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Articles 31 - 60 of 166
Full-Text Articles in Education
A Longitudinal Study Of Gifted Status And Academic Growth, Sarah Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid, Bich Tran
A Longitudinal Study Of Gifted Status And Academic Growth, Sarah Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid, Bich Tran
Policy Briefs
In this brief, we assess the relationship between being identified as gifted and academic growth among students who scored at or above the 95th percentile on state assessments in third grade. We follow five independent cohorts of these high-achieving students through eighth grade. Using regression analysis controlling for student and district characteristics, we find that students who received gifted services demonstrated statistically significantly greater academic growth on mathematics and literacy achievement across the time period examined than similarly high achieving peers that were not identified as gifted.
Gifted Education In Arkansas: A Longitudinal Study Of Gifted Status And Academic Growth, Bich Tran, Jonathan Wai, Sarah C. Mckenzie
Gifted Education In Arkansas: A Longitudinal Study Of Gifted Status And Academic Growth, Bich Tran, Jonathan Wai, Sarah C. Mckenzie
Arkansas Education Reports
This study assesses the effectiveness of gifted programs in Arkansas by leveraging student-level achievement and demographic data of students who scored at or above the 95th percentile on state assessments in third grade. We follow five independent cohorts of these high-achieving students through eighth grade and examine the difference between the longer-term academic performance of the students that were exposed to gifted and talented services compared to similarly high achieving peers that were not identified as gifted. Using regression analyses controlling for student and district characteristics, we find that students who received gifted services demonstrated statistically significantly greater academic growth …
Cordes Chair Presentation: Covid Impact Statements In The Annual Evaluation Process, Manuel D. Rossetti
Cordes Chair Presentation: Covid Impact Statements In The Annual Evaluation Process, Manuel D. Rossetti
TFSC Publications and Presentations
A review of the impact of the pandemic on faculty productivity will be presented. We will examine some of the best practices for writing impact statements and how they are being used across the academic landscape. We will then discuss writing your own impact statement.
Volunteering And Charitable Giving Among Australian Young Adults And The Mediating Role Of Community Service Emphasis In Secondary Schools, Albert Cheng, Rian R. Djita
Volunteering And Charitable Giving Among Australian Young Adults And The Mediating Role Of Community Service Emphasis In Secondary Schools, Albert Cheng, Rian R. Djita
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Schools play a vital role in sustaining civil society by tending to the civic formation of their students. Prior research has focused on assessing students on a variety of civic outcomes including volunteering and charitable giving, and often compares students in Government, religious Independent, and non-religious Independent schools. However, this work has mostly been conducted in North American contexts. Nor has much attention been given to developing theory and then empirically testing mediating variables that explain any observed differences across these schooling sectors. We fill these gaps in this study. Using a nationally representative sample of 4,000 Australian adults, we …
The Value Of College Athletics In The Labor Market: Results From A Resume Audit Field Experiment, James D. Paul, Albert Cheng, Jay P. Greene, Josh B. Mcgee
The Value Of College Athletics In The Labor Market: Results From A Resume Audit Field Experiment, James D. Paul, Albert Cheng, Jay P. Greene, Josh B. Mcgee
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Employers may favor applicants who played college sports if athletics participation contributes to leadership, conscientiousness, discipline, and other traits that are desirable for labor-market productivity. We conduct a resume audit to estimate the causal effect of listing collegiate athletics on employer callbacks and test for subgroup effects by ethnicity, gender, and sport type. We applied to more than 450 jobs on a large, well-known job board. For each job listing we submitted two fictitious resumes, one of which was randomly assigned to include collegiate varsity athletics. Overall, listing a college sport does not produce a statistically significant change in the …
Charter School Closing Inequities: Do Automatic Closure Laws Target Black Charter Entrepreneurs And Black Students?, Ian Kingbury, Martha Bradley-Dorsey, Robert Maranto
Charter School Closing Inequities: Do Automatic Closure Laws Target Black Charter Entrepreneurs And Black Students?, Ian Kingbury, Martha Bradley-Dorsey, Robert Maranto
