Assistance from Education Could Help States Better Measure Progress of Students with Limited English Proficiency| Date Captured | Thursday July 27, 2006 09:57 AM | | GAO July 2006 study, "The No Child Left Behind Act of
2001 (NCLBA) focused attention on
the academic achievement of more
than 5 million students with limited
English proficiency. Obtaining valid
test results for these students is
challenging, given their language
barriers. This report describes
(1) the extent to which these
students are meeting annual
academic progress goals, (2) what
states have done to ensure the
validity of their academic
assessments, (3) what states are
doing to ensure the validity of their
English language proficiency
assessments, and (4) how the U.S.
Department of Education
(Education) is supporting states’
efforts to meet NCLBA’s
assessment requirements for these
students." |
| OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK STATE COMPTROLLER DIVISION OF STATE SERVICES STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT REPORTING OF VIOLENT AND DISRUPTIVE INCIDENTS BY PUBLIC SCHOOLS | Date Captured | Sunday July 09, 2006 09:39 AM | | Report 2005-S-38, "We visited a representative sample of high schools and found that, at a majority of the schools, at least one-third of the violent and disruptive incidents documented in the schools’ records were not reported to SED. At several schools, more than 80 percent of the documented incidents were not reported to SED, and in a number of instances, the most serious types of incidents were unreported, such as sexual offenses and incidents involving the use of a weapon." |
| Forum Guide to the Privacy of Student Information: A Resource for Schools| Date Captured | Thursday June 29, 2006 10:50 AM | | This NCES guide was written to help school and local education agency staff to better understand and apply FERPA, a federal law that protects privacy interests of parents and students in student education records. |
| Evaluation of the Title I Accountability Systems and School Improvement Efforts (TASSIE)| Date Captured | Monday May 08, 2006 10:22 AM | | This report is based on surveys of a nationally representative sample of schools and school districts that are working towards the NCLB goal of student proficiency by 2013-14. The study was commissioned to better understand how states, districts and schools are implementing the Title I accountability provisions of NCLB. SRI findings for 2002-03, the first full year of NCLB implementation, show there were significant gaps between the NCLB vision and the implementation of standards and accountability systems in schools nationwide. While there was broader support for NCLB in 2003-04 than in 2002-2003, the likelihood of reaching proficiency benchmarks varied greatly among states and school districts. The chances that a school would be "identified for improvement" were much higher for schools in districts that were large, urban and poor.
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| Should the federal government be involved in school accountability?| Date Captured | Wednesday May 03, 2006 06:43 PM | | This debate between EPI research associate Richard Rothstein and Hoover Institution economist Eric Hanushek, on the role of the federal government in education, was featured in the Winter 2005 issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. |
| Achievement GapNew Kids on the Block| Date Captured | Tuesday August 14, 2007 10:27 AM | | By Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Jeffrey R. Kling, Greg J. Duncan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn write, "In the end, we were surprised and disappointed by the inability of the Moving to Opportunity experiment to help poor children succeed in school. After following more than 5,000 MTO children over five years, we can offer some tentative conclusions about policy interventions designed to improve student performance. Moving poor families to neighborhoods that, while less poor, have schools that are only marginally better than those in the original neighborhoods is unlikely to solve the children’s academic problems. Interventions might be more profitably focused on factors more directly related to the child, family, and school. The question remains whether these same conclusions will hold after a full decade of living in new neighborhoods, especially for the youngest children who, because of the MTO program, will have spent their entire lives outside of public housing projects. We will be collecting additional data next year and look forward to learning more."
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| Relocating Poor Families to More-Affluent Neighborhoods Doesn’t Necessarily Lead to Improved Student Achievement| Date Captured | Tuesday August 14, 2007 10:21 AM | | A randomized evaluation of the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program--a federal housing program piloted in five major U.S. cities that sought to relocate poor families by providing housing vouchers--shows that, contrary to expectations, moving families out of high-poverty neighborhoods has no overall positive impact on children’s learning.
Using data on more than 5,000 children between the ages of 6 and 20, researchers Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Jeffrey Kling, Greg Duncan, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn compared the educational outcomes of children whose families were offered housing vouchers through a lottery with those of children in families who entered the lottery but were not offered vouchers.
During the first four years of the program, more than 4,000 families applied for the housing vouchers in the five pilot cities--Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
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| The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children| Date Captured | Thursday August 09, 2007 09:55 AM | | Heckman and Masterov write, "We argue that, on productivity grounds, it appears
to make sound business sense to invest in young children from disadvantaged environments. Sub-
stantial evidence from economics, sociology and public policy studies suggests that children from
disadvantaged families are more likely to commit crime, have out-of-wedlock births and drop out
of school. Early interventions that partially remedy the effects of adverse early environments can
reverse some of the damage done by disadvantaged families and have a high economic return relative
to other policies. They will benefit not only the children themselves, but also their own children as
well as society at large.
While more rigorous analysis is necessary to obtain a better understanding of the effects of
such programs, their precise channels of influence, and their precise benefits and costs, the existing
evidence is promising." James J. Heckman is the Henry B. Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Economics,
University of Chicago.
Dimitriy V. Masterov is a graduate student in the Department of Economics, University of Michigan.
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| It all adds up to success | Date Captured | Wednesday June 13, 2007 10:15 AM | | NY Daily News opines, "Next year, Bloomberg and Klein are giving teachers the ability to closely track how well students are learning, so those who lag can get immediate special attention. And the mayor and chancellor are giving parents report cards that will grade how individual schools are working. The trends are moving in the right direction after years of stagnation, and the innate abilities of thousands of kids are finally being unlocked." |
| America’s High School Graduates: Results from the 2005 NAEP High School Transcript Study| Date Captured | Friday February 23, 2007 08:54 AM | | NCES: Among those who took higher level mathematics and science courses, male graduates had higher NAEP scores than female graduates. Increased percentages of White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander graduates completed at least a midlevel curriculum in 2005 compared with 1990. The GPAs of all four racial/ethnic groups also increased during this time. In 2005, both Black and Hispanic graduates were less likely than White graduates to have completed calculus or advanced science courses and to have higher GPAs. |
| Charter High Schools Closing the Achievement Gap | Date Captured | Tuesday December 12, 2006 09:01 AM | | Prepared by WestEd for the U.S. Department of Education
Office of Innovation and Improvement. Study concludes, "Closing the achievement gaps that separate the academic performance of various subgroups of students
is a central goal of current education reform efforts nationwide. Hard-earned progress has been made at the elementary school level, but high school students are not progressing nearly as well. Indeed, it is at this level that performance gains in general have been most elusive and chronic student achievement disparities among significant subgroups seem most intransigent. Yet success is not beyond reach. This guide profiles eight charter secondary schools that are making headway in meeting the achievement
challenge. They are introduced here so their practices can inspire and inform other school communities
striving to ensure that all of their students, regardless of their race, ZIP code, learning differences,
or home language, are successful learners capable of meeting high academic standards."
