Education Policy Commons^™

Children In Economically Disadvantaged Households Have Lower Early Literacy Skills Than Their Higher-Income Peers, Michah W. Rothbart, Colleen Heflin, Gabriella Alphonso

Center for Policy Research

Literacy is critical for numerous developmental outcomes and wellbeing among children. Low literacy skills in childhood can also negatively affect individuals in adulthood. Using data from nearly 300,000 kindergarten students in Virginia (2014-2017), this study finds that children in households that participate in more than one social assistance program (such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Free or Reduced-Price Lunch) have lower literacy skills when they enter kindergarten than children whose households participate in fewer or no social programs.

Children In Economically Disadvantaged Households Have Lower Early Literacy Skills Than Their Higher-Income Peers, Michah W. Rothbart, Colleen Heflin, Gabriella Alphonso

Population Health Research Brief Series

Literacy is critical for numerous developmental outcomes and wellbeing among children. Low literacy skills in childhood can also negatively affect individuals in adulthood. Using data from nearly 300,000 kindergarten students in Virginia (2014-2017), this study finds that children in households that participate in more than one social assistance program (such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs, and Free or Reduced-Price Lunch) have lower literacy skills when they enter kindergarten than children whose households participate in fewer or no social programs.

The Age-Less Citizen: Cultivating A Civically Engaged K-12 Community Through The Use Of Service Learning, Chelsia I. Douglas Mpa

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

The Age-less Citizen will analyze evidence-based civic education studies and explore proactive student engagement strategies to build an individualized nonpartisan action plan for each school represented. From sending election reminders home by a kindergartener, to including local school board meetings on school newsletter and calendars, attendees will take away practical tips and tools to restore faith in the younger generation's ability to improve our democracy.

Education Gender Gaps In The Mountain West, 2022, Miguel Soriano Ralston, Lana Kojoian, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet examines data from the Brookings Institution publication “Boys Left Behind: Education Gender Gaps Across the U.S.” authored by Brookings Senior Fellow Richard V. Reeves and Research Analyst Ember Smith. The original report includes data on gender gaps in college degree attainment, high school graduation rates, and test scores throughout the U.S. This fact sheet highlights the percentage of women and men with college degrees, percentage of women and men graduating on time, Math and English test score gender gaps, and rankings of education gender gaps in the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and …

Of Boys And Men: Why The Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, And What To Do About It, Richard Reeves

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

Boys and men are struggling. Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace, and in the family. While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even deteriorated. Our attitudes, our institutions, and our laws have failed to keep up. Conservative and progressive politicians, mired in their own ideological warfare, fail to provide thoughtful solutions.

The father of three sons, a journalist, and a Brookings Institution scholar, Richard V. Reeves has spent twenty-five years worrying about boys both at home and work. His …

Postsecondary Outcomes Of Georgia’S Adult Education Students, Yiwei Duan, Iris Feinberg, Daphne Greenberg, Thomas Kouwe, David C. Ribar, Jonathan Smith

Georgia Policy Labs Reports

The Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) oversees Georgia’s public technical colleges, workforce development programs, and adult basic skills education (“adult education”) system. Classes in this system help adult students (“adult learners”) improve literacy, numeracy, communications, and other skills. A goal for some learners is to