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Charter schools can have their charters rescinded if they fail to meet performance metrics, which are often specified in the charter. In some states, however, charters must meet inflexible, standardized performance standards to survive. Through the lens of public choice theory, we hypothesize that charters that were established by African Americans and those which serve more African American students are more likely to close, and that state-imposed standardized closure rules exacerbate these inequities. Analyses using charter petitions (n=925) and National Center for Education Statistics data since 2010 (n=5,548), tend to confirm hypotheses: The percentage of African American students and having …
Determinants Of Ethnic Differences In School Modality Choices During The Covid-19 Crisis, Andrew Camp, Gema Zamarro
Determinants Of Ethnic Differences In School Modality Choices During The Covid-19 Crisis, Andrew Camp, Gema Zamarro
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
A growing body of research and popular reporting shows racial differences in school modality choices during the COVID-19 crisis, with white students more likely to attend school in person. This in-person learning gap raises serious equity concerns. We use unique panel survey data to explore possible explanations. We find that a combination of factors may explain these differences. School districts’ offerings, political partisanship, and local COVID-19 outbreaks are all meaningfully associated with and plausibly explain the in-person learning racial gap. As schools start offering more in-person learning, significant efforts may be necessary to ensure that families and students attend those …
Understanding Performance In Test Taking: The Role Of Question Difficulty Order, Lina Anaya, Nagore Iriberri, Pedro Rey-Biel, Gema Zamarro
Understanding Performance In Test Taking: The Role Of Question Difficulty Order, Lina Anaya, Nagore Iriberri, Pedro Rey-Biel, Gema Zamarro
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Standardized assessments are widely used to determine access to educational resources with important consequences for later economic outcomes in life. However, many design features of the tests themselves may lead to psychological reactions influencing performance. In particular, the level of difficulty of the earlier questions in a test may affect performance in later questions. How should we order test questions according to their level of difficulty such that test performance offers an accurate assessment of the test taker's aptitudes and knowledge? We conduct a field experiment with about 19,000 participants in collaboration with an online teaching platform where we randomly …
Did Spending Cuts During The Great Recession Really Cause Student Outcomes To Decline?, Jessica Goldstein, Josh B. Mcgee
Did Spending Cuts During The Great Recession Really Cause Student Outcomes To Decline?, Jessica Goldstein, Josh B. Mcgee
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Jackson, Wigger, and Xiong (2020a, JWX) provide evidence that education spending reductions following the Great Recession had widespread negative impacts on student achievement and attainment. This paper describes our process of duplicating JWX and highlights a variety of tests we employ to investigate the nature and robustness of the relationship between school spending reductions and student outcomes. Though per-pupil expenditures undoubtedly shifted downward due to the Great Recession, contrary to JWX, our findings indicate there is not a clear and compelling story about the impact of those reductions on student achievement. Moreover, we find that the relationship between K-12 spending …
Education And Anti-Semitism, Jay. P. Greene, Albert Cheng, Ian Kingsbury
Education And Anti-Semitism, Jay. P. Greene, Albert Cheng, Ian Kingsbury
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Many people believe that intolerance, in general, and anti-Semitism, in particular, are a function of ignorance, and the solution is education. We see evidence of this whenever concerns about intolerance or anti-Semitism become more salient. Proposed solutions frequently feature improved Holocaust education or expanded diversity, equity, and inclusion training. As two religious leaders recently urged, “The only thing that will truly halt the rise of anti-Semitism in America is education” (Stanton & Marcus, 2019). Profiles of anti-Semites tend to feature rural whites or urban minorities, but they are almost always from low-educational backgrounds. Well-educated people tend to feel secure in …
The Effect Of School District Consolidation On Student Achievement: Evidence From Arkansas, Josh B. Mcgee, Jonathan N. Mills, Jessica S. Goldstein
The Effect Of School District Consolidation On Student Achievement: Evidence From Arkansas, Josh B. Mcgee, Jonathan N. Mills, Jessica S. Goldstein