U.S. Department of Education,
Office of Innovation and Improvement, Charter High Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap, Washington, D.C., 2006. |
| Growing Up In New York: Charting the Next Generation of Workers, Citizens and Leaders | Date Captured | Monday September 11, 2006 10:02 AM | | A report produced by SCAA, reviews the status of children and youth in New York State through charts and critical data. Authors write, "While many individual students have
succeeded in New York’s public education system, students as a group
show declining aptitude as they age. The implications for college
readiness are obvious and alarming." |
| Reforms That Could Help Narrow the Achievement Gap| Date Captured | Thursday June 15, 2006 09:08 AM | | Richard Rothstein, Research Associate of the Economic Policy Institute, outlines a series of reforms, in addition to school improvement, that could help narrow the achievement gap.
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| AdministrationThe Autonomy Gap: Barriers to Effective School Leadership | Date Captured | Friday April 13, 2007 10:01 AM | | By Hartford Superintendent Steven J. Adamowski with Susan Bowles Therriault and Anthony P. Cavanna. Based on a series of interviews with a small sample of district and charter-school principals, the report shows that most district principals encounter a sizable gap between the extent and kinds of authority that leaders need to be effective and the authority that they actually have. The researchers interviewed thirty-three principals in five cities located in three states-one western, one mid western, and one southeastern state. Participants were asked to rate the importance of twenty-one job functions, then report on their perceived level of autonomy over those functions. |
| The Second-Century Imperatives — Presidential Leadership and Institutional Accountability,” | Date Captured | Monday October 30, 2006 05:55 PM | | NCAA REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCE ON THE FUTURE OF DIVISION I INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: "The Task Force has developed a series of 'dashboard indicators' that can be customized for each campus and that will allow comparisons with specific peer groups. The indicators will show where each program is compared to the norm.The goal is to moderate the growth of athletics budgets. How this is done will vary from campus to campus, but that it must be done on most campuses is the consensus analysis of the Task Force. The reality for effective reform of spending and revenue-generating behaviors for college sports is this: Each college and university must hold itself accountable for exercising its independent will as an institution of higher education. And it will do that best through well-informed, value-driven presidential leadership." |
| New York City Considers Plan to Let Outsiders Run Schools | Date Captured | Thursday October 05, 2006 03:19 AM | | NY Times reports, "Randi Weingarten, the teachers’ union president, urged the administration to make its discussions more public. 'I have been concerned about the sub rosa debate on whether to privatize the management of the school system for quite a while,' she said. 'On an issue that is this transcendent there has to be a real public debate.'” |
| Preparing Principals for High-Need Rural Schools: A Central Office Perspective about Collaborative Efforts to Transform School Leadership| Date Captured | Saturday July 22, 2006 08:30 PM | | This article presents district administrators’ reflections about (a) the contextual challenges they face in leading a high-need rural school system in Central Appalachia and (b) the change initiatives they implemented to transform the principalship from school management to instructional leadership. The article presents perspectives by the district administrators and leadership educators involved in the district-initiated activities to change the culture of administrative practice. Browne-Ferrigno, T., & Allen, L. W. (2006, February 10). Preparing principal for high-need rural schools: A central office perspective about collaborative efforts to transform school leadership. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 21(1). Retrieved 7/22/2006 from http://www.umaine.edu/jrre/21-1.htm
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| Urban School Superintendents: Characteristics, Tenure, and Salary| Date Captured | Friday June 09, 2006 08:39 AM | | The Council of the Great City prepared this report to improve public understanding of employment patterns and demographic trends among the nation’s urban superintendents. |
| Adult EducationPerformance-Based Funding in Adult Education: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework| Date Captured | Sunday August 20, 2006 03:33 PM | | By Steven G. Klein, MPR Associates. "...this review draws on the higher education literature to explore the rationale for introducing these systems, processes used to design and implement allocation formulas, and lessons learned over time. It also summarizes how performance-based funding systems are applied in adult education and, where appropriate, provides examples of state systems to illustrate the mechanics of formula operation." |
| After-School ProgramsWhen Schools Stay Open Late: The First Year Findings| Date Captured | Tuesday April 03, 2007 06:20 PM | | The first-year findings reveal that while 21st-Century after-school centers changed where
and with whom students spent some of their after-school time and increased parental
involvement, they had limited influence on academic performance, no influence on feelings of
safety or on the number of “latchkey” children and some negative influences on behavior. [A “center” refers to after-school services operated in one school, and a “program” refers to one or more
centers operated in one school district. The study measured impacts at the program level but not at the center level.]
U.S.
Department of Education, Office of the Under Secretary, When Schools Stay Open Late: The
National Evaluation of the 21st-Century Learning Centers Program, First Year Findings,
Washington, D.C., 2003. |
| After-School Programs and Activities: 2005| Date Captured | Wednesday May 31, 2006 04:03 PM | | By Carver, P.R., Iruka, I.U.. This report presents data on participation in after-school activities and programs in the United States. The data are from the After-School Programs and Activities Survey (ASPA) of the 2005 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES:2005). The data presented in the report are based on a nationally representative sample of students in kindergarten through grade 8. In 2005, 40 percent of students in kindergarten through eighth grade participated in after-school care arrangements that occurred at least once each week. |
| ArtArts Instruction of Public School Students in the First and Third Grades | Date Captured | Tuesday July 18, 2006 10:46 AM | | This Issue Brief examines the changes over time from first to third grade in how often young children are exposed to arts education in the general classroom. The Brief also looks at differences in these characteristics by level of poverty and/or urbanicity of the school. |
| AthleticsBAT BAN OFF BASE: SCHOOLS| Date Captured | Sunday November 12, 2006 07:37 AM | | NY Post reports, "The Catholic High Schools' Athletic Association sent a letter to all 51 council members urging them not to vote for the measure, which would require all high schools in the city to use wooden bats for safety reasons."
