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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

2009

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Articles 1 - 22 of 22

Full-Text Articles in Education

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting Top Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2009, Bentley R. Kirkland, James V. Shuls, Caleb P. Rose, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter Nov 2009

Outstanding Educational Performance Awards: Highlighting Top Achieving Arkansas Schools, 2009, Bentley R. Kirkland, James V. Shuls, Caleb P. Rose, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

Since our founding in 2003, the mission of the Office for Education Policy has been to look at pressing issues through the lens of academic research and disseminate our findings to educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders around Arkansas. Every once in a while, however, we think it is okay to stray from issue analysis and simply share some good news! So, in this Arkansas Education Report (AER) we merely aim to highlight excellent performance and give our congratulations. To that end, we are happy to highlight the top performing schools around the state in an annual AER entitled the Outstanding …

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An Analysis Of The Impact Of Charter Schools On Desegregation Efforts In Little Rock, Arkansas, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter Sep 2009

An Analysis Of The Impact Of Charter Schools On Desegregation Efforts In Little Rock, Arkansas, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

The aim of this report is to address the challenge by the Little Rock School District (LRSD) that open-enrollment charter schools in Pulaski County (PC) are impeding the efforts of the three PC school districts (Little Rock, North Little Rock (NLRSD), and Pulaski County Special (PCSSD)) to become racially integrated. A key motivation for this analysis is the ongoing debate about how expanded school choice, in this case charter schools, impacts racial segregation. Critics of charter schools argue that these schools lead to greater racial segregation, whereas proponents of charter schools suggest that there is no necessary link between racial …

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Recognizing The Accomplishments Of Ade Commissioner Ken James, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter Sep 2009

Recognizing The Accomplishments Of Ade Commissioner Ken James, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

This summer, Dr. Ken James announced his resignation as Education Commissioner at the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE). Dr. James’ last day was June 30, 2009 and Diana Julian stepped in as interim commissioner. Today, Governor Mike Beebe announced Tom Kimbrell as his choice for the next commissioner. As we await the official appointment of the new commissioner, the OEP felt it was appropriate to highlight Dr. James’ contributions to Arkansas education.

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Oep Welcomes New Commissioner: Tom Kimbrell, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter Sep 2009

Oep Welcomes New Commissioner: Tom Kimbrell, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Office for Education Policy is excited to welcome the new Arkansas Education Commissioner – Dr. Tom Kimbrell.

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Bush’S Brain (No, Not Karl Rove): How Bush’S Psyche Shaped His Decision Making, Robert Maranto, Richard E. Redding Sep 2009

Bush’S Brain (No, Not Karl Rove): How Bush’S Psyche Shaped His Decision Making, Robert Maranto, Richard E. Redding

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

We will summarize the most systematic work on George W. Bush's psyche, stressing that leader personality traits should not be judged as good nor bad: Rather traits which match some situations mismatch others. SAT scores and other available measures indicate that Bush has sufficient intelligence to serve as president. Yet the best studies, in which raters evaluate statements without being aware of their source, suggest that Bush lacks integrative complexity and thus views issues without nuance (Thoemmes and Conway 2007). The leading personality theory (the “5-Factor Model”), as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory, suggests that Bush is highly extraverted …

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Competing In The Federal Race To The Top, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter Aug 2009

Competing In The Federal Race To The Top, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The federal Race to the Top is a national competition between states intended to support education reform and innovation in classrooms. States at the forefront of school reform are eligible to compete for $4.3 billion in Race to the Top grants. Since this is a competitive grant, it is possible that some states will not receive awards, and President Obama assures that “politics won’t come into play.”

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What Is Highly Qualified For Arkansas Teachers?, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter Aug 2009

What Is Highly Qualified For Arkansas Teachers?, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In response to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, state departments of education, including the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE), established rules to define a “highly qualified” teacher (HQT). While the spirit of this provision is clear and reasonable, the devil is, of course, in the details. That is, what exactly does highly qualified mean? Observers had good reason to be suspicious early on when many states claimed to have 95% or more of teachers being highly qualified. (For instance, according to Education Commission of the States, 100% of North Dakota teachers are considered highly qualified and 14 …

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Teacher Effectiveness In Urban High Schools, Richard Buddin, Gema Zamarro Aug 2009

Teacher Effectiveness In Urban High Schools, Richard Buddin, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

This research examines whether teacher licensure test scores and other teacher qualifications affect high school student achievement. The results are based on longitudinal student-level data from Los Angeles. The achievement analysis uses a value-added approach that adjusts for both student and teacher fixed effects. The results show little relationship between traditional measures of teacher quality (e.g., experience and education level) and student achievement in English Language Arts (ELA) or math. Similarly, teacher aptitude and subject-matter knowledge, as measured on state licensure tests, have no significant effects on student achievement. Achievement outcomes differ substantially from teacher to teacher, however, and the …

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Interview With Paul Gray: 2008 Arkansas Teacher Of The Year, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jul 2009

Interview With Paul Gray: 2008 Arkansas Teacher Of The Year, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The 2008 Arkansas Teacher of the Year was Paul Gray of Russellville. Mr. Gray is a social studies teacher and department chairman at Russellville High School.