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
School district consolidation is one of the most widespread education reforms of the last century, but surprisingly little research has directly investigated its effectiveness. To examine the impact of consolidation on student achievement, this study takes advantage of a policy that requires the consolidation of all Arkansas school districts with enrollment of fewer than 350 students for two consecutive school years. Using a regression discontinuity model, we find that consolidation has either null or small positive impacts on student achievement in math and English Language Arts (ELA). We do not find evidence that consolidation in Arkansas results in positive economies …
Teachers' Willingness To Pay For Retirement Benefits: A National Stated Preferences Experiment, Dillon Fuchsman, Josh B. Mcgee, Gema Zamarro
Teachers' Willingness To Pay For Retirement Benefits: A National Stated Preferences Experiment, Dillon Fuchsman, Josh B. Mcgee, Gema Zamarro
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Many states have recently made or are considering changes to their teacher retirement systems. However, little is known about how teachers value various elements of their retirement benefits versus other aspects of their jobs and compensation. To help alleviate this gap, we use a discrete choice stated preferences experiment embedded in a nationally representative survey of teachers to estimate their willingness-to-pay for various retirement plan characteristics and other non-salary job components. We find that teachers would be indifferent between a traditional pension and alternative retirement plan designs if the alternatives were paired with 2 to 3 percent salary increases. Our …
An Experimental Evaluation Of Arts Field Trips, Heidi H. Erickson, Angela R. Watson, Jay P. Greene
An Experimental Evaluation Of Arts Field Trips, Heidi H. Erickson, Angela R. Watson, Jay P. Greene
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
This paper presents results of a multi-visit, longitudinal experiment on the academic and social-emotional effects of arts-based field trips. We randomly assign fourth and fifth grade students to receive arts-based field trips throughout the school year or to serve as a control. Treatment students express greater tolerance for people with different opinions and a desire to consume arts. Additionally, treatment students have fewer behavioral infractions, attend school more frequently, score higher on their end-of-grade exams, and receive higher course grades. Effects are strongest when students enter middle school. We find no effect on students’ desire to participate in the arts, …
Computer Science Teacher Survey, Josh B. Mcgee, Sarah C. Mckenzie
Computer Science Teacher Survey, Josh B. Mcgee, Sarah C. Mckenzie
Arkansas Education Reports
In April/May of 2020, the University of Arkansas’ Office for Education Policy (OEP), in partnership with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson's Computer Science and Cyber Security Task Force, fielded a survey with the 400+ Arkansas educators who at that time held a computer science endorsement (528), computer science approval code (5016), or computer science technical permit (5014) on their educator’s license. The survey received 153 responses, a nearly 40 percent response rate.
The Role Of Student Effort On Performance In Pisa: Revisiting The Gender Gap In Achievement, Lina Anaya, Gema Zamarro
The Role Of Student Effort On Performance In Pisa: Revisiting The Gender Gap In Achievement, Lina Anaya, Gema Zamarro
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
International assessments are important to benchmark the quality of education across countries. However, on low-stakes tests, students’ incentives to invest their maximum effort may be minimal. Research stresses that ignoring students’ effort when interpreting results from low-stakes assessments can lead to biased interpretations of test performance across groups of examinees. We use data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a low-stakes test, to analyze the extent to which student effort helps to explain test scores heterogeneity across countries and by gender groups. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for differences in student effort to understand cross-country heterogeneity …
Cognitive Science For The Classroom, Kyle Heys
Cognitive Science For The Classroom, Kyle Heys
TFSC Publications and Presentations
Kyle Heys shares principles of cognitive science and how they can be used in the college classroom to enhance student learning.
Teaching For Student Success: Practical Ideas For The Classroom, Kyle Heys
Teaching For Student Success: Practical Ideas For The Classroom, Kyle Heys
TFSC Publications and Presentations
Kyle Heys shares practical suggestions for teachers about how to engage and encourage students for success in the college classroom.