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| The Second-Century Imperatives — Presidential Leadership and Institutional Accountability,” | Date Captured | Monday October 30, 2006 05:55 PM | | NCAA REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCE ON THE FUTURE OF DIVISION I INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: "The Task Force has developed a series of 'dashboard indicators' that can be customized for each campus and that will allow comparisons with specific peer groups. The indicators will show where each program is compared to the norm.The goal is to moderate the growth of athletics budgets. How this is done will vary from campus to campus, but that it must be done on most campuses is the consensus analysis of the Task Force. The reality for effective reform of spending and revenue-generating behaviors for college sports is this: Each college and university must hold itself accountable for exercising its independent will as an institution of higher education. And it will do that best through well-informed, value-driven presidential leadership." |
| AttendanceShould teen mothers be held to truancy standards? | Date Captured | Saturday April 14, 2007 08:49 PM | | A Shrewdness of Apes blog: "Well, here's an interesting dilemma:
Well, here's an interesting dilemma:
A 16-year-old student who claims in a lawsuit that her school district discriminated against her because she is a teen mother has missed 211 days of school over the last four years, according to officials in the Harrisburg area school district.
A 16-year-old student who claims in a lawsuit that her school district discriminated against her because she is a teen mother has missed 211 days of school over the last four years, according to officials in the Harrisburg area school district."
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| The Determinants of Student Achievement in Ohio’s Public Schools| Date Captured | Friday August 04, 2006 01:08 AM | | By Matthew Carr, Education Policy Director, Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions. Carr writes, "To capture the
changing dynamics of both different academic subjects and students at different ages, this analysis evaluates
student performance in five subjects (math, reading, writing, science and citizenship) across grades 3 to 12.
This combination gives us 21 separate analyses, or mathematical models. Controls were also included for
geography, student socio-economic status, race, and learning disability.
This study breaks new ground by also analyzing the factors that influence student performance in charter
schools."
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| Class SizeChancellor Answers Critics on School Financing Data | Date Captured | Wednesday July 18, 2007 08:34 AM | | NY Times reports, "The city (New York City) this month said that it would use nearly half the funds to reduce class sizes. Detailed figures released by the city yesterday showed how much extra financing school districts and individual schools would receive, but still did not specify where class sizes would be cut. Critics say the distribution raises the question of whether schools that are relatively high-performing are getting too much of the money." |
| New York Suburban School Districts Among Top Spenders | Date Captured | Sunday June 10, 2007 10:43 AM | | NY Times reports, "New York’s high teacher costs are partly attributable to smaller class sizes: The state’s suburban districts, for instance, employ far more teachers than the rest of the country — 76 per 1,000 students, compared with the national average of 60 — but only slightly more than the New Jersey suburbs, at 74, and Fairfield, at 70.
New York’s suburban districts, though, pay more for each teacher, even compared with New Jersey and Connecticut — about $133,000 in salary and benefits for each full-time teacher, compared with $94,000 in northern New Jersey and $100,000 in Fairfield, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Mr. Ernst said teacher salaries reflect higher costs in the state, and a more favorable legal and political atmosphere for labor in New York that makes it difficult to get concessions in years when money is tight.
But Richard C. Iannuzzi, president of the New York State United Teachers, said teacher salaries were simply a further demonstration of the state’s commitment to education."
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| SCHOOL SANITY: COURT OPTS FOR RESTRAINT| Date Captured | Tuesday November 21, 2006 06:44 AM | | NY Post contributor E.J. McMahon, director of the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center for New York State Policy writes, "It will take a determined governor to prevent legislators and the usual special-interest groups from using CFE as an excuse to promote Albany's traditional education 'solution' - lots more money, no reform.
But thanks to the Court of Appeals, these issues at least will be contested in the right forum. In one of his more beneficial legacies, Pataki stocked New York's highest court with judges who were unwilling to micromanage policy. They've now kicked the ball back to the Legislature, once and for all. CFE and its allies must turn their attention to direct lobbying of the people's elected representatives - which is just the way it should be."
|
| What Research Says About Small Classes and Their Effects. | Date Captured | Thursday May 25, 2006 09:46 AM | | Bruce J. Biddle and David C. Berliner, Education Policy Reports Project (EPRP), Arizona State University. |
| One Size Does Not Fit All | Date Captured | Thursday May 18, 2006 06:50 PM | | One Size Does Not Fit All
by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli
Teacher Magazine, January 1999 |
| The Evidence on Class Size | Date Captured | Thursday May 18, 2006 06:45 PM | | by Eric Hanushek
2/1/1998
W. Allen Wallace Institute of Political Economy, University of Rochester |
| INVESTING IN SMALLER CLASS SIZE: Focusing the debate| Date Captured | Thursday May 18, 2006 06:37 PM | | An EPI Policy Seminar
Listen to the event
|
| Community CollegesWorking To Learn, Learning to Work: Unlocking the Potential of New York's Adult College Students | Date Captured | Tuesday August 14, 2007 07:36 AM | | Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy (SCAA) and the Center for an Urban Future (CUF) study, "Specific recommendations include: * Provide financial aid to part-time students in their first year. In 2006, the New York State Legislature took the first step towards assisting working adults by establishing a 'part-time TAP' program. However, New York should abolish the pointless requirement that students study full-time in the first year to qualify for part-time TAP. * Abolish discriminatory TAP benefits and income thresholds for unmarried childless adults, so that they can receive the same benefits at the same income thresholds as all other students. * Abolish all previous financial aid schedules and get rid of the 'don’t come back' rule, which ties students who leave college and return later to the income and benefit schedule in effect when they first entered college. Since schedules are improved every few years, older schedules are considerably less generous than current ones. * Create a remedial education financing program outside of TAP, so that students can enhance their opportunity for academic success while preserving TAP eligibility for creditworthy classes." |
| Act On Fact: Using Data to Improve Student Success. | Date Captured | Monday November 27, 2006 03:28 PM | | CCSSE has released its 2006 National Report, Act On Fact: Using Data to Improve Student Success. This report asks the questions, "Which students are having a more productive college
experience? For whom is our current practice working?
