Education Commons^™

Arkansas Teacher Salaries, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

This brief examines teacher salaries in Arkansas. Using data publicly available from the Arkansas Department of Education, we examine how teacher salaries compare to the nation and surrounding states. Further analyses examine differences in teacher salary within and between the regions of Arkansas. We identify the district factors most related to and make recommendations for utilizing this information.

Comprehensive Analysis Of Arkansas Teacher Salaries: State, Region, And District, Katherine M. Kopotic, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

School funding has been an area of contention in the courts of nearly every state. Many of these court cases have challenged the constitutionality of state funding formulas, arguing the funding system was inadequate or inequitable because poor urban or rural districts often faced a disadvantage in garnering tax dollars for education. Specific to Arkansas, in the 1983 decision Dupree v. Alma School District, the Arkansas Supreme Court declared the state’s funding system was not meeting its constitutional requirements.

A Narrative Policy Analysis Of The Responses To Tennessee Promise And Plans For Transfer Receptivity By Six Tennessee Public Universities' Presidents And Provosts, Lori Elliott Buchanan

Dissertations

The Tennessee Promise scholarship and mentoring program broadened access and affordability to postsecondary education in Tennessee. This policy innovation increased the number of students seeking to engage in postsecondary education. It also shifted some of the state’s students to the more affordable community colleges and colleges of applied technology for their first two years of college. Equally important, Tennessee Promise incentivized the presidents and provosts of the six public universities under review to expand existing transfer receptivity efforts as their universities prepared to receive and support Tennessee Promise community college student transfers.

The purpose of this narrative policy analysis based …

Litigation In Search Of Educational Opportunity: An Analysis Of Abbeville County School District Et Al. V. The State Of South Carolina Et Al., Jennifer Michelle Hein

Dissertations

Like many southern states, South Carolina has a history permeated by issues related to race, equity, and educational opportunity. As early as the 1949 South Carolina court case, Briggs v. Elliott, South Carolina has had to address issues of equity and educational opportunity among its disenfranchised and marginalized citizenry. More than 60 years later, in Abbeville County School District et al. v. the State of South Carolina et al., sectors of rural South Carolina, predominantly black and poverty laden, would unite and engage in a legal battle with the State over equity in public education and by judicial mandate, be …

Dispatches From Flyover Country: Four Appraisals Of Impacts Of Trump’S Immigration Policy On Families, Schools, And Communities, Edmund T. Hamann, Cara Morgenson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

A university professor and high school ESL teacher, both based in Lincoln Nebraska, each write two short essays that detail implications of the Trump administration immigration policies for students, teachers, schools, and communities. The first two dispatches come from the transition period (after Trump won but while Obama still presided) while the latter two come from the 50-day mark of the Trump presidency. Juxtaposing voices contrasts overarching impact with the local; juxtaposing chronologies allows comparison of political promises and threats to early actions and reactions.

Workforce Well-Being: Personal And Workplace Contributions To Early Educators' Depression Across Settings, Amy M. Roberts, Kathleen C. Gallagher, Alexandra Daro, Iheoma Iruka, Susan Sarver

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

Building on research demonstrating the importance of teachers' well-being, this study examined personal and contextual factors related to early childhood educators' (n =1640) depressive symptoms across licensed child care homes, centers, and schools. Aspects of teachers' beliefs, economic status, and work-related stress were explored, and components of each emerged as significant in an OLS regression. After controlling for demographics and setting, teachers with more adult-centered beliefs, lower wages, multiple jobs, no health insurance, more workplace demands, and fewer work-related resources, had more depressive symptoms. Adult-centered beliefs were more closely associated with depression for teachers working in home-based settings compared …

2017 Diversity Climate Survey, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Resources

In February 2017, a survey regarding diversity and school climate was administered by the Diversity Committee based off of the National Climate Survey developed by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). There were a total of 577 students that took the survey. Those students who had incomplete surveys (n = 20) or who marked all possible choices for sexual orientation (n = 3) were excluded from the data analysis, and the remaining 554 respondents were considered “authentic.”Of the 554 authentic respondents, 203 were sophomores, 169 were juniors, 176 were seniors, and six did not indicate their grade level. …

2016 Northwest Arkansas Education Report Card, Sarah Mckenzie, Gary Ritter

Education Report Card

This report card presents a regional overview of districts in Benton and Washington counties as well as key performance indicators for each of the 15 traditional public school districts and 5 public charter schools.