The Value Of Study Abroad Experience In The Labor Market: Findings From A Resume Audit Experiment, Albert Cheng, Laura Florick
The Value Of Study Abroad Experience In The Labor Market: Findings From A Resume Audit Experiment, Albert Cheng, Laura Florick
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Conventional wisdom and some empirical research suggests that study abroad programs enhance skills and personal growth in ways that translate into success in the labor market. However, this research is limited by its inability to address sources of selection bias that may confound the positive relationship between study abroad experience and labor-market success. We conduct a field experiment to overcome these limitations. Using a resume audit, we estimate the causal relationship between participation in study abroad experience and the likelihood of receiving a callback from a potential employer. We also tested for potential heterogeneities by the location (i.e., Asia versus …
Testing, Teacher Turnover And The Distribution Of Teachers Across Grades And Schools, Dillon Fuchsman, Tim R. Sass, Gema Zamarro
Testing, Teacher Turnover And The Distribution Of Teachers Across Grades And Schools, Dillon Fuchsman, Tim R. Sass, Gema Zamarro
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Teacher turnover has adverse consequences for student achievement and imposes large financial costs for schools. Some have argued that high-stakes testing may lower teachers’ satisfaction with their jobs and could be a major contributor to teacher attrition. In this paper, we exploit changes in the tested grades and subjects in Georgia to study the effects of eliminating high-stakes testing on teacher turnover and the distribution of teachers across grades and schools. To measure the effect of testing pressures on teacher mobility choices we use a "difference-in-differences" approach, comparing changes in mobility over time in grades/subjects that discontinue testing vis-à-vis grades/subjects …
The Assessment Of Faith And Learning, Beth Green, Albert Cheng, David Smith
The Assessment Of Faith And Learning, Beth Green, Albert Cheng, David Smith
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
The Practicing Faith Survey (PFS) is a new assessment tool designed to measure the extent to which schoolchildren connect their faith to learning. This paper reviews the landscape of educational assessment and argues that assessment remains a critical element in the design of Christian teaching and learning. It suggests that unease around the concept of educational measurement leads to limited attempts to assess faith formation in the context of learning. The paper discusses PFS as a way to reframe the design process consistent with distinctively Christian practices of teaching and learning.
Assessing Christian Learning: Vocation, Practices, And Investment, David Smith, Mia Kurkechian, Beth Green, Albert Cheng
Assessing Christian Learning: Vocation, Practices, And Investment, David Smith, Mia Kurkechian, Beth Green, Albert Cheng
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
This paper describes a new initiative co-funded by the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin University and Cardus. The initiative builds upon past Cardus work on assessing Christian school outcomes as well as the Kuyers Institute’s work on Christian pedagogical practices. The project has developed a new online assessment tool to help Christian secondary schools assess the Christian formation that they seek to offer their students and review their own educational practices. This tool, the Practicing Faith Survey, will be piloted in an initial cluster of schools in 2020. It asks students to self-report on their investment …
The Development And Validation Of The Practicing Faith Survey, Albert Cheng, Beth Green, David Smith
The Development And Validation Of The Practicing Faith Survey, Albert Cheng, Beth Green, David Smith
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
The Practicing Faith Survey (PFS) is a new assessment tool designed to measure the extent to which schoolchildren connect their faith to learning. PFS measures student engagement with five domains of Christian practice in connection with learning: intellectual, relational, introspective, benevolence, and formational practices. We describe the item-development process and then present evidence for the validity and reliability of the PFS based on a sample of 1,300 fifth- through twelfth-grade students who participated in a pilot of the instrument.
Can Information Widen Socioeconomic Gaps In Postsecondary Aspirations? How College Costs And Returns Affect Parents’ Preferences For Their Children, Albert Cheng, Michael Henderson, Paul E. Peterson, Martin R. West
Can Information Widen Socioeconomic Gaps In Postsecondary Aspirations? How College Costs And Returns Affect Parents’ Preferences For Their Children, Albert Cheng, Michael Henderson, Paul E. Peterson, Martin R. West
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
To estimate whether information can close socioeconomic gaps in parents’ aspirations for their child’s postsecondary education, we administer a four-armed survey experiment to a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents. After respondents estimate costs of and returns to further education, we ask whether they prefer that their child pursue a four-year degree, a two-year degree, or no further education. Before this question is posed, the treated are first told:
(1) the net annual costs of pursuing a four-year and two-year degree in their state,
(2) the annual returns to four-year and two-year degrees as compared to no further education in …
Parental Occupational Choice And Children's Entry Into A Stem Field, Albert Cheng, Katherine Kopotic, Gema Zamarro
Parental Occupational Choice And Children's Entry Into A Stem Field, Albert Cheng, Katherine Kopotic, Gema Zamarro
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