Who, if anyone, might be left behind? What are the differences in various students’ experiences?
Are certain practices mandatory for some students
but not for others? Should they be required for
all students? What practices are built into the classroom experience
now? Should we incorporate more expectations,
activities, or services into coursework?"
|
| Paying Double: Inadequate High Schools and Community College Remediation | Date Captured | Tuesday August 29, 2006 07:22 PM | | Alliance for Excellent Education Issue Brief, August, 2006, "The nation would realize an additional $3.7 billion annually in combined reduced expenditures
and increased earnings if:
• more students who graduate from high school were prepared for college, and thus did not
require remediation; and
• the students who drop out of college because they were not prepared for college-level
reading demands were to continue and earn a Bachelor’s degree at the same rate as nonremedial
students." |
| Transfer Access to Elite Colleges and Universities in the United States: Threading the Needle of the American Dream| Date Captured | Friday June 30, 2006 10:38 AM | | Executive Summary of "The Study of Economic, Informational, and Cultural Barriers to Community College Student Transfer Enrollment at Selective Institutions", a study that was designed to deepen understanding of ways to promote transfer access. The study employed multiple methods of data collection and analysis to examine community college transfer student achievement; administrative and professorial attitudes towards community college transfers; and institutional policies, programs, and practices that promote transfer access. The problem of low transfer access was conceptualized as having three inter-related dimensions: (1) institutional
economics; (2) informational barriers (particularly information about financial aid); and (3) cultural barriers. |
| Profile of Undergraduates in U.S. Postsecondary Education Institutions: 2003-04, With a Special Analysis of Community College Students| Date Captured | Wednesday June 21, 2006 10:24 AM | | This report includes an analysis of community college students, examining the relationship between a measure of students’ degree commitment and their likelihood of maintaining their enrollment over the 1-year period under study. Overall, some 49 percent of community college students were classified as “more committed,” 39 percent as “less committed” and 12 percent as “not committed.” The results indicate that students who demonstrate a relatively strong commitment to completing a program of study (i.e., they explicitly report that either transfer or degree completion are reasons for attending and they attend classes at least half time) are very likely to maintain their enrollment for one year. Some 83 percent of the “more committed” students did so, compared with 70 percent of “less committed” and 58 percent of those designated as “not committed.” |
| The Toolbox Revisited; Paths to Degree Completion from High School Through College| Date Captured | Saturday June 10, 2006 08:03 PM | | U.S. Department of Education. The Toolbox Revisited is a data essay that follows a nationally representative cohort of students from high school into postsecondary education, and asks what aspects of their formal schooling contribute to completing a bachelor's degree by their mid-20s. The universe of students is confined to those who attended a four-year college at any time, thus including students who started out in other types of institutions, particularly community colleges |
| ConsolidationThe Impact of School-District Consolidation on Property Values | Date Captured | Thursday August 23, 2007 10:32 AM | | A Monthly Column by EFAP Director John Yinger. Yinger writes, "Overall, this evidence implies that consolidation yields net benefits to the average household in
a small rural school district, but that consolidation is not popular with high-income households
anywhere in rural New York." |
| Curriculum and InstructionSCHOOLS BRUSHING UP ON THE ARTS| Date Captured | Tuesday July 24, 2007 07:02 AM | | NY Post Chuck Bennett reports, "'I didn't want the arts to be a throwaway. I didn't want the arts to be some add-on, some feel-good thing. I think arts education is critical,' Klein [NYC schools chancellor] said.
He added that $250 million in this year's school budget will go toward arts education, including the hiring of 141 new teachers. More students also will be eligible to receive an Arts-Endorsed Regents Honors diploma for taking a concentration in arts classes."
|
| Changes in Instructional Hours in Four Subjects by Public School Teachers of Grades 1 Through 4| Date Captured | Tuesday June 05, 2007 10:14 AM | | Authors: Beth A. Morton, Education Statistical Services Institute--American Institutes for Research, and Ben Dalton, formerly of the Education Statistical Services Institute--Americian Institutes for Research. In the two most recent administrations, 1999-2000 and 2003-04, weekly teacher instructional hours in English increased while instructional time in mathematics, social studies, and science decreased. Despite the fluctuations in hours of instruction, total instructional time in the four subjects as a percentage of the student school week did not change significantly between 1987-88 and 2003-04; it was about 67 percent of the school week in each year. |
| Rigor at Risk: Reaffirming Quality in the High School Curriculum| Date Captured | Wednesday May 16, 2007 07:10 AM | | The Rigor at Risk report suggests that some students progress toward college readiness in high school, but many lose momentum during their last two years there. There are action steps that states and schools can take to improve the rigor of high school core courses: 1. Specify the number and kinds of courses that students need to take to graduate from high school ready for college and work.
2. Align high school course outcomes with state standards that are driven by the requirements of postsecondary education and work.
3. Hire qualified teachers and provide training or professional development support to help them improve the quality of the courses they teach.
4. Expand access for all students to high-quality, vertically aligned core courses.
5. Measure results at the course level.
|
| BROOKLYN SCHOOL IN SPACE WAR| Date Captured | Tuesday April 10, 2007 08:44 AM | | NY Post David Andreatta reports, "Parents claim the new school would force PS 282 to cram 35 students to a classroom and compromise its art, science and computer-instruction programs." |
| Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First Student Cohort| Date Captured | Thursday April 05, 2007 09:16 AM | | National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance study finds: "Test scores were not significantly higher in classrooms using the reading and mathematics software products than those in control classrooms. In each of the four groups of products-reading in first grade and in fourth grade, mathematics in sixth grade, and high school algebra-the evaluation found no significant differences in student achievement between the classrooms that used the technology products and classrooms that did not.