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Teacher Qualifications And Middle School Student Achievement, Richard Buddin, Gema Zamarro Jun 2009

Teacher Qualifications And Middle School Student Achievement, Richard Buddin, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

This research examines whether teacher licensure test scores and other teacher qualifications affect middle school student achievement. The results are based on longitudinal student-level data from Los Angeles. The achievement analysis uses a value-added approach that adjusts for both student and teacher fixed effects. The results show little relationship between traditional measures of teacher quality (e.g., experience and education level) and student achievement in reading or math. Similarly, licensure test scores in general aptitude, subject-matter knowledge, and reading pedagogy had no significant effects on student achievement. Teachers with elementary school credentials had slightly better success in the classroom than did …

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Early Childhood Public School Teacher Licensure For The Fifty States And Washington, D.C.: An Inquiry To Ascertain Student Age Ranges For Public School Teacher Licensure May 2009, R. Caudle Jones, S. Martin, M. Crandall May 2009

Early Childhood Public School Teacher Licensure For The Fifty States And Washington, D.C.: An Inquiry To Ascertain Student Age Ranges For Public School Teacher Licensure May 2009, R. Caudle Jones, S. Martin, M. Crandall

Research Reports and Research Bulletins

There is a need for birth through kindergarten (B-K) public school licensure in the state of Arkansas. In Arkansas, licensure for teachers of young children is for pre-kindergarten through fourth grade (P-4). Teachers who receive P-4 licenses are often less prepared to work with children under age six than with older children. A more appropriate license would be a B-K license. A teacher with B-K licensure would be prepared to meet the emotional, social, physical, and cognitive needs of young children. This document is an inquiry to ascertain student age ranges for public school teacher licensure in the fifty states …

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A Study Of The School Principal Labor Market In Arkansas: Implications For Incentive-Based Compensation Policies To Improve Principal Quality, Marc Jacob Holley May 2009

A Study Of The School Principal Labor Market In Arkansas: Implications For Incentive-Based Compensation Policies To Improve Principal Quality, Marc Jacob Holley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Improving principal quality in Arkansas may be a partial solution to the public policy problem of low performing public schools. Just as policymakers in other states are beginning to explore incentive-based compensation policies to improve principal quality, education policymakers in Arkansas should look to these policies as a way to align goals and minimize agency costs. Setting incentives tied to transparent, publicly available performance measures can resolve monitoring difficulties inherent in principal-agent relationships and can improve goal congruence by signaling clearly about policy priorities. Before plowing forward with performance pay reforms for school principals, Arkansas policymakers could make better decisions …

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Evaluating The Policies That Lead To Substantial Tuition Variation At Public Land-Grant Universities, Brent Alexander Burgess May 2009

Evaluating The Policies That Lead To Substantial Tuition Variation At Public Land-Grant Universities, Brent Alexander Burgess

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1980's, the tuition at public colleges and universities has increased at a rate far beyond that of normal inflation. During this period, many public institutions have increased their tuitions exponentially, while others have chosen or been able to retain stable and relatively inexpensive tuition rates. The aim of this study was to examine what policies and external trends are responsible for public institutions having such wide variation in their tuition costs. Therefore, this study isolated one type of public institution, which was land-grant universities, that have a mission and tradition of providing affordable educations to examine the causes …

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Arra Spending On Education In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Apr 2009

Arra Spending On Education In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The U.S. Department of Education (US DOE) recently issued guidance to the state departments of education regarding how to appropriately spend the $102 billion set aside for education in the American Recovery Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The first payments of these funds were sent out to states inn March 2009.

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Putting "Teaching To The Test" To The Test: Is This Really A Problem In Arkansas?, Stuart Buck, Gary W. Ritter Apr 2009

Putting "Teaching To The Test" To The Test: Is This Really A Problem In Arkansas?, Stuart Buck, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

Arkansas’s state standardized tests have changed over the past few years. Since the ACTAAP legislation of 1999, Arkansas students have taken criterion-referenced Benchmark Tests based on the state’s curricular standards along with national norm-referenced exams each year. Prior to 2004, students in grades 4, 6, and 8 were administered the Benchmark tests in Mathematics and in English Language Arts. Starting in 2005, the odd-numbered grades were added so that students in grades 3-8 took the week-long Benchmark tests, in accordance with the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind act.

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The New Arkansas School Performance Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Apr 2009

The New Arkansas School Performance Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Arkansas Department of Education has just released the Arkansas School Performance Report, a yearly report on academic achievement in all of Arkansas’ schools.1 One important addition to the Report this year is an academic improvement rating for all elementary and middle schools in the state. This rating should be of interest to all school observers who desire more nuanced information about school and student performance than is provided in commonly used school performance indices, such as the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) rating. We applaud the Arkansas Department of Education for collecting and releasing this invaluable information on student growth.

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Knowing What Works For Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Feb 2009

Knowing What Works For Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Office for Education Policy aims to serve as a resource to aid lawmakers and educators in education related decisions. The OEP recently became partners with the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), a research unit of the U.S. Department of Education, which reviews K-12 curricula and interventions. The goal of this article is to highlight the resources offered through the WWC, and draw attention to some of the WWC services and products that may be useful to educators in Arkansas.

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Quality Counts 2009, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2009

Quality Counts 2009, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In an attempt to gauge the educational progress of the nation and each state, Education Week has published state report cards since 1997 in its annual Quality Counts series. The 13th annual report — Quality Counts 2009 — was released in early 2009. As for the overall score, Arkansas was one of only ten states in the United States that received a B. Arkansas got the highest possible grade (A+) for financial equity among districts, and its grade for “Transitions and Alignment” — or how well a state’s educational system is coordinated from elementary school to college — was a …

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Instructions For Authors, Discovery Editors Jan 2009

Instructions For Authors, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 10 2009, Several Authors Jan 2009

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 10 2009, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Contents, Discovery Editors Jan 2009

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

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Letter From The Dean, Lalit Verma Jan 2009

Letter From The Dean, Lalit Verma

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

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