We explore the intergenerational occupational transmission between parents and their children as it pertains to entry into the STEM field. Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, we study student’s aspirations to work in a STEM field and eventual STEM education and employment. We show how these patterns change depending on whether the student’s parents work in a STEM field. We find strong effects of parental occupation type on student’s STEM outcomes that are heterogeneous by student gender. High school boys are more likely to aspire to work in STEM if one of their parents do so. By adulthood, both …
Is Collegiate Political Correctness Fake News? Relationships Between Grades And Ideology, Matthew Woessner, Robert Maranto, Amanda Thompson
Is Collegiate Political Correctness Fake News? Relationships Between Grades And Ideology, Matthew Woessner, Robert Maranto, Amanda Thompson
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
While considerable quantitative research demonstrates ideological liberalism among American professors, only qualitative work examines whether this affects undergraduate education. Using the HERI dataset surveying students in their first and fourth years in college (n=7,207), we use OLS regressions to test whether students’ political beliefs are associated with reported college grades and perceived collegiate experiences. We find that while standardized test scores are the best predictors of grade point average, ideology also has impacts. Even with controls for SES, demographics, and SAT scores, liberal students report higher college grades and closer relationships with faculty. Nevertheless, conservative students consistently show higher levels …
Inside The Black Box: Stakeholder Perceptions On The Value Of Arts Field Trips, Angela Watson
Inside The Black Box: Stakeholder Perceptions On The Value Of Arts Field Trips, Angela Watson
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
This descriptive, qualitative study, an extension of an experimental primary study, documents stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions of attending multiple field trips where urban elementary students in fourth and fifth grades were randomly assigned to receive three arts field trips including an art museum, a live theater performance, and a symphony concert. Evidence of declining K-12 attendance to educational cultural or arts field trips has been mounting for decades. Further, minority students in struggling schools and their teachers report attending fewer field trip experiences, as well as limited access to arts experiences in their schools. The full impact of this declining …
Heterogeneous Impacts Across Schools In The First Four Years Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program, Patrick J. Wolf
Heterogeneous Impacts Across Schools In The First Four Years Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program, Patrick J. Wolf
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) is a school voucher initiative that offers publicly- funded scholarships to students from economically-disadvantaged families to attend a participating private school of their choice. While school choice theory suggests that market- based reforms such as the LSP should improve student outcomes, experimental evaluations of the program instead find significant negative effects of the program on math and reading scores after its first year. Those effects diminish to insignificant differences by the end of the third year before becoming negative again in the fourth year. Our study builds on previous work with an exploratory analysis of …
Do You Get Cream With Your Choice? Characteristics Of Students Who Moved Into Or Out Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program, Yujie Sude, Patrick J. Wolf
Do You Get Cream With Your Choice? Characteristics Of Students Who Moved Into Or Out Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program, Yujie Sude, Patrick J. Wolf
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
Private school choice programs often are accused of failing to serve disadvantaged students. Critics claim that participating private schools “skim the cream off the top” by admitting only the best students and “push out” students who are the most difficult to teach. This study tests these student selection hypotheses in the context of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP). We find LSP applicants are less advantaged than their public school peers regarding their family socioeconomic status and initial test scores. No consistent evidence indicates that the LSP private schools are “skimming the cream” or “pushing out” students based on their family …
The Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Student Achievement After Four Years, Jonathan Mills, Patrick J. Wolf
The Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Student Achievement After Four Years, Jonathan Mills, Patrick J. Wolf
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) offers publicly-funded vouchers to students in low-performing schools with family income no greater than 250 percent of the poverty line, allowing them to enroll in participating private schools. Established in 2008 as a pilot program in New Orleans, the LSP was expanded statewide in 2012. In this study, we estimate the achievement impacts of ever using an LSP voucher to enroll in one’s first-choice private school over the four year period spanning from 2012-13 (Year 1) through 2015-16 (Year 4). In contrast to our previous research, which indicated large initial negative achievement effects of the …
The Effect Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On College Entrance, Heidi Holmes Erickson, Jonathan Mills, Patrick J. Wolf
The Effect Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On College Entrance, Heidi Holmes Erickson, Jonathan Mills, Patrick J. Wolf
Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications
The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) is a private school voucher program available to families who have incomes no greater than 250 percent of the federal poverty line and whose children attend a low performing public school. It began as a pilot program in New Orleans in 2008 and was expanded statewide in 2012. Previous evaluations of the LSP generally found negative impacts of the program on math and English language arts test scores. In this study, we evaluate the effects of the program on college enrollment for the first cohort of students eligible to enter college by 2017-18. Using lottery …