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Articles 121 - 150 of 150

Full-Text Articles in Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

Arkansas School Finance 2005: Finding Funds For Facilities, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Apr 2005

Arkansas School Finance 2005: Finding Funds For Facilities, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

For the past half century, Arkansas has spent less per pupil than most other states. However, spurred in part by the State Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling that the state’s school system is “inequitable and inadequate,” the state is now strengthening its commitment to fund better educational opportunities for all students. During 2003, experts have estimated that the state will require nearly $850 million in additional funding to deliver an “adequate education” to all students in the state—a 48% increase in the state’s spending for public schools. In addition, lawmakers spent most of the past year focused on ways to finance …

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Mandated School Facilities Improvement: What Have Other States Done?, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Apr 2005

Mandated School Facilities Improvement: What Have Other States Done?, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In most school districts, funding for the construction and improvement of school facilities comes from local property taxes, sometimes solely, and sometimes with additional state support. In nearly all states, older school buildings, especially those in low-income districts are in need of renovation or repair. When school buildings are in poor repair or otherwise inadequate with respect to the educational environment which they provide, the quality of education available to students attending those schools can be adversely affected. As a result of lawsuits addressing this concern, a number of states have faced judicial mandates stemming from constitutional challenges requiring school …

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2005 Legislature Considers School Facilities Improvement, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Apr 2005

2005 Legislature Considers School Facilities Improvement, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Arkansas 85th General Assembly is working to address the recommendations of the Arkansas Statewide Education Facilities Assessment. The report is the culmination of 18 months of work commissioned by the 2003 General Assembly to assess the adequacy and equity of public school buildings across the state. In the ongoing effort to address the mandates of the Lake View III decision, made by the Arkansas Supreme Court in November 2002, the legislature’s Joint Committee on Educational Facilities commissioned a task force to conduct a comprehensive survey of facilities, equipment, and technology. The 60-member task force, including legislators, school officials, and …

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Assessing Students With Disabilities: The Individuals With Disabilities Act Meets No Child Left Behind, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Apr 2005

Assessing Students With Disabilities: The Individuals With Disabilities Act Meets No Child Left Behind, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (P.L. 94-142 [20 U.S.C., §1400 et seq.), authorized by Congress in 1975 and reauthorized in 1997 and 2004, guarantees all children with disabilities the right to a free appropriate public education and guarantees procedural safeguards to assure protection of the rights of these children and their parents. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (PL-107-110 [20 U.S.C. §6301, et seq.], 2001) requires, among other things, that schools be accountable for education results through annual standardized testing and through additional standards that determine a school’s adequate yearly progress (AYP). The 2004 reauthorization of IDEA …

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Concurrent Enrollment Vs. Advanced Placement Courses, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Apr 2005

Concurrent Enrollment Vs. Advanced Placement Courses, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Lake View decision required that Arkansas schools provide a “substantially equal” curriculum to all students. The package of reforms adopted by the Arkansas General Assembly in 2003 included a measure that required high schools to offer College Board Advanced Placement (AP) courses and/or concurrent enrollment in college level courses (Act 102, §6-16- 1201-1206). Specifically, beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, all school districts are required to offer one AP course in each of the four core areas of math, English, science, and social studies for a total of four courses. In districts that do not already offer these courses, …

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The Nieer Report: The 2004 State Preschool Yearbook Summary, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Feb 2005

The Nieer Report: The 2004 State Preschool Yearbook Summary, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

This study was conducted by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), a is a unit of Rutgers University, which supports early childhood education policy by providing objective, nonpartisan, information based on research. The 2004 State Preschool Yearbook is the second report in a NIEER series evaluating state-funded preschool programs. It describes state-funded prekindergarten in the 2002-2003 school year. Tracking these trends is essential, since the role states play in preschool education will increasingly affect how successfully America’s next generation will compete in the knowledge economy. The State Preschool Yearbooks were developed by NIEER to serve as a resource …

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The Salary Debate, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