Teach Your Students Well: This Land Is Their Land, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Most people know Woody Guthrie as the author of the song that's often called our second national anthem, "This Land Is Your Land." Not everyone knows that it's a protest song. In the winter of 1940, Guthrie was hitchhiking his way east to New York City at the invitation of Will Geer, an actor best known later in his life for playing Grandpa Zebulon Tyler Walton on the show "The Waltons." At the time, Geer was a stage actor and political activist who saw something in Woody Guthrie that he wanted to share with the rest of the world. Guthrie, …

You Can’T Always Get What You Want: Using “Broken Lotteries” To Check The Validity Of Charter School Evaluations Using Matching Designs, Leesa M. Foreman, Kaitlin P. Anderson, Gary W. Ritter, Patrick J. Wolf

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

We consider situations in which public charter school lotteries are neither universally conducted nor consistently documented. Such lotteries produce “broken” Randomized Control Trials, but provide opportunities to assess the internal validity of quasi-experimental research designs. Here, we present the results of a statewide charter school evaluation using a broad-based student matching evaluation design, and run two additional analyses using the charter application wait-lists as robustness checks. Our additional models, which address concerns of self-selection by using only charter applicants as matched comparison students, yield similar effect estimates and thus provide support for the use of matching designs in charter school …

Narrating Neoliberalism: Alternative Education Teachers’ Conceptions Of Their Changing Roles, Noah Asher Golden

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The signifier ‘alternative’ in education has largely shifted from progressive or humanizing pedagogies to deficit framings requiring alternate graduation criteria. This development is part of broader neoliberal educational reform efforts that disrupt longstanding conceptions of teachers’ roles. This study serves to investigate long-term teachers’ understandings of their shifting roles in one secondary-level alternative education program in New York City. Specifically, this narrative analysis study explores participating teachers’ meanings around agency and their ability to form the relationships that they argue are central to meaningful pedagogies. Findings demonstrate a sense of loss regarding teacher agency and relationships, and a belief that …

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High-Growth Arkansas Schools, 2017, Charlene A. Reid, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights [middle] schools across the state whose students demonstrated high growth on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire was administered to students in grades [5] through [8] in April 2017 in Math and ELA courses which include English, Writing, and Reading. Each table in this section presents the Top 20 schools for the noted subject area and school level. In addition, these tables include the region in which the schools are located, the grades served at the school, the weighted achievement score, and the content growth score in that particular subject. The level of the schools, …

No, Education Isn't The Civil Rights Issue Of Our Time, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

George W. Bush said it as he warned us about "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Barack Obama said it. So did Mitt Romney, Arne Duncan, and John McCain.

And now Donald Trump is saying it, too. In his first joint-session address to Congress, President Trump promised that "our children will grow up in a nation of miracles" and added the familiar kicker: "Education is the civil rights issue of our time." He said it right before he announced his plan to ask Congress to pass new legislation supporting school choice. His idea of a school reform "miracle," apparently, is …

Looking For A Cure For Educationl Exhaustion, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Whoa, folks! An entire month got away from me there. Ever had that happen to you? If you're a teacher I'm guessing it probably has. I wish I could say that there was a good reason I hadn't written anything at all on this blog in the past few weeks, but the sad truth is that I haven't really been any busier than usual. Every semester becomes a slog at some point—that right there might be a topic for another post soon; maybe I could write two in a month!—but that hasn't stopped me before. I had some extra responsibilities …

School Discipline In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

This brief examines school discipline practices and outcomes in Arkansas. Using data publicly available from the Arkansas Department of Education, we examine state-wide discipline trends, summarize the analysis on school-level data demonstrating disparities in student discipline, and make recommendations for utilizing this information.

Developing A Strategy For Quality Pre-Primary Education For All And Parenting Education For Ecce - Policy Options And Road Map, David Harding, Isabella Tirtowalujo, Sheldon Shaeffer, Dan Cloney, Gutama, Burhanuddin, Nurlaila Nuzulul Qurany, Widarmi Wijana, Trevino Pakasi

ACER Indonesia

This study served as a contribution towards the development of evidence-based policies and strategies for the universal provision of holistic, integrated, affordable, sustainable, well-coordinated, high quality, and equitable Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini (PAUD) early childhood services in Indonesia, particularly for marginalized populations. Its specific objectives include support to the Ministry of Education in Indonesia in two areas: the development of a Road Map for a one-year “Quality Pre-Primary Education for All” (pre-primary PAUD) programme throughout Indonesia, and the development of a supporting programme of “Quality Parenting Education” for parents and caregivers of children of 0 to 6 years of age …

2016 Arkansas Education Report Card, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary Ritter

Education Report Card

In addition to performance on annual assessments, we present information on the state’s student growth on these assessments, as well as high school graduation rates, school discipline, National Board Certified Teachers, and school finance. The data are intended to provide a snapshot of K-12 education in our state.

