Education Commons^™

President-Elect Obama’S Choice For Secretary Of Education: Arne Duncan, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Tuesday, December 16, President-elect Obama announced his choice for Secretary of Education: Arne Duncan.

Stakes Increase For End Of Course Exams In 2009-10, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

As of the 2009-10 academic year, high school students in Arkansas will be required to pass socalled “End of Course” (or “EOC”) examinations in Algebra I, Biology, Geometry, and English. Students who fail to meet the requisite passing standard will be required to retake the class or to pass “an appropriate alternative exit course in order to receive credit for the course on his or her transcript and in order to graduate.” In other words, these four EOC tests will become high school exit exams. Thus, as of 2009-10, Arkansas will join some 23 other states that have high school …

How Does The 2007 Seattle Decision Affect Arkansas?, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

On December 2, 2008, lawmakers announced that Arkansas’ school choice law would need to be revisited during the upcoming 2009 session. OEP provides this report to summarize the actions of the U.S. Supreme Court in Seattle and an account of Arkansas’ current school choice law, and then provides some suggestions as to what policymakers might do this January.

Presidential Candidates On K-12 Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Every four years, our presidential candidates work hard to convince us that they have the best plan to keep us safe, prosperous, and well-educated. While economic challenges have recently taken center stage in the presidential election, education is still a critically important issue to OEP and its constituents. Here, we provide a summary of the views of each candidate on key issues and hope that this information is useful to our readers. In this brief, the OEP does not endorse one candidate over the other. Indeed, there is much to like in each candidate’s platform.

2008 Report Card On Arkansas Schools, Gary Ritter

Education Report Card

Testimony to the House and Senate Education Committee in Little Rock

2008 Report Card On Arkansas Schools, Gary Ritter

Education Report Card

No abstract provided.

Dollars For Sense: Assessing Achievement Gaps In Arkansas In The Context Of Substantial Funding Increases, Joshua H. Barnett, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

Over the last half century, more than forty states across the nation have experienced school finance lawsuits as a consequence of perceived and real funding gaps between rich and poor districts (Rebell, 2001). Arkansas is one such state, with a long history of school funding battles in the courts. The legal challenges began in 1983, when the Arkansas Supreme Court initially found the state's school funding system unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the state constitution .

What Does Naep Tell Us About Student Achievement In Arkansas?, Sarah B. Kent, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

Recently, policymakers at the Arkansas Department of Education were pleased to release the results of the 2008 Benchmark exams, which indicate more Arkansas students are becoming proficient each year. This is good news for Arkansas, as the Benchmark exam is an Arkansas developed exam used to compare student performance to state standards. Nevertheless, it is also important to take note of how Arkansas students perform compared to students across the nation, which is where the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) plays an important role. The NAEP, also known as “the Nation’s Report Card,” allows student performance to be compared …

Are All State Exams Equal?, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Recently, policymakers at the Arkansas Department of Education were pleased to release the results of the 2008 Arkansas Benchmark exams, which indicate more Arkansas students are becoming proficient each year. This is also good news for proponents of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), federal legislation aimed at increasing student achievement through the encouragement of standards-based reform. However, Arkansas, like the other 49 states, sets its own standards for proficient performance. Thus, state by state comparisons of “proficiency” may not be meaningful. With 50 states administering 50 tests to determine whether students are meeting 50 sets of curricular standards, many worry …

2008 Test Scores Show General Improvement With Room To Grow, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Results of the 2008 Arkansas student assessments were released earlier this summer and revealed that Arkansas students continue to improve with respect to the state standards. On nationally-normed exams, Arkansas students perform at roughly the average level.

The Impact Of Personality Type On Undergraduate College Student Success At Oklahoma State University, Pamela I. Ehlers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive/causal-comparative study was to determine if relationships existed between individual personality types as determined by the Do What You Are (DWYA) on-line personality inventory and gender, ethnicity, area of academic study, entering and exiting grade point averages (GPA), and time to degree completion of undergraduate students at the case study institution.

