Education Commons^™

Healthy School Food Policies: A Checklist, Mark Vallianatos

Mark Vallianatos

No abstract provided.

Fresh From The Farm... And Into The Classroom, Margaret Haase, Andrea Azuma, Robert Gottlieb, Mark Vallianatos

Mark Vallianatos

No abstract provided.

Food Access, Availability, And Affordability In 3 Los Angeles Communities, Project Cafe, 2004-2006, Andrea Azuma, Susan Gilliland, Mark Vallianatos, Robert Gottlieb

Mark Vallianatos

Introduction Racial/ethnic minority communities are at increasingly high risk for chronic diseases related to obesity. Access to stores that sell affordable, nutritious food is a prerequisite for adopting a healthful diet. The objective of this study was to evaluate food access, availability, and affordability in 3 nonoverlapping but similar low-income communities in urban Los Angeles, California. Methods Using a community-based participatory research approach, we trained community members to conduct a food assessment to 1) map the number and type of retail food outlets in a defined area and 2) survey a sample of stores to determine whether they sold selected …

Assessing The Intended Participation Of Young Adolescents As Future Citizens, John Ainley, Wolfram Schulz, Julian Fraillon

Julian Fraillon

In many Western countries there is concern about the level of participation of their citizens in civic life and the apparent lack of interest and involvement among young people in public and political life (Curtice & Seyd, 2003). The development of knowledge, understanding, skills, and dispositions that prepare young people to comprehend the world, hold productive employment, and be informed active citizens are among the characteristics that educational systems, schools, and teachers value and attempt to foster. However, countries vary in the status accorded to civic and citizenship education as part of school education and the relative importance of developing …

Assessing The Intended Participation Of Young Adolescents As Future Citizens, John Ainley, Wolfram Schulz, Julian Fraillon

Dr Wolfram Schulz

In many Western countries there is concern about the level of participation of their citizens in civic life and the apparent lack of interest and involvement among young people in public and political life (Curtice & Seyd, 2003). The development of knowledge, understanding, skills, and dispositions that prepare young people to comprehend the world, hold productive employment, and be informed active citizens are among the characteristics that educational systems, schools, and teachers value and attempt to foster. However, countries vary in the status accorded to civic and citizenship education as part of school education and the relative importance of developing …

Using Large-Scale Assessments Of Students' Learning To Inform Education Policy: Insights From The Asia-Pacific Region, Mollie Tobin, Petra Lietz, Dita Nugroho, Ramya Vivekanandan, Tserennadmid Nyamkhuu

Dr Petra Lietz

Not much is known about the ways in which assessment data have actually been used in education policy to date. Understanding the role of assessments in informing system-level decision-making is a first step towards helping stakeholders improve the design and usefulness of assessments. Moreover, this understanding can help to further discussions about how assessment data can best be used to inform policy and practice and to evaluate the effectiveness of policy reforms. This paper presents results from a systematic review of 68 studies that examined the link between participation in large-scale assessment programs of students’ learning and education policy in …

Student Loans And The Dynamics Of Debt, Brad Hershbein, Kevin Hollenbeck

Brad J. Hershbein

Assessing The Intended Participation Of Young Adolescents As Future Citizens, John Ainley, Wolfram Schulz, Julian Fraillon

Dr John Ainley

In many Western countries there is concern about the level of participation of their citizens in civic life and the apparent lack of interest and involvement among young people in public and political life (Curtice & Seyd, 2003). The development of knowledge, understanding, skills, and dispositions that prepare young people to comprehend the world, hold productive employment, and be informed active citizens are among the characteristics that educational systems, schools, and teachers value and attempt to foster. However, countries vary in the status accorded to civic and citizenship education as part of school education and the relative importance of developing …

Student Loans And The Dynamics Of Debt, Brad Hershbein, Kevin Hollenbeck

Kevin Hollenbeck

The papers included in this volume represent the most current research and knowledge available about student loans and repayment. It serves as a valuable reference for researchers and policymakers who seek a deeper understanding of how, why, and which students borrow for their postsecondary education; how this borrowing may affect later decisions; and what measures can help borrowers repay their loans successfully.