Reveille (Spring 2017), Veterans Upward Bound Program, Western Kentucky University

Veterans Upward Bound Publications

Frequently Asked Questions.; Hot Rods Military Appreciation Day; VACBOC Clothing Drive; Million Veteran Program Update: Important Phone Numbers and Dates

Pluralism And Religious Education In Bali: How Lack Of Implementation Of Educational Reform Threatens Indonesian Identity In The System Used To Construct It, Nikolai O. Birch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Indonesia’s education system was developed with the construction of the Indonesian as a cohesive people in mind. In doing so, the system adopted the practice of mandatory religious education as a means of developing the character of the Indonesian student through religion, a component imperative to the nation’s statehood. In the years and decades following, the education system, and subsequently its program of religious education, has been reformed and changed many times. This research attempts to look at how and why this changed system has struggled to implement these changes in the classroom, and why pluralism has been included in …

National Board Certified Teacher Incentive Bonuses: Senate Bill 555, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

National Board Certification is a voluntary process that, according to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, certifies that they “have developed and demonstrated the advanced knowledge, skills, and practices required of an outstanding educator.” Currently, National Board Certified (NBC) teachers in an Arkansas public school receive an annual bonus of $5,000 for up to 10 years. In this brief, we examine NBC in Arkansas and Senate Bill 555, which proposes the modification and enhancement of NBC incentive bonuses for teachers receiving certification after January 2018.

Why Is Mulvaney Opposed To Feeding Poor Kids At School?, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Folks, you've got to get a load of this guy Mick Mulvaney. Just looking at his name conjures images of a character from a gangster novel set during Prohibition, but he's actually the Trump White House's director of the Office of Management and Budget. That means he's the hatchet man—the guy responsible for making sure everything Trump wants to cut gets cut. And it means he's a real human, too. Allegedly.

Case in point: Mulvaney has been producing amazing sound bites lately to explain the contents of Trump's proposed federal budget. [excerpt]

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-achieving schools across Arkansas based on the ACT Aspire examinations in Math, English Language Arts (ELA) and Science for the 20115-16 academic year. For these awards, we consider schools that serve free or reduced lunch to at least 66% of the student body.

Should We Give Betsy Devos A Chance? I Don't Think So, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Jennifer Steele, who teaches at American University, has made a heroic attempt to convince us that Betsy DeVos actually deserves a lot more credit than she's been getting for her performance as secretary of education so far. While I appreciate the sentiment—everybody deserves a fair shake, and should be judged on what they actually do, not what we think they might do—I have to say I'm not convinced. [excerpt]

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-achieving schools across Arkansas based on the ACT Aspire Math, ELA and Science examinations for the 2015-16 academic year. These are the schools that serve primarily 9th through 12th graders.

Some Things You Can Do To Support Public Education Now, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Yesterday a group of students here at Gettysburg College, where I teach, organized a Solidarity Rally. It consisted largely of teach-ins designed to start conversations, and hopefully it will the first of many events that bring people together to think more carefully about how we should respond to things going on outside of our college and town. [excerpt]

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-performing Middle schools across the state based on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire examinations in Math, Reading, Writing, English and Science were administered to students in grades 3 through 10 in April 2016.

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-achieving junior high schools across Arkansas based on the ACT Aspire Math, ELA (which includes Reading, Writing and English exams) and Science examinations of the 2015-16 academic year.

Funding The Arts And Humanities Is Worth Fighting For, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

There’s an old story about Winston Churchill that is not true but is worth repeating. When approached about cutting funding for the arts so the money could go to the war effort during World War II, Churchill supposedly replied: “Then what are we fighting for?”

As far as we can tell Churchill never actually said this, but you can be forgiven for being taken by the sentiment. This apocryphal quote still makes the rounds because it suggests that even in times of war art can help us realize what it is, exactly, that’s worth defending. [excerpt]

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting High Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2016, Charlene A. Reid, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This section highlights high-performing elementary schools across the state based on the Arkansas ACT Aspire exams. The ACT Aspire was administered to students in grades 3 through 10 in April 2016 in Math, ELA courses (which includes English, Writing and Reading) and Science.

Maybe It's Time To Put Betsy Devos In 'Receive Mode', Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

By now you have probably heard about Betsy DeVos' big day out recently. She tried to visit a middle school in Washington but found the front door blocked when she showed up. This led, of course, to the publication of an already-infamous cartoon suggesting that DeVos is actually a modern-day Civil Rights warrior, and to the suggestion that protesters blocking DeVos at the schoolhouse door was the functional (if not moral) equivalent of preventing black children from attending segregated schools in the 1950s and '60s. It's an argument that is morally wrong, historically stupid, and patently offensive. [excerpt]