The Salary Debate, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In America, teacher compensation has undergone major changes over the last 200 years. Throughout much of the early 19th century, teachers were often paid with room and board within a community and taught all grades. Around 1921, a form of the single salary schedule still in use today was implemented (Protsik, 1995), where teachers’ salaries were linked to their educational background and their years in the field. Like the salaries of most other public officials, however, teachers’ salaries shift with changing social, economic, and political climates. The pay rate for teachers is also influenced by a number of variables (e.g. …

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The Nclb Debate: Strengths And Weaknesses Of No Child Left Behind, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

The Nclb Debate: Strengths And Weaknesses Of No Child Left Behind, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

NCLB: Education’s Panacea or Disaster? Will NCLB have a revolutionary impact on America’s schools? Is NCLB an unfunded mandate? Will NCLB strengthen teaching or demoralize the teaching profession? Will NCLB finally provide equitable education for minorities and low-income students or worsen disparities in education? Since NCLB passed in 2001, pundits, educators, and elected officials have asked these questions, expressing and sometimes exaggerating some of the real strengths and weaknesses of the legislation. The following section highlights some of the most controversial points in the legislation, mostly taken from an outline articulated by the former Assistant Secretary of Education for President …

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Education Facilities Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

Education Facilities Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Arkansas Statewide Education Facilities Assessment is the culmination of 18 months of work commissioned by the Arkansas General Assembly to assess the adequacy and equity of public school buildings across the state. In the ongoing effort to address the mandates of the Lake View III decision, made by the Arkansas Supreme Court in November 2002, the legislature’s Joint Committee on Educational Facilities commissioned a task force to conduct a comprehensive survey of facilities, equipment, and technology. The 60-member task force, including legislators, school officials, and state department officials, together with architects, engineers, business leaders, and interested citizens, contracted with …

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Quality Education Act Of 2003, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

Quality Education Act Of 2003, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In 2003, the Arkansas General Assembly enacted a bill intended to implement at the state level the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. This measure updated the Quality Education Act of 1983. Designated as Act 1467 of 2003 and cited in the Arkansas Code as “The Quality Education Act of 2003” (§ 6-15-201-209), the measure often is referred to as “the Omnibus Act.” Addressed primarily to the State Board of Education and the Arkansas Department of Education, it speaks to the following areas: • Development of state accreditation regulations and standards; • Notification of schools failing to …

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Charter School Research, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

Charter School Research, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In recent months, several studies on charter schools have been rushed to the press: some claiming their effectiveness at improving student achievement, others declaring the exact opposite. What are we to make out of these conflicting reports?

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Teacher Quality And Preparation, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

Teacher Quality And Preparation, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act mandates that states require all teachers to earn full certification and demonstrate competency in the subject area in which they teach. But do these requirements really produce effective teachers— teachers who actually improve student learning and achievement? The existing research base is decidedly mixed, highly politicized, and often just plain confusing. Some experts maintain that teachers’ pedagogical knowledge shows even stronger relationships to teaching effectiveness than their subject matter knowledge (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002); others insist that teachers’ expertise in their content area is a far better predictor of student achievement …

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Education Week’S Report On Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

Education Week’S Report On Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

As schools open their doors for the spring 2005 semester, many legislatures around the nation are meeting to discuss accountability standards, equity and adequacy issues, and the link between money and student performance. While the education issues of 2005 are not unique, in that they have been discussed for years, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) deadline for schools to begin performing at higher standards increases the urgency. In addition to the increased standards, state policymakers are facing difficult legal challenges to their school funding systems. In an attempt to gauge the status of the nation and each state, Education …

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2003-04 Education Special Session, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

2003-04 Education Special Session, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

On December 8, 2003 the Arkansas General Assembly convened in a special session called by the Governor for the purpose of developing a plan to address the court mandate in the Lake View case before the mandated January 1, 2004 deadline. Legislators in both chambers debated a number of plans concerning the relationship between a school’s size and its quality and cost efficiency (e.g. – consolidation of smaller high schools into larger ones) as well as the best means of monitoring student assessment and school accountability. Finally, they turned their attention to funding formulas and potential sources of new revenue …