There was substantial variation between schools regarding the effects on student achievement. Although the study collected data on many school and classroom characteristics, only two characteristics were related to the variation in reading achievement. For first grade, effects were larger in schools that had smaller student-teacher ratios (a measure of class size). For fourth grade, effects were larger when treatment teachers reported higher levels of use of the study product." Dynarski, Mark, Roberto Agodini, Sheila Heaviside, Timothy Novak, Nancy Carey, Larissa
Campuzano, Barbara Means, Robert Murphy, William Penuel, Hal Javitz, Deborah Emery, and
Willow Sussex. Effectiveness of Reading and Mathematics Software Products: Findings from the First
Student Cohort, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education
Sciences, 2007.
Prepared under Contract No.: ED-01-CO-0039/0007 with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
|
| Reading First: States Report Improvements in Reading Instruction, but Additional Procedures Would Clarify Education's Role in Ensuring Proper Implementation by States | Date Captured | Friday March 23, 2007 01:54 PM | | GAO-07-161, February 28, 2007. GAO recommends that Education establish control procedures to guide departmental officials and contractors in their interactions with states, districts, and schools to ensure compliance with statutory provisions. GAO also recommends that Education establish and disseminate clear procedures governing its monitoring process. Education, in its response to a draft of this report, agreed with GAO’s recommendations. |
| Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006| Date Captured | Thursday November 09, 2006 08:46 AM | | Study concludes: "Problem areas identified in previous years are still seen as areas of concern among
academic leaders.
• Only 4.6 percent of Chief Academic Officers agreed that there are no significant
barriers to widespread adoption of online learning.
• Nearly two-thirds of the academic leaders cite the need for more discipline on the
part of online students as a critical barrier.
• Faculty issues, both acceptance of online and the need for greater time and effort to
teach online, are also important barriers.
• Neither a perceived lack of demand on the part of potential students nor the
acceptance of an online degree by potential employers was seen as a critical barrier." I. Elaine Allen, Ph.D., and Jeff Seaman, Ph.D., November 2006
|
| Differentiated Curriculum Enhancement in Inclusive Middle School Science: Effects on Classroom and High-Stakes Tests| Date Captured | Wednesday November 01, 2006 03:16 PM | | By Mastropieri, Margo A; Scruggs, Thomas E; Norland, Jennifer J; Berkeley, Sheri; Et al. Researchers find, "The present investigation supports the effectiveness of using differentiated learning activities with peer partners in middle school inclusive science classes, not only on content posttests, but also on high-stakes end-of-year tests. When using peermediation combined with differentiated science activities, students appear to learn more content than when taught more traditionally, without peer- mediated learning activities."
|
| Video-gaming American schools| Date Captured | Thursday October 19, 2006 09:18 AM | | The Enquirer reports, "One of the nation's most prestigious scientific groups on Tuesday put video games into play in an ambitious new bid to transform American education.
The Federation of American Scientists called for major investment in digital educational games that could reshape how students learn and workers are trained for 21st century jobs."
|
| The Accuracy and Effectiveness of Adequate Yearly Progress, NCLB's School Evaluation System| Date Captured | Friday October 06, 2006 07:06 PM | | William J. Mathis writes, "Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is the key element of the accountability system mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This report reveals that AYP in its 2006 form as the prime indicator of academic achievement is not supported by reliable evidence. Expecting all children to reach mastery level on their state’s standardized tests by 2014, the fundamental requirement of AYP, is unrealistic. The growth model and other improvement proposals now on the table do not have sufficient power to resolve the underlying problems of the system. In addition, the program, whether conceived as implementation costs or remedial costs, is significantly underfunded in a way that will disproportionately penalize schools attended by the neediest children. Further, the curriculum is being narrowed to focus on tested areas at the cost of other vital educational purposes." Mathis, William J., Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, University of Vermont. |
| The State of State World History Standards 2006 | Date Captured | Tuesday June 06, 2006 07:47 AM | | Historian Walter Russel Mead, author of Fordham's The State of State World History Standards 2006, found that thirty-three states deserved D or F grades for their world history standards. And without standards that competently organize the subject’s vast expanses, textbook writers and curriculum developers will be left guessing, teachers won’t know what to teach, students will be adrift, and parents will be bewildered. America's future generations will be unprepared to operate and compete successfully in an international society.
|
| The 2006 National Geographic-Roper Survey of Geographic Literacy | Date Captured | Wednesday May 03, 2006 09:28 AM | | These results suggest that young people in the United States—the most recent graduates of our educational system—are unprepared for an increasingly global future. Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events.
|
| Teaching Science in Five Countries: Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study| Date Captured | Tuesday April 04, 2006 10:36 PM | | Roth, Druker, Garnier, Lemmens, Chen, Kawanaka, Rasmussen, Trubacova, Warvi, Okamoto, Gonzales, Stigler, and Gallimore. April 2006. This Statistical Analysis report presents findings from the 1999 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) Video Study of eighth-grade science teaching in five countries: Australia, Czech Republic, Japan, Netherlands, and the United States. The study is the first attempt to examine eighth-grade science lessons as they are actually delivered to students. The data presented focus on three basic questions: How did the teacher organize the lesson to support students’ opportunities to learn science? How was science represented to students in the lesson? What opportunities did students have to participate in science learning activities? |
| Data-driven EducationBoston schools win top education award; Jersey City a finalist| Date Captured | Tuesday September 19, 2006 08:48 PM | | AP reports, "The Boston public school system won the nation's largest prize in public education Tuesday, earning $500,000 in college scholarships for making steady gains in the classroom. Jersey City's school system was a finalist for the award and will receive $125,000."The other four finalists will each receive $125,00. They are Bridgeport Public Schools in Connecticut, Jersey City School District in New Jersey, Miami Dade County Public Schools and the New York City Department of Education. |
| DiversityThe Segregation of American Teachers| Date Captured | Wednesday February 21, 2007 09:44 AM | | By Erica Frankenberg, M.Ed., is a Research Assistant at The Civil Rights Project and Professor Gary Orfield, Professor of Education and Social Policy and Director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University. "This report shows that in an increasingly segregated national system of schools, faculty segregation tends to add to — rather than counteract — the separation of students. We see that the white teachers, who continue to dominate the teaching profession, tend to grow up with little racial/ethnic diversity in their own education or experience. Not only did white teachers, on average, attend schools when they were elementary school students that were over 90% white, they are currently teaching in schools where almost 90% of their faculty colleagues are white and over 70% of students are white."
