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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

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Articles 631 - 660 of 676

Full-Text Articles in Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration

Defying Nature: The Ethical Implications Of Genetically Modified Plants, Debra M. Strauss May 2007

Defying Nature: The Ethical Implications Of Genetically Modified Plants, Debra M. Strauss

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Genetic engineering is changing the semantics, the meaning of life itself. We're trying to usurp the plant's choice. To force alien words into the plant's poem, but we [have] a problem. We barely know the root language. Genetic grammar's a mystery.... We've learned a lot about the letters-maybe our ability to read and spell words now sits halfway between accident and design - but our syntax is still haphazard. Scrambled. It's a semiotic nightmare.

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Arkansas Producers’ Attitudes Toward The 2002 Farm Bill And Preferences For The 2007 Farm Bill, Misti Clark, Eric Wailes Jan 2007

Arkansas Producers’ Attitudes Toward The 2002 Farm Bill And Preferences For The 2007 Farm Bill, Misti Clark, Eric Wailes

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

The Federal Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, otherwise known at the 2002 Farm Bill, contains current legislation regarding federal public policies and programs for U.S. food and agriculture. This legislation will expire in 2007 and thus new legislation will be developed. It is important to have farm producers’ input for developing this legislation because the policies and programs influence their business practices and livelihoods. The purpose of this study was to determine Arkansas producers’ attitudes toward current and future farm legislation based on an analysis of a survey administered to Arkansas farm producers in summer 2006. The main …

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Who Chooses, Who Uses? Initial Evidence From The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, Patrick J. Wolf, Nada Eissa, Babette Gutmann Jul 2006

Who Chooses, Who Uses? Initial Evidence From The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, Patrick J. Wolf, Nada Eissa, Babette Gutmann

School Choice Demonstration Project

The federal government recently enacted its first school voucher program as a pilot project in the District of Columbia. To be eligible, students need to be entering grades K-12 and have a family income at or below 185 percent of the poverty level. Although a rigorous analysis of the Opportunity Scholarship Program’s impact on student achievement and other outcomes remains a prospect for the future, at this early point initial data exists regarding the families that are applying for the program and the students that are using and not using the voucher when offered. Here we present a preliminary analysis …

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Ayp In Arkansas: Who’S On Track?, Virginia H. Blankenship, Joshua H. Barnett Jun 2006

Ayp In Arkansas: Who’S On Track?, Virginia H. Blankenship, Joshua H. Barnett

Arkansas Education Reports

How “good” are the schools in Arkansas? Under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, the current measure of a school’s success in Arkansas and around the country is based on whether its students meet the adequate yearly progress (AYP) benchmark on annual standardized tests. Those schools not making AYP are placed on the list of schools “in need of improvement” and therefore must give expanded educational choice (including school transfers and/or free tutoring) to eligible students. In contrast, schools that do not appear on the list are typically regarded as “successful” schools. This paper provides an …

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Superintendents Speak Out: A Survey Of Superintendents’ Opinions Regarding Recent School Reforms In Arkansas, Virginia H. Blankenship, Joshua H. Barnett Apr 2006

Superintendents Speak Out: A Survey Of Superintendents’ Opinions Regarding Recent School Reforms In Arkansas, Virginia H. Blankenship, Joshua H. Barnett

Arkansas Education Reports

In an effort to improve educational opportunities for all students, Arkansas policymakers have made education reforms in many areas since 2003, such as increasing school funding by nearly 30 percent, consolidating both districts with enrollments below 350 students and inefficient schools, and strengthening accountability measures designed to raise academic achievement. However, there is little empirical evidence about how any of these reforms have impacted districts, schools, and students across the state, so policymakers have no way of knowing whether such reforms have the potential to improve student achievement and help close the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their more …

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Evaluation Of The Dc Opportunity Scholarship Program: Second Year Report On Participation, Patrick J. Wolf, Babette Gutmann, Michael Puma, Marsha Silverberg Apr 2006