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Teacher Shortages In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

Teacher Shortages In Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Over the past decade, we’ve heard time and again the dire warning that a major teacher shortage is imminent in our public schools. But is this really the case? Teacher education programs actually produce enough teachers each year to compensate for those who retire. Rather, some researchers suggest that we have focused too much on teacher shortages (the inability to recruit enough teachers) and not enough on teacher attrition (losing teachers already in the field). According to the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) latest School and Staffing Survey (SASS), about one-third of teachers quit during their first three years, …

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Alternative Certification, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

Alternative Certification, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The term “alternative certification” has been utilized to describe programs ranging from immediate issuance of emergency certification to well-developed, highly professional training programs designed to bring new people into the profession. Because of the mandate to place highly qualified teachers in every classroom, the issue of alternative certification has become even more prominent and there is now more consistency in the academic rigor of alternative certification program across the nation. In this state, TeachArkansas serves as a clearinghouse for the various programs that enable an individual who did not out to be a teacher to become certified (see www.teacharkansas.org).

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Public Opinion About Measuring And Reporting Of Student Body Mass Index, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Dec 2004

Public Opinion About Measuring And Reporting Of Student Body Mass Index, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In response to growing public concern about childhood obesity, the 2003 Arkansas General Assembly passed a measure requiring that school officials measure and report to parents each student’s body mass index (BMI) annually (§20-7- 135). Beginning in the 2003-2004 school year, schools were required to do the following: • include as a part of a student health report to parents an annual body mass index percentile by age for each student; and • to annually provide parents with an explanation of the possible health effects of body mass index, nutrition, and physical activity. This measure was one element of a …

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Interview With Dr. Charles Watson, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Oct 2004

Interview With Dr. Charles Watson, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

No abstract provided.

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Interview With Dr. Ken James, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Oct 2004

Interview With Dr. Ken James, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

No abstract provided.

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Highly Qualified Teachers, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Sep 2004

Highly Qualified Teachers, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

One of the key features of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 is a requirement that all teachers in core academic areas be “highly qualified” before the 2005-2006 school year. Even more quickly, by the end of the 2002-2003 school year, all newly hired teachers in Title I schools had to be highly qualified. The core academic areas— which must be taught by a “highly qualified” teacher—are English, reading or language arts, math, science, arts and foreign language, economics, geography, civics or government, and history. Teachers of special education and English language learner students are not required …

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School Finance Litigation And Adequacy Studies, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Sep 2004

School Finance Litigation And Adequacy Studies, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The adequacy approach to challenging school funding systems has proven the most successful of the waves of finance litigation, and the approach serves as the foundation for new or ongoing litigation and reform in many states today, including Arkansas. The standards reform movement has provided courts with a way to measure plaintiffs’ claims that school finance systems do not provide for an adequate education, and many courts have found school funding formulae unconstitutional. In this paper, we review the history of school finance litigation across the United States and focus specifically on cases related to educational adequacy. In the final …

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No Child Left Behind And Act 35, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Sep 2004

No Child Left Behind And Act 35, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Student Assessment and Educational Accountability Act or Arkansas Act 35 represents an ambitious attempt to develop and articulate a strategic plan for ensuring that all students in Arkansas are meeting grade-level standards in reading and math. The legislation describes the types of testing schools must implement each year, how schools and districts should report data, how data should be used to inform staff development, and the sanctions students and schools will face if they fail to meet state standards.