|
| The Benefits of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Elementary and Secondary Education| Date Captured | Saturday December 02, 2006 07:50 AM | | The Benefits of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Elementary and Secondary Education: A Briefing Before The United States Commission on Civil Rights Held in Washington, D.C., July 28, 2006 Briefing Report, "Based on the record, the Commission issued a number of findings, including:
• There is little evidence that racial and ethnic diversity in elementary and secondary
schools results in significant improvements in academic performance;
• Studies on the effect of school racial composition on academic achievement often suggest
modest and inconsistent benefits;
• Studies of whether racial and ethnic diversity result in significant social and noneducational
benefits report varied results;
• Much of the early research indicating educational benefits resulting from racial and
ethnic diversity in elementary and secondary schools suffered from serious
methodological weaknesses;
• A preliminary review of data on the overall relationship between school racial
composition and student achievement as measured by the 2003 National Assessment of
Educational Progress scores does not indicate a consistent strong relationship between the
two after controlling for socioeconomic status;
• While there are many research studies indicating that desegregated schooling is
associated with higher educational and occupational aspirations , and to a modest degree,
attainment for African-American students, methodological weaknesses in these studies
make it difficult to isolate school racial composition as the cause of these aspirations and
attainments;
• While recent studies examining the relationship between desegregation and future wages
found a small positive relationship after controlling for self-selection bias, research
evidence on the relationship of school racial composition and actual wages is less
definitive; • More recent surveys have indicated generally positive reactions to school desegregation,
such as cross-racial friendships and greater understanding of racial and cultural
differences, but some of these surveys do not definitively identify a causal relationship
between the two."
|
| Early LearningThe Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children| Date Captured | Thursday August 09, 2007 09:55 AM | | Heckman and Masterov write, "We argue that, on productivity grounds, it appears
to make sound business sense to invest in young children from disadvantaged environments. Sub-
stantial evidence from economics, sociology and public policy studies suggests that children from
disadvantaged families are more likely to commit crime, have out-of-wedlock births and drop out
of school. Early interventions that partially remedy the effects of adverse early environments can
reverse some of the damage done by disadvantaged families and have a high economic return relative
to other policies. They will benefit not only the children themselves, but also their own children as
well as society at large.
While more rigorous analysis is necessary to obtain a better understanding of the effects of
such programs, their precise channels of influence, and their precise benefits and costs, the existing
evidence is promising." James J. Heckman is the Henry B. Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Economics,
University of Chicago.
Dimitriy V. Masterov is a graduate student in the Department of Economics, University of Michigan.
|
| The Abbott Preschool Program Longitudinal Effects Study (APPLES)| Date Captured | Friday June 15, 2007 07:50 PM | | by Ellen Frede, Kwanghee Jung, W. Steven Barnett, Cynthia Esposito Lamy, and Alexandra Figueras. "This report discusses the results of a rigorous study of New Jersey's Abbott Preschool Program. The study seeks to determine if the learning gains from the state prekindergarten program found in earlier research at kindergarten entry continued throughout the kindergarten year and assess the quality of Abbott classrooms. Findings form this study: classroom quality in the Abbott Preschool Program continues to improve; children who attend the program, regardless of setting, improve in language, literacy and math skills through the end of their kindergarten year; and children who attend the preschool education program for two years significantly outperform those who attend for only one year or do not attend at all."
|
| SCAA Reports: Winter 2007 | Date Captured | Tuesday May 22, 2007 10:53 AM | | This issue of SCAA Reports spotlights some of the key areas urgently needing attention in order to assure the success of more children, and identifies several strategies for strengthening early child development: by significantly investing in early programming through home visiting, welcome baby contact, quality child care and early education. Research has shown that these investments have the longest-lasting and greatest return.
|
| Timing and Duration of Student Participation in Special Education in the Primary Grades| Date Captured | Wednesday March 21, 2007 09:19 PM | | Emily W. Holt, Daniel J. McGrath, and William L. Herring. This Issue Brief reports the timing of entry into special education and the number of grades in which students receive special education across the primary grades. About 12 percent of students receive special education in at least one of the grades: kindergarten, first, and third grade, including 16 percent of boys, 8 percent of girls, 18 percent of poor children, and 10 percent of nonpoor children. One in three students who receive special education in early grades, first receive special education in kindergarten. Half of those who begin special education in kindergarten are no longer receiving special education by third grade. In addition to students’ gender and poverty status, results are presented separately for other student and school characteristics, including race/ethnicity and school control, urbanicity, region, and poverty concentration. Data for this brief come from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). |
| The Economic Promise of Investing in High-Quality Preschool: Using Early Education to Improve Economic Growth and the Fiscal Sustainability of States and the Nation (2006)| Date Captured | Saturday March 10, 2007 01:50 PM | | The Economic
Promise of Investing in
High-Quality Preschool:
Using Early Education to Improve
Economic Growth and the Fiscal
Sustainability of States and the Nation,
Committee for Economic Development. Selected recommendations: "CED recommends that communities, states, and the nation make access to publicly funded, highquality
preschool programs an economic and
educational priority. The economic benefits from
preschool will be greatest when all children are
provided with access to high-quality, publicly funded
preschool programs. States with existing preschool
programs should expand access by eliminating
enrollment restrictions based on family income, and
maximize program efficiency by coordinating state
prekindergarten, federal Head Start, and child-care
programs. To achieve the potential economic benefits,
preschool programs should provide adequate contact
hours to improve student learning and provide options
for integrating high-quality child care to meet the
needs of working parents. Furthermore, states should
welcome a diverse set of providers that meet quality
standards and the needs of the parents and
communities they serve. Business leaders should
advocate preschool and other complementary
childhood programs and services, emphasizing the
strong returns on investment, and the leveraging of
current expenditures.