Evaluation Of The Dc Opportunity Scholarship Program: Second Year Report On Participation, Patrick J. Wolf, Babette Gutmann, Michael Puma, Marsha Silverberg

School Choice Demonstration Project

By fall 2005, the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), the first federally funded voucher program in the United States, was in its second year serving low-income students in the nation’s capital. More than 5,800 students have applied to the Program over the 2 years, and about 2,300 of them—eligible public school students who participated in a lottery to determine scholarship award—are the subject of a rigorous impact evaluation mandated by the Program statute. While the most important questions for the evaluation are about the Program’s effectiveness in improving student outcomes, data are still being collected for that analysis and will …

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Education Week’S 2006 Report On Arkansas, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2006

Education Week’S 2006 Report On Arkansas, 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. Released in early 2006, the 10th annual report, Quality Counts at 10: A Decade of Standards-Based Education, examines the progress that states have made on a core set of policy indicators related to standards-based education over the past decade: student achievement, standards and accountability, efforts to improve teacher quality, school climate, and resource equity. This policy brief summarizes Arkansas’ ratings on the 2006 report, compares Arkansas to its border states on …

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An Evaluation Of The Effects Of Dc's Voucher Program On Public School Achievement And Racial Integration After One Year, Jay P. Greene, Marcus A. Winters Jan 2006

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of Dc's Voucher Program On Public School Achievement And Racial Integration After One Year, Jay P. Greene, Marcus A. Winters

School Choice Demonstration Project

This study evaluates the initial effect Washington D.C.'s Opportunity Scholarship Program (OPS) on the academic performance of public schools and its effects on the opportunities District students have to attend integrated schools. OPS is a federally sponsored school voucher program that provides vouchers worth up to $7,500 for an estimated 1,800 to 2,000 students in the District of Columbia. Students can use the scholarships to pay tuition at participating private schools in the District. The pilot program is designed to last for 5 years.

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Parent And Student Voices On The First Year Of The Dc Opportunity Scholarship Program, Thomas Stewart, Patrick J. Wolf, Stephen Q. Cornman Oct 2005

Parent And Student Voices On The First Year Of The Dc Opportunity Scholarship Program, Thomas Stewart, Patrick J. Wolf, Stephen Q. Cornman

School Choice Demonstration Project

In the 50 years since economist Milton Friedman published “The Role of Government in Education” scholars and policy makers have been debating how parental choice through market mechanisms can and does operate in education. Market “optimists” argue that education is a service that can be produced under a variety of arrangements and that parents are natural education consumers. Market “pessimists” argue that education is a public good that should be produced in government-run schools, and that school choice programs suffer “market failure” because only advantaged families will have the resources and experience to choose effectively.

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Rating The Special Masters, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Oct 2005

Rating The Special Masters, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

After the 85th General Assembly adjourned in April 2005, the Rogers School District, along with 48 other districts, filed a motion to the state Supreme Court to reopen the landmark Lake View school funding case, accusing the legislature of failing to increase school funding for the 2005-06 school year (see Policy Brief 17). The Supreme Court agreed and on June 9, 2005, reappointed former Justices Bradley D. Jesson and David Newbern as Special Masters to assess the plaintiffs’ claims. The Masters issued their report on October 3, 2005, concluding that “the state has not lived up to the promise made …

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Superintendents Speak Out On Education Reforms, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter Oct 2005

Superintendents Speak Out On Education Reforms, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In an effort to improve educational opportunities for all students, Arkansas has made education reforms in many areas over the past three years. The Office for Education Policy (OEP) recently distributed a confidential survey to superintendents across the state to see what kinds of successes districts are having as a result of these reforms and what challenges they still face. OEP also asked superintendents about teacher quality and supply issues in their districts, particularly in light of No Child Left Behind’s (NCLB) requirement that all schools be staffed with “highly-qualified teachers.”