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No Child Left Behind Act Of 2001: An Overview, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Sep 2004

No Child Left Behind Act Of 2001: An Overview, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, the cornerstone of the Bush Administration’s plan to reform K-12 education, strengthens significantly the federal role in education through sweeping reforms to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The stated legislative intent of the NCLB Act is “to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind” (PL-107-110 [20 U.S.C. §6301, et seq.], 2001). Key provisions of the measure, for both Title I and non-Title I schools, are as follows: • accountability for education results through annual standardized testing and through additional standards …

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Understanding Adequate Yearly Progress, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Sep 2004

Understanding Adequate Yearly Progress, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates that all states develop an accountability system that measures student achievement every year. The method states must use to measure achievement is Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). States must agree to bring all students to proficient academic performance levels in reading and math by 2014 in order to continue receiving Title I funds, a federal funding program that commits $12 billion per year to help lower-income children. In Arkansas, the Arkansas Comprehensive Testing Assessment and Accountability Program (ACTAAP) serves as the basis for determining AYP and incorporates the mandates of NCLB.1 According to a 2004 …

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Placing Arkansas School Funding Data In The National Context, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jul 2004

Placing Arkansas School Funding Data In The National Context, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In November 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court found the Arkansas school funding system to be unconstitutional. The decade long court battle, Lake View v Huckabee, concluded when the Supreme Court determined that the state needed to develop a new system to provide a “general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools equally available to all" as called for by the Arkansas Constitution (Article 14, § 1). Arkansas, however, is not alone in being taken to court over the equity and adequacy of its school funding system. Since 1960, over 40 states’ educational funding systems have been legally challenged. Since …

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Effective School Reform, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter May 2004

Effective School Reform, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

At the forefront of education research and policy agendas is an effort to ensure that all children, especially those in low performing, high-poverty schools, get a quality education. The question of which programs and strategies are most effective in reforming K-12 education is complex. School administrators and policymakers throughout the nation are seeking strategies that will help all students to achieve mastery of basic grade-level academic skills as measured by standardized tests. This brief summarizes current research on the characteristics of effective schools and effective teachers. Also, we highlight several comprehensive school reform models with evidence of effectiveness in improving …

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Special Masters’ Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter May 2004

Special Masters’ Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The final ruling in the 1992 Lake View School District case was upheld by the State Supreme Court in November 2002 in a decision known as “Lake View III.” The ruling found that the school system for Arkansas failed to meet the mandate in the Arkansas Constitution requiring that the State provide a “general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools equally available to all" (Article 14, § 1) and required that the legislature develop remedies by January 1, 2004. The Arkansas General Assembly convened in a Special Session from December 8, 2003 to February 6, 2004 to address …

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Defining Educational Adequacy, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Mar 2004

Defining Educational Adequacy, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In his 2001 ruling of the Lake View case, Judge Kilgore ordered, “an adequacy study is necessary and must be conducted forthwith.” In November 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling and mandated that the General Assembly begin an “adequacy study.” Consequently, Act 94 of 2003 created the Arkansas Joint Legislative Committee on Educational Adequacy, which was given primary responsibility for fulfilling the Court’s mandate. The Committee contracted with the national consulting firm of Lawrence O. Picus and Associates to conduct a statewide adequacy study and report the findings to the Committee in the Fall of 2003. …

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Understanding The Achievement Gap, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Mar 2004

Understanding The Achievement Gap, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Educators across Arkansas and the nation are sharpening their focus on “achievement gaps,” or those areas in which less-advantaged students perform poorly compared to their more advantaged peers. The No Child Left Behind Act, nationally, and the Lake View case, in Arkansas, are driving state and local education policymakers to address these achievement gaps to ensure that all student subgroups perform at high standards. Reducing these achievement gaps can have myriad social benefits, not the least of which is reducing racial inequality in educational achievement and future inequality in employment and earnings.

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School Consolidation: Making Sense Of The Consolidation Debate, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Mar 2004

School Consolidation: Making Sense Of The Consolidation Debate, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Much scholarly and public debate has centered on whether consolidation of small schools is positive, negative, or neutral for student academic achievement, student social development, and funding efficiency. In an attempt to derive lessons from the research on this issue, we investigated evidence related to: (1) school district consolidation and school size, and (2) spending and academic performance data for schools and districts in Arkansas.

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