CED recommends that publicly funded preschool
programs meet the quality standards necessary to
deliver the promised economic benefits." |
| FIRST 5 CALIFORNIA | Date Captured | Thursday October 26, 2006 08:03 PM | | Research shows that a child’s brain develops most dramatically in the first five years and what parents and caregivers do during these years to support their child’s growth will have a meaningful impact throughout life. Based on this research, First 5 California, also known as the California Children and Families Commission, was established after voters passed Proposition 10 in November 1998, adding a 50 cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund education, health, child care and other programs for expectant parents and children up to age 5. |
| Growing Up In New York: Charting the Next Generation of Workers, Citizens and Leaders | Date Captured | Monday September 11, 2006 10:02 AM | | A report produced by SCAA, reviews the status of children and youth in New York State through charts and critical data. Authors write, "While many individual students have
succeeded in New York’s public education system, students as a group
show declining aptitude as they age. The implications for college
readiness are obvious and alarming." |
| $101.6 Million in Early Reading First Grants Awarded to 25 States| Date Captured | Friday September 01, 2006 10:29 PM | | U.S. Department of Education: Early Reading First programs focus on language, cognition and early reading so that young children enter kindergarten with the oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness and knowledge of the alphabet necessary to begin to learn how to read. |
| Age 2: Findings From the 2-Year-Old Follow-up of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort | Date Captured | Tuesday August 29, 2006 10:52 AM | | This report presents information on selected child and family characteristics, on children’s mental and physical skills, on children's attachment relationships with their primary caregivers, on their first experiences in child care, and on their fathers. Mulligan, G.M. and Flanagan, K.D. (2006). Age 2: Findings From the 2-Year-Old Follow-up of the Early
Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) (NCES 2006-043). U.S. Department of Education.
Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. |
| Assistance to States for the Education of Children With Disabilities and Preschool Grants for Children With Disabilities| Date Captured | Thursday August 24, 2006 11:20 AM | | Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services,
Department of Education: The Secretary issues final regulations governing the
Assistance to States for Education of Children with Disabilities
Program and the Preschool Grants for Children with Disabilities
Program. These regulations are needed to implement changes made to the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as amended by the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (Act or
IDEA).
DATES: These regulations take effect on October 13, 2006.
|
| Pre-K and Latinos: The Foundation of America's Future| Date Captured | Monday July 10, 2006 08:15 PM | | Eugene E. Garcia, Ph.D., Arizona State University, College of Education, Tempe, AZ; Danielle M. Gonzales, M.Ed., Pre-K Now
Washington, DC, July 2006. Providing Hispanics with much greater access
to high-quality pre-k is critical to helping states meet
the standards and mandates of NCLB.
To maximize the benefits of increased Latino participation
in pre-k, programs should be structured to build
upon the existing strengths within Latino communities,
including strong family bonds, a high value on
educational achievement, and widespread support for
public education and social systems. |
| | "The Effects of Investing in Early Education on Economic Growth"| Date Captured | Thursday June 08, 2006 07:08 AM | | By William T. Dickens, Isabel Sawhill, and Jeffrey Tebbs |
| | Initial Results From the 2005 NHES Early Childhood Program Participation Survey| Date Captured | Thursday May 11, 2006 10:26 AM | | This report presents selected data on the nonparental care arrangements and educational programs of preschool children, consisting of care by relatives, care by persons to whom they were not related, and participation in day care centers and preschool programs including Head Start or Early Head Start. It focuses on children under age 6 who have not yet entered kindergarten. For example, the report shows that 60 percent of such children were in some type of nonparental care arrangement on a weekly basis in 2005. |
| Public Hearing on Early Childhood Education| Date Captured | Sunday December 18, 2005 02:12 PM | | December 8, 2005: submitted by Karen Schimke, President/CEO Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy. |
| Early Childhood Education: How Important are the Cost-Savings to the School System?| Date Captured | Sunday December 18, 2005 01:51 PM | | February 2004: cost-benefit analysis by economist Dr. Clive R. Belfield, of Teachers College, Columbia University |
| Education PolicyPolicies Solving Problems| Date Captured | Saturday February 18, 2006 01:46 PM | | Center for Innovative Policy. Best Practices, 2006: Policies Solving Problems Facing America’s Families. Best Practices, 2006 is a sampling of ideas, innovations, policies, and practices. |
| EngagementDemilitarizing What the Pentagon Knows About Developing Young People: A New Paradigm for Educating Students Who Are Struggling in School and in Life| Date Captured | Friday June 01, 2007 12:53 PM | | CCF Working Paper, May 2007, Hugh B. Price, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies. "Millions of adolescents are marginalized academically and destined for oblivion in the twenty-first century economy. They barely, if at all, will be able to uphold their obligations as citizens and providers. The U.S. military figured out how to nurture and unleash the potential of young people like these generations ago. By demilitarizing and deploying what the Pentagon knows about educating and developing aimless young people, these troubled and troublesome young Americans can be transformed into a valued social and economic asset to our nation." |
| English Language LearningRecommendations to Reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act| Date Captured | Sunday June 10, 2007 01:20 PM | | Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
|
| No Child Left Behind Act: Education Assistance Could Help States Better Measure Progress of Students with Limited English Proficiency | Date Captured | Friday March 23, 2007 01:44 PM | | GAO-07-646T, March 23, 2007. The GAO report recommended that Education (1) support research on accommodations, (2) identify and provide technical support states need to ensure the validity of academic assessments, (3) publish additional guidance on requirements for assessing English language proficiency, and (4) explore ways to provide additional flexibility for measuring annual progress for these students. Education generally agreed with our recommendations and has taken a number of steps to address them. |
| Latinos Online: Hispanics with lower levels of education and English proficiency remain largely disconnected from the internet| Date Captured | Thursday March 15, 2007 06:28 PM | | By Susannah Fox, Pew Internet & American Life Project and Gretchen Livingston, Pew Hispanic Center find, "Differences in levels of education and English proficiency explain much
of the difference in internet usage between Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Internet use is uniformly low for whites (32%), Hispanics (31%), and African Americans
(25%) who have not completed high school. However, 41% of Latino adults have not
finished high school, compared with about one in ten non-Hispanic whites and one in
five African Americans. The same pattern is evident at the other end of the spectrum of
educational attainment. College-educated adults all have equally high levels (about 90%)
of internet use regardless of race or ethnicity, yet the college educated make up a smaller share of the Latino population when compared with non-Hispanics.
Language is also a powerful factor, as internet use is much higher among Latinos who
speak and read English fluently than among those who have limited English abilities or
who only speak Spanish. Language is not an issue in the white and black populations as
the shares of adults with limited English abilities is quite small.
A statistical analysis of the survey results shows education and language are each highly
significant factors when other differences in group characteristics are taken into account.
When the different levels of language or education are controlled statistically, Hispanics
and non-Hispanics show similar levels of internet use." |
| NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT Education’s Data Improvement Efforts Could Strengthen the Basis for Distributing Title III Funds| Date Captured | Friday December 08, 2006 01:45 PM | | GAO 07-140 recommends: To address issues related to Title III allocation, we recommended that Education (1) include clear instructions about how to provide correct and complete state data on the number of students with limited English proficiency assessed annually for proficiency in English; (2) develop and implement a transparent methodology for determining the relative accuracy of the two allowable sources of data—ACS or state data on the number of students with limited English proficiency assessed annually—for Title III allocations to states; and (3) seek authority to use statistical methodologies to reduce the volatility associated with the ACS data. |
| So Many Schools, So Few Options:How Mayor Bloomberg’s Small High School Reforms Deny Full Access to English Language Learners| Date Captured | Wednesday November 29, 2006 07:08 AM | | Key findings: ELLs Are Not Given Full and Equitable Access to All Small High Schools, Parents of ELLs and Students Reported Barriers in the High School Admissions and Enrollment Process, The Small School Policy for ELLs Appears to be Forcing ELLs to Remain in Large High Schools that Do Not Have Services to Meet Their Needs , Small Schools are Not Being Created in Queens, in which the Largest Number of ELLs Reside.
A joint report by:
The New York Immigration Coalition
&
Advocates for Children of New York
In collaboration with:
Chhaya Community Development Corporation
Chinese Progressive Association
Chinese-American Planning Council
Council of Peoples Organization
Haitian Americans United for Progress
Make the Road by Walking
Metropolitan Russian American Parents Association
November 2006. |
| Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Students, Staff, Schools, School Districts, Revenues, and Expenditures: School Year 2004-05 and Fiscal Year 2004| Date Captured | Tuesday November 21, 2006 02:21 PM | | This NCES report contains information from the 5 Common Core of Data (CCD) surveys: the 2004-05 state, local education agency, and school nonfiscal surveys for 2004-05 and the state and local education agency school finance surveys for fiscal year 2004. The report presents data about the students enrolled in public education, including the number of students by grade and the number receiving special education, migrant, or English language learner services. Some tables disaggregate the student data by racial/ethnic group or community characteristics such as rural - urban. The numbers and types of teachers, other education staff, schools, and local education agencies are also reported. Finance data include revenues by source (local, state, and federal) and total and per-pupil expenditures by function. Sable, J., and Hill, J. (2006). Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Students, Staff, Schools, School
Districts, Revenues, and Expenditures: School Year 2004–05 and Fiscal Year 2004 (NCES 2007-309). U.S. Department
of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. |
| School and Parent Interaction by Household Language and Poverty Status: 2002-03| Date Captured | Wednesday September 27, 2006 03:35 PM | | NCES: Language minority parents may face a number of challenges when trying to communicate or become involved with their child’s school. This Issue Brief describes school-to-home communication practices and opportunities for parent involvement at school as reported by parents of U.S. school-age students from primarily English- and primarily Spanish-speaking households during the 2002–03 school year. Among the findings: A greater percentage of students in English-speaking households than in Spanish-speaking households had parents who reported receiving personal notes or e-mails about the student; receiving newsletters, memos, or notices addressed to all parents; opportunities to attend general meetings; opportunities to attend school events; and chances to volunteer. Differences were still apparent after taking poverty status into account. This Issue Brief was prepared by Christine Enyeart, Juliet Diehl, Gillian Hampden-Thompson, and Marion Scotchmer of the American Institutes for Research. |
| States, Feds Partner on English Testing| Date Captured | Wednesday August 02, 2006 07:45 PM | | Infozine reports, "Twenty-four states [including New York] are being invited to work with the U.S. Department of Education to develop acceptable math and reading tests for students with limited English proficiency (LEP). Eighteen were chosen because a review last month found their testing systems, particularly those for LEP students, did not meet standards of the No Child Left Behind law. Six states with approved systems were invited to lend their expertise." |
| NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT: Assistance from Education Could Help States Better Measure Progress of Students with Limited English Proficiency| Date Captured | Thursday July 27, 2006 09:57 AM | | GAO July 2006 study, "The No Child Left Behind Act of
2001 (NCLBA) focused attention on
the academic achievement of more
than 5 million students with limited
English proficiency. Obtaining valid
test results for these students is
challenging, given their language
barriers. This report describes
(1) the extent to which these
students are meeting annual
academic progress goals, (2) what
states have done to ensure the
validity of their academic
assessments, (3) what states are
doing to ensure the validity of their
English language proficiency
assessments, and (4) how the U.S.
Department of Education
(Education) is supporting states’
efforts to meet NCLBA’s
assessment requirements for these
students." |
| Public Education: Meeting the Needs of Students With Limited English Proficiency| Date Captured | Wednesday July 26, 2006 07:47 PM | | This GAO report finds, "No clear consensus exists on the length of time children with limited
English proficiency need to become proficient in English. Several factors
make it difficult to generalize about how much time is needed." GAO-01-226 February 23, 2001.
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| AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT FREE TUTORING SERVICES UNDER THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN NEW YORK CITY: A FOCUS ON ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS| Date Captured | Wednesday July 26, 2006 11:18 AM | | Advocates for Children of New York, June, 2006. "This policy brief examines the status of SES in NYC as of the 2004-2005 school year (the
most recent year for which data is available) and compares, where possible, results from the first
year of implementation. This report also analyzes the extent to which ELLs are eligible based on
their attendance in designated schools, their enrollment in SES, and SES providers’ capacity to
serve these students." |
| Seeking equity in the education of California's English learners| Date Captured | Friday April 21, 2006 07:17 PM | | "Seeking equity in the education of California's English learners.” Rumberger, Russe |
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