Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

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 …

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

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 …

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 …

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 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

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 …

Becoming A Champion Of Orientation, Gregory V. Wolcott, William J. Reckmeyer, Andrene Kaiwi Connor, Rigoberto Flores

Journal of Research on the College President

New student orientation programs are one of the most important high impact practices for student success. These introductory programs not only empower students to be able to selfidentify how their academic support needs can be met, they also provide the critically important introduction to building social support networks. College presidents must embrace the critical role of new student orientation programs, understand their complexities, and find ways to illustrate the role of these programs to faculty, staff, and students.

Liaison, Delegates, And Advisors:An Examination Of The Chief Of Staff Role On College Campuses, Laura Jacobs

Journal of Research on the College President

The chief of staff role first emerged as a military and government position to strategize battles and advise generals centuries ago (O’Brien, 2020). It has been more common in the United States to find chiefs of staff (or COS) in political environments: The White House chief of staff often comes to mind when the title is mentioned. In recent years the role has been adopted by corporate entities. Companies often create and hire individuals into the title to organize senior level, institution work (Ciampa, 2020) and the corporatization and resulting organizational changes in higher education (Bleikliea & Kogan, 2007) have …

The Effectiveness And Priorities Of The American College President:Perceptions From The Faculty Lounge, G. David Gearhart, Daniel P. Nadler, Michael T. Miller

Journal of Research on the College President

The American college presidency has become increasingly complex, particularly due to the wide variety of demands placed on the position. Indeed, the effectiveness of a president is often seen through the lens of different constituents. Historically, the faculty have played a key role in determining the success of a president, and the current study sought to identify the perceptions of faculty members regarding the effectiveness of presidents. Additionally, the study sought to compare faculty perception of desired versus actual effectiveness of presidential responsibilities.

Stepping Down? Theorizing The Process Of Returning To The Faculty After Senior Academicleadership, Lisa Jasinski

Journal of Research on the College President

While scholars have devoted considerable attention to identifying and developing future academic leaders, scant empirical research has considered the firsthand experiences of senior leaders who returned to the faculty. This grounded theory study developed a theoretical understanding of the process of returning to the faculty after serving as a senior campus administrator. This research examined a common academic rite of passage using the analysis of interviews with 43 former college presidents, provosts, deans, and “other senior leaders” from a variety of postsecondary institutions. Academic leaders in the study characterized the process of returning to the faculty as mostly positive and …

Welcome From The Guest Editor, Daniel P. Nadler

Journal of Research on the College President

I am truly grateful to the staff of the National Lab for the Study of the College President for allowing me to be a part of their family during this very strange and challenging academic year. I have been impressed by the Arkansas team, and will be excited to see their Handbook on College and University Leadership in the summer of 2021.

What University College Presidents Need To Know About The Chief Diversity Officer Position, Mary Jane (Gigi) Secuban

Journal of Research on the College President

Renewing commitments to historical injustices, tackling declining numbers of underrepresented students, addressing national outrage to racial and social inequities, and attempting to retain faculty, staff, and students of color on campus are all complex issues that become part of the role of a Chief Diversity Officer on college campuses today. The Chief Diversity Officer can be “a strategic partner, invested leader, and change agent- who helps colleges and universities move forward on the path to address inclusion with policies, programs, and people” (Aguilar, 2020). This article provides guidance to university presidents on how to best support the CDO on their …

Editors' Remarks, G. David Gearhart, Michael T. Miller

Journal of Research on the College President

Dr. Miller and I are most pleased to share with you the fourth volume of the Journal of Research on the College President from the National Lab for the Study of the College President at the University of Arkansas. While this year has been a great challenge for everyone given the Covid Pandemic the Lab continues to work on a wide variety of issues about the contemporary college president.

What College Presidents Need To Know About Honors Colleges, Noah Pittman

Journal of Research on the College President

In just the past few decades, honors colleges have increasingly become an important feature of the undergraduate experience at public universities across the nation. From the recruitment of students in order to help stem “brain drain” from a state to the cultivation of alumni donors, an honors college can play a critical role in an institution’s overall success. This article will discuss five specific areas that college presidents need to know about how honors college function and the issues they often face, with the goal of furthering an executive leader’s knowledge of these programs.