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Charter School Funding: Inequity’S Next Frontier, Meagan Batdorf, Chester E. Finn, Bryan Hassel, Larry D. Maloney, Eric Osberg, Sheree T. Speakman, Michelle Terrell Aug 2005

Charter School Funding: Inequity’S Next Frontier, Meagan Batdorf, Chester E. Finn, Bryan Hassel, Larry D. Maloney, Eric Osberg, Sheree T. Speakman, Michelle Terrell

School Choice Demonstration Project

Of all the controversies swirling around the nation’s charter schools, none is more hotly contested than the debate over funding. Charter opponents charge that] these autonomous public schools are draining scarce resources from public school districts. Proponents, by contrast, complain that charter schools do not get their fair share of public education dollars.

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Food Democracy Ii: Revolution Or Restoration?, Neil D. Hamilton May 2005

Food Democracy Ii: Revolution Or Restoration?, Neil D. Hamilton

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Author's Note: This essay is a companion to the essay 'Food Democracy, "which appears in 9 Drake Journal of Agricultural Law 9 (2004). In that essay, the author discussed many of the progressive trends that are helping reshape America's food system. These trends have a common denominator in their reflection of the democratic tendencies of the American populace. The desire of an increasing number of consumers to eat better food and to have access to the information, choices, and alternatives that make better food available are helping drive shifts in food production and marketing. Accompanying these shifts are political and …

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Food Law & Policy: An Essay, Peter Barton Hutt May 2005

Food Law & Policy: An Essay, Peter Barton Hutt

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Food has been the driving preoccupation of humans since the dawn of evolution. Exactly when food processing began and when the original hunter-gatherers settled down to develop agriculture-or even the question of which of these occurred first-remain issues of scholarly pursuit and debate. It is clear, however, that these events occurred millennia before the advent of recorded history; therefore, we must rely on largely adventitious discoveries of archeological artifacts to advance our developing knowledge of these events.

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Placing Arkansas School Funding Data In The National Context, Joshua H. Barnett Apr 2005

Placing Arkansas School Funding Data In The National Context, Joshua H. Barnett

Arkansas Education Reports

In the Lake View v Huckabee school funding lawsuit, the Arkansas Supreme Court found the state’s school funding system unconstitutional because it did not provide an “adequate and equitable” education to all students. In light of the court’s ruling, this paper addresses the adequacy of the Arkansas system by examining levels of expenditure, teacher salary levels, and school performance. Further, this paper highlights the level of equity within the state of Arkansas as compared to other states in the nation using the Federal Range Ratio, the Coefficient of Variation, and the McLoone Index. Finally, data on the sources of revenue …

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Evaluation Of The Dc Opportunity Scholarship Program: First Year Report On Participation, Patrick J. Wolf, Babette Gutmann, Nada Eissa, Michael Puma, Marsha Silverberg Apr 2005

Evaluation Of The Dc Opportunity Scholarship Program: First Year Report On Participation, Patrick J. Wolf, Babette Gutmann, Nada Eissa, Michael Puma, Marsha Silverberg

School Choice Demonstration Project

The District of Columbia School Choice Incentive Act of 2003 was passed by Congress in January 2004. The Act provided funds for District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) improvement activities and charter school facility acquisitions. Most notably, the statute established what is now called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program―the first federal government initiative to provide K-12 education scholarships, or vouchers, to families to send their children to private schools of choice.

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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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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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What Does The Naep Tell Us About Student Achievement In Arkansas?, Joshua H. Barnett, Gary W. Ritter Jan 2005

What Does The Naep Tell Us About Student Achievement In Arkansas?, Joshua H. Barnett, Gary W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

This brief discusses the most recent and historical NAEP data in math, science, reading, and writing. Arkansas’ NAEP results are compared to national and border state averages. Based on the most recent NAEP exams, Arkansas is performing slightly below the national average in reading, math, science, and writing. There is also data to support that Arkansas students perform less well in Grade 8 than in Grade 4 when compared to the national and border state averages. Arkansas, however, is among the highest performing states with regard to change over the last decade. Since 1992, Arkansas has gained on the national …

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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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