Data were collected over a six year period by the institution's career development center. The student respondents were undergraduates and were self-selected to take the inventory. The sample included 2, 533 undergraduate students surveyed between 2003 and 2007.

Statistical analysis utilized scores on the four …

Benefits Of Leed Designs In Arkansas K-12 Schools, Philip Thrift

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper provides and evaluation of an existing LEED certified sustainable green building for energy-efficiency, environmental impact, economic value, and occupant health. The new Bethel Middle School located in Bryant, Arkansas was the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified public school building in the state. Based on actual building specifications and validated with the first year's utility bills, a simulation model was used to evaluate various design aspects of the school building. The building's baseline energy usage was compared with numerous energy and environmental scenarios. Results include both environmental and economic assessments. Overall, the study found that …

A Comparison Of The Aptitude And Attitude Of College Students Toward Social And Technical Computer Technology, Kathleen Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate college students' technical and social technology competencies based upon their attitudes toward computers and their perception of technical computer knowledge. The participants for this investigation were college undergraduates majoring in apparel merchandising and design and other related and non-related majors at the University of Arkansas. The research model selected for use in this study was the survey design method. There were a total of 1270 students responding to the survey with 1052 usable surveys remaining after cleaning the data for missing entries. This constituted an 83% response rate. The findings included significant …

The State Of Education In Arkansas 2008: How Much Are Arkansas Schools Spending?, Joshua H. Barnett, Gary W. Ritter, Brent E. Riffel

Arkansas Education Reports

Over the last half century, more than forty states across the nation have experienced school finance lawsuits as a consequence of funding gaps between rich and poor districts. Arkansas is one such state, with a long history of school funding battles in the courts. The legal challenges began in 1983, when the Arkansas Supreme Court initially found the state's school funding system unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the state constitution1 . The court found “no legitimate state purpose” and “no rational relationship to educational needs” in the state's method of financing public schools. This initial finding set the …

Time Spent On Testing, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In an era of standards-based school reform and the No Child Left Behind legislation, standardized testing has figured more prominently in discussions involving K-12 education. In Arkansas, one does not have to look far or listen too intently to hear concerns voiced about the amount of testing going on in public schools. Today's conventional wisdom holds that our students spend far too much time on these exams. However, since the conventional wisdom is not always true, we decided it was a good idea to ask the question: How much time are our students spending on standardized exams? In this brief, …

An Interview With Lawrence Picus, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Lawrence O. Picus is a professor at the USC Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on adequacy and equity in school finance. He has published numerous books and articles, including School Finance: A Policy Perspective (with Allen R. Odden), and Where Does the Money Go?: Resource Allocation in Elementary and Secondary Schools (with James L. Wattenbarger). His consulting firm, Picus and Associates has worked closely with the Arkansas General Assembly over the past few years, making several key recommendations that many state legislators believe have been critical in helping the state achieve educational …

Full Interview With Lawrence Picus, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Lawrence O. Picus is a professor at the USC Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on adequacy and equity in school finance. He has published numerous books and articles, including School Finance: A Policy Perspective (with Allen R. Odden), and Where Does the Money Go?: Resource Allocation in Elementary and Secondary Schools (with James L. Wattenbarger). His consulting firm, Picus and Associates has worked closely with the Arkansas General Assembly over the past few years, making several key recommendations that many state legislators believe have been critical in helping the state achieve educational …

Comparing Arkansas Students To Their National Peers, 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 12th annual report, Tapping into Teaching: Unlocking the Key to Student Success, was released in early 2008 and merges the indicators from the shortened 2007 report, which focused on the “cradle-to-career” framework, with previous indicators such as efforts to improve teacher quality and school finance. To compare states across the nation, the Quality Counts series grades and ranks states based on six broad measures: efforts to improve the teacher quality; …

Letter From The Dean, Lalit R. Verma

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

No abstract provided.

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 9 2008, Several Authors

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

No abstract provided.

Contents, Discovery Editors

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

No abstract provided.

Instructions For Authors, Discovery Editors

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

No abstract provided.