Digital Commons Network^™

The Central Valley Transportation Challenge, Christian Wandeler, Steve Hart

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Central Valley Transportation Challenge provides underserved minority students, who are primarily from rural areas, with high quality transportation-related educational experiences so that they learn about transportation-related topics and opportunities in transportation careers. The CVTC is a project-based learning program that brings university faculty and students to K–12 classrooms in rural areas. The project operated with three main objectives: (1) support K–12 teachers’ understanding and implementation of the CVTC programs; (2) connect K–12 students with university faculty and students, and transportation professionals through the CVTC program; and (3) develop an online hub with transportation-related lesson plans and sequences. The results …

Teacher Salaries In The Mountain West, 2019 - 2021, Corryn Richardson, Joshua Padilla, Hira Ahmed, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet examines state-level data of teacher salary benchmarks from the National Education Association, a labor union representing public school teachers and other education faculty in the U.S. Data are presented on average teacher salaries, average teacher starting salaries, and teacher pay penalties in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah).

Property Tax And School Choice In Pennsylvania K-12 Education, David William Scott Bolton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

For many years now, Pennsylvanian lawmakers have debated the merits of changing the funding method of public schools, with the elimination of property taxes drawing headlines in the media but never being realized through legislative amendments to the school funding formulas. Still today, legislation is being proposed to eliminate property tax as a funding source. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is demographic or geographic support for these efforts among those who budget and utilize these funds: school board members. The theoretical framework employed will be that of social choice theory. A survey was conducted among …

Public Charter And District Public Schools In The Mountain West, 2019-2021, Zachary Billot, Kristian Thymianos, Vanessa Booth, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet explores data from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) report, “Voting With Their Feet: A State-Level Analysis of Public Charter School and District Public School Trends.” Specifically, we examine enrollment trends for district public schools and public charter schools in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years.

Transforming Minnesota's Early Care And Education Infrastructure, Nicole Frethem

Student Scholarship

In 2021, the Minnesota legislature authorized the Great Start for All task force to present recommendations for how the state can provide “access to affordable, high-quality early care and education that enriches, nurtures, and supports children and their families,” to “all families” in Minnesota.

The early care and education landscape in Minnesota has experienced dramatic changes in programming and investments over the last twenty years. In the early 2000s, the state’s primary child care subsidy program, the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), was moved from the Department of Children, Families and Learning to the Department of Human Services in an …

State School Finance In The Mountain West, 2019, Kristian Thymianos, Ally M. Beckwith, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet examines K-12 school finance indicators drawing from an original report by Albert Shanker Institute and Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. These indicators show whether states are funding school districts to national standards. This fact sheet examines state-level data for the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) from the State School Finance Profiles report for the 2018-2019 school year.

Youth Mental Health In The Mountain West, Kristian Thymianos, Olivia K. Cheche, Kelliann Beavers, Katie M. Gilbertson, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet explores youth mental health metrics of Mountain West states from the Hopeful Futures Campaign’s 2022 report, America’s School Mental Health Report Card. This study provides state snapshots on school mental health policies and workforce availability for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah are considered here.

The State Of Mental Health In The Mountain West, Olivia K. Cheche, Kristian Thymianos, Katie M. Gilbertson, Kelliann Beavers, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet explores mental health rankings of Mountain West states from Mental Health America’s (MHA) 2022 report, The State of Mental Health in America. This study offers a snapshot of U.S. mental health based on data across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. MHA is the nation’s leading community based mental health nonprofit, founded in 1909, and “dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and promoting the overall mental health of all.” This report is a companion to MHA’s interactive data available through its website.

Effect Of Living Arrangements On Cognitive Function In Chinese Elders: A Longitudinal Observational Study, Yanwei Lin, Qi Zhang, Tingxian Wang, Zhirong Zeng

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Objective To examine how living arrangement as a social contextual factor can affect Chinese elders’ cognitive function.

Setting and participants Our sample consists of 2486 Chinese elders from two waves (2014 and 2018) of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) that was administered in 22 of China’s 31 provinces using a multi-stage, disproportionate, purposive random sampling method. The CLHLS aims to better understand the determinants of healthy longevity in China and collects extensive data on a large population of fragile elders aged 80–112 in China.

Outcome measures Cognitive function was measured by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Living arrangement …

The Fresno State Transportation Challenge, Christian Wandeler, Steve Hart

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Fresno State Transportation Challenge uses an action civics approach to support K-12 students in developing transportation-related projects that have a positive impact on the community. In 2020 the goal was to expand, refine, and create structures to sustain the implementation of the Transportation Challenge across subsequent years. As a result of the COVID pandemic, the process and goals of the project were adapted. The project was extended into April 2021 and was entirely conducted through remote participation. The focus was on two high schools. The expansion into the high school age bracket was successful and the experience with these …