The Climb To The Top: Advice For Aspiring Black And African American College And University Presidents, Quncy Martin Iii

Journal of Research on the College President

The purpose of this paper was to provide practical advice on how Black and African American college and university presidential aspirants may adequately prepare themselves for such a pivotal leadership role. Seven Black and African American college and university presidents from a variety of institutional types (community colleges, four-year institutions, Predominately White Institutions [PWI], and Minority-Serving Institutions[MSI]) across the United States answered a simple question: What advice can you offer to aspiring Black and African American college and university presidents to adequately prepare them for this leadership role? The authors supplemented their responses with highlights of professional development opportunities for …

Implementing Change: A Case Study Of Adaptive Leadership, Tina Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Persistent low levels of student achievement is a concern that has been the focus of many school improvement initiatives. Research has demonstrated that Professional Learning Communities are an initiative that leads to improved academic outcomes. Additionally, research has demonstrated the importance of effective leadership for a change initiative to be successful.

Using the conceptual framework of adaptive leadership as applied to implement a school improvement initiative, this study was conducted to understand how instructional leaders perceive their leadership changed as a result of implementing professional learning communities in their school. The participants were instructional leaders who led schools participating in …

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

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, …

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 …

The Impact Of Graduate Assistantships On The Preparation Of Early Career Student Affairs Professionals, Mary L. Skinner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored the graduate assistantship experiences of early career master’s prepared student affairs professionals and examined the role these assistantships played in the preparation for their current position. The study included 10 participants who had all graduated with a master’s in higher education within the past 5 years, had participated in a graduate assistantship within student affairs, and worked full-time within a student affairs department at the time of the study. Each participant took part in a one-on-one interview that was recorded, transcribed, and reviewed for themes. I followed Braun and Clarke’s (2012) six-phase approach to thematic …

Teacher Turnover And Teacher Retirement, Dillon Fuchsman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teachers have an important impact on students in the short- and long-term, but only teachers’ experience consistently predicts high teacher quality. This dissertation, divided into three chapters, investigates two topics that are related to teachers’ experience levels: turnover and retirement.

The first chapter studies the relationship between voluntary beginning teacher turnover and teachers’ levels of conscientiousness. It uses the data from the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study and the effort that teachers put on a survey taken during their first year in the profession as a proxy for teachers’ levels of conscientiousness. The results of this chapter indicate that teachers putting …

Doctoral-Level Students Experience Adopting Gatekeeping Roles And Responsibilities Within Counselor Education, Evan Smarinsky

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In counselor education and supervision, the term gatekeeping is used to describe the ongoing process of monitoring, evaluating, and remediating a student through their professional identity as a counselor. Gatekeeping is an ethical responsibility of counselor educators and supervisors, both faculty and doctoral-level students who supervise master’s-level students and is often identified as being one of their most difficult responsibilities. Doctoral-level supervisors play an important role in gatekeeping, although they are not involved in formal gatekeeping decisions and have not typically been the focus of research. Researchers have suggested there is a need to develop a better understanding of how …

Evidence-Based Social-Emotional Learning And Its Influence On Teachers’ Perception Of Student Behavior: An Analysis Of Ruler And The Anchors Of Emotional Intelligence, Brent B. Harrington

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to assess the extent by which an evidence-based Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) program influenced teachers’ perception of students’ behavior in a small and diverse PK – 8 school district in Westchester County, NY. Specifically, the researcher evaluated the Anchors of Emotional Intelligence and the RULER framework to determine its impact on school climate as viewed from the perspective of staff in the district. Prior to commencing the study, the researcher recognized the negative staff narrative around student behavior in the district as a significant problem of practice that was observable, actionable and high leverage.

This mixed-methods study …

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

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 …

Influencers Of Succession Planning Among Rural Community College Chief Executives, Ashley Aylett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The challenge of maintaining strong leadership within many community colleges has been exacerbated by many factors including demographic shifts, therefore, succession planning is one tool used by institutions to offset the challenge of dealing with aging leaders, retirements, and a limited pool of competent applicants. Many senior administrators have and will continue to retire at rapid rates and fewer well-prepared individuals seem to be available or willing to move into these roles. Higher education literature has explored the future of community colleges during this time of change, some examining critical factors for the future of community colleges by asking questions …

Teachers Engaging In Action Research To Increase Learner Agency, Dawn M. Childress

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is designed to explore the perceptions of teachers in a Northwest Arkansas urban elementary school context as they engage in design-based action research to increase learner agency. It is based on the Carnegie Project on Education Doctorate (CPED) framework that includes identifying a problem of practice and engaging in research to address the problem. A problem of practice was identified in this school setting by an incoming school principal following a principal that had been in the school for many years. The new principal, also the researcher in this study, recognized that there was a low level of …

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

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 …