Swimming Upstream: A Study Of Black Males And The Academic Pipeline, Rhonda Wilkins

Rhonda D Wilkins PhD

ABSTRACT SWIMMING UPSTREAM: A STUDY OF BLACK MALES AND THE ACADEMIC PIPELINE Rhonda D. Wilkins Post secondary participation and graduation rates of Black males are declining rapidly. Black women, however, are realizing substantial growth in both of these areas and account for the majority of the increase in Black student college enrollment. This qualitative case study addresses the decline in Black male participation in higher education by focusing on six Black men who completed college programs and the academic pipeline that brought them to their degree. The purpose of the research inquiry was to determine various factors that either helped …

The Impressions Of Emergency Services Students In A Homeland Security Course: The Benefits Of Reflective Thinking And Journaling, Eric Russell, John Fisher

Dr. John R. Fisher

This case study explored the impressions a homeland security course had on the emergency service student. The setting for the study was a state-sponsored university in the western United States. The 17 participants were declared, undergraduate emergency services majors that underwent a 7.5-week distance learning homeland security course. Grounded theory was used to analyze and develop themes from student reflections from the class. The findings of the study suggested that the most important impressions students took from the class were about global awareness, an understanding of the vulnerabilities of terrorism to the nation and the importance of a homeland security …

Continuing To Exercise Choice After School Selection In Nepal, Priyadarshani Joshi

Priyadarshani Joshi

Growing Australian Higher Education: Achieving Targets And Rethinking Provision, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

Higher education in Australia has been following a growth trajectory unmatched for the past 20 years. This paper shows that while the recent growth in university enrolments over the past few years has been facilitated by the federal government’s demand-driven funding policy, private providers have also been expanding and contributing to the overall national aims of increasing attainment. With the 2013 initial university offer figures showing a slowing of growth in universities for the first time since demand driven funding was announced, the role of non-universities in maintaining the growth trajectory for higher education, as well as helping to achieve …

Using Aptitude Testing To Diversify Higher Education Intake – An Australian Case Study, Daniel Edwards, Hamish Coates, Tim Friedman

Dr Tim Friedman

Australian higher education is currently entering a new phase of growth. Within the remit of this expansion is an express commitment to widen participation in higher education among under-represented groups – in particular those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. This paper argues that one key mechanism for achieving this goal should be the re-evaluation of university selection processes. The paper explores outcomes of an aptitude test pilot study, focusing on issues of access and equity in selection to university. The results show that, in general, those who gain access to university on the basis of results in the aptitude test have …

Reaching For The Brass Ring: The U.S. News & World Report Rankings And Competition, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] The behavior of academic institutions, including the extent to which they collaborate on academic and nonacademic matters, is shaped by many factors. This paper focuses on one of these factors, the U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) annual ranking of the nation’s colleges and universities as undergraduate institutions, exploring how this ranking exacerbates the competitiveness among American higher education institutions. After presenting some evidence on the importance of the USNWR rankings to both public and private institutions at all levels along the selectivity spectrum, I describe how the rankings actually are calculated, then discuss how academic institutions alter their …

The 1995 Nrc Ratings Of Doctoral Programs: A Hedonic Model, Ronald Ehrenberg, Peter Hurst

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

We describe how one can use multivariate regression models and data collected by the National Research Council as part of its recent ranking of doctoral programs (Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change) to analyze how measures of program size, faculty seniority, faculty research productivity, and faculty productivity in producing doctoral degrees influence subjective ratings of doctoral programs in 35 academic fields. Using data for one of the fields, economics, we illustrate how university administrators can use the models to compute the impact of changing the number of faculty positions they allocate to the field on …

Did Teachers’ Race And Verbal Ability Matter In The 1960’S? Coleman Revisited, Ronald Ehrenberg, Dominic Brewer

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Our paper reanalyzes data from the classic 1966 study Equality of Educational Opportunity, or Coleman Report. It addresses whether teacher characteristics, including race and verbal ability, influenced "synthetic gain scores" of students (mean test scores of upper grade students in a school minus mean test scores of lower grade students in a school), in the context of an econometric model that allows for the possibility that teacher characteristics in a school are endogenously determined. We find that verbal aptitude scores of teachers influenced synthetic gain scores for both black and white students. Verbal aptitude mattered as much for black teachers …

Generation X: Redefining The Norms Of The Academy, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] The members of Generation X are the young faculty members of today and the immediate future. The panelists at this session of the conference were asked to discuss the effects of this generation on academic norms and institutional governance and the types of new models that may be emerging for academia as a result of them. More specifically, they were asked if the attitudes and loyalties of these young faculty members really do differ from that of the Baby Boom Generation, how their attitudes and behavior affect graduate programs, what academic institutions will need to do to attract the …

Unequal Progress: The Annual Report On The Economic Status Of The Profession 2002-03, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Most colleges and universities adopted budgets for the 2002-03 academic year in the spring and early summer of 2002. At that time, a pessimist might have cited several factors – negative rates of return from institutional endowments, a rising unemployment rate, an economic recession, and large increases in college and university enrollments, for example - to predict that faculty members would not see their earnings increase substantially in real terms in the coming year. The good news is that, overall and on average, the pessimists' worst fears proved incorrect. The bad news is that the overall aver-ages don't tell …

Industry, Employment, And Population Profile: Supporting Analysis: Gippsland Tertiary Education Plan, Daniel Edwards, Paul Weldon, Tim Friedman

Dr Tim Friedman

There is considerable interest in the provision and access to tertiary education within the Victoria by the State Government. In 2010, a Tertiary Education Plan was released by the Government, detailing various targets and policy objectives in this sector. Despite a change of Government, the broad objectives in the plan continue to be pursued. As such, a number of more specific plans, based on geographic locations within Victoria are being constructed. One such plan is being constructed for Gippsland. An Expert Panel has been formed to create the plan for Gippsland, chaired by Professor Kwong Lee Dow. This document provides …

Employing Critical Reflection In An Online Emergency Services Course, R Maxfield, John Fisher

Dr. John R. Fisher

Non-traditional students in an online course in Homeland Security used the DEAL model of critical reflection to describe (a) what they learned, (b) how they learned it, (c)why it matters, and (d) what they will do with what they learned. Online discussion of readings proved to be the most effective learning technique used in the course because it incorporated reflective practices and allowed application of real-life experiences.

The Relationship Between Child Care Subsidies And Children’S Cognitive, Laura Hawkinson, Andrew Griffen, Nianbo Dong, Rebecca Maynard

REBECCA A MAYNARD

Child care subsidies help low-income families pay for child care while parents work or study. Few studies have examined the effects of child care subsidy use on child development, and no studies have done so controlling for prior cognitive skills. We use rich, longitudinal data from the ECLS-B data set to estimate the relationship between child care subsidy use and school readiness, using value-added regression models as well as parametric and non-parametric models with propensity score matching. Compared to a diverse group of subsidy non-recipients in various types of non-parental care as well as parental care only, we find that …

Can Health Insurance Reduce School Absenteeism?, Ryan Yeung

Ryan Yeung

Enacted in 1997, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) represented the largest expansion of U.S. public health care coverage since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid 32 years earlier. Although the program has recently been reauthorized, there remains a considerable lack of thorough and well-designed evaluations of the program. In this study, we use school attendance as a measure of the program’s impact. Utilizing state-level data and the use of fixed-effects regression techniques, we conclude that SCHIP has had a positive and significant effect on state average daily attendance rates, as measured by both SCHIP participation and eligibility rates. …

Monitoring The Pathways And Outcomes Of People From Disadvantaged Backgrounds And Graduate Groups, Daniel Edwards, Hamish Coates

Dr Daniel Edwards

The development of a strong and vibrant knowledge economy is linked directly to successful learning outcomes among university graduates. Building evidence-based insights on graduate outcomes plays a particularly important role in shaping planning and practice. To this end, this paper analyses some key findings from the Graduate Pathways Survey, the first national study in Australia of bachelor degree graduates' outcomes five years after course completion. It focuses on the outcomes of graduates from disadvantaged groups, people of particular significance in an expanding and increasingly important higher education system. After advancing the rational for this analysis, the paper sketches the overall …

Information Workers In The Academy: The Case Of Librarians And Archivists At The University Of Western Ontario, Melanie Mills

Melanie Mills

For much of its history, the organizational culture for academic librarians and archivists at The University of Western Ontario was primarily a culture of the practitioner. While librarians and archivists supported teaching, research and service at Western, they did not directly engage in it. As a result of grassroots efforts undertaken by members of Western’s academic community in the mid-2000s however, the potential contributions of information workers to the teaching, research and service mandate of University began to garner recognition. Born out of this collective awakening, a successful union drive and shortly thereafter an inaugural Collective Agreement for The University …

Library Sector Leadership: Bridging Theory And Practice, Melanie Mills, Charlotte Innerd

Melanie Mills

Explore the issue of leadership in libraries with one current student and one graduate of The University of Victoria's Professional Graduate Certificate in Library Sector Leadership. Looking specifically at Kouzes and Posner's 'Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders' and Quinn et al.'s 'Competing Values Framework', we hope to share our own discoveries and insights and add to the important discussion of leadership in Libraries.

Private Interests Or Public Goods?: Dewey, Rugg, And Their Contemporary Allies On Corporate Involvement In Educational Reform Initiatives, Deron Boyles, Kathleen Abowitz

Deron R. Boyles

In some ways, John Dewey lived through a time similar to what we now experience: the rise of corporate power in a historical moment of unsurpassed national wealth and consumer materialism, and the accompanying substantial influence of business interests in the structure, politics, and agendas of public school systems. Dewey’s writings in the first three decades of this century mark a kind of “wisdom of the elders,” offered by a public intellectual who experienced, at least in some form, the kind of tumultuous relationships we are currently witnessing between the economy and education.

Intellectualism, Infiltration, And The Imaginary: The Challenge Of Conservative Think Tanks In Developing Coherent Democratic Community, Deron Boyles, Philip Kovacs

Deron R. Boyles

This paper extends the question “What should we be doing and what kinds of activities would we be engaged in during the time we take off to craft and assert ourselves as public intellectuals?” Kathleen Kesson and Jim Henderson provided us with historical background (and a delightful song parody) while Kent den Heyer challenges us to take two years off from the academy and engage in research that would better enable us to communicate with and influence those in positions of power. For the purpose of this paper, we wish to join with Kesson, Henderson, and den Heyer, if only …

Dewey's Epistemology: An Argument For Warranted Assertions, Knowing, And Meaningful Classroom Practice, Deron Boyles

Deron R. Boyles

In an effort to navigate the treacherous path between professionalism and social relevancy, this essay takes up an area of professional philosophy - epistemology - with the intention of reclaiming the integrative role John Dewey held for philosophy and classroom practice. Deron Boyles asserts that epistemology can and should represent an area of inquiry that is relevant and useful for philosophy of education, especially as it develops classroom practices that foster inquiry. He specifically seeks to revive Dewey’s conception of warranted assertibility in an effort to show the value of fallibilist epistemology in practical and social teaching and learning contexts. …

Institutes, Foundations, And Think Tanks: Conservative Influences On U.S. Public Schools, Deron Boyles

Deron R. Boyles

While a complete analysis of the effects of conservative think tanks is beyond the scope of this article, we include the above passage as evidence of what, on a broad scale, the “idea brokers” have been working towards. While education is only one area where neoconservative think tanks seek to influence public policy, it has become the issue for many neoconservatives. In this article, we focus on four think tanks—The Manhattan Institute, The American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation—and what they are doing to reshape public schools in ways more suitable to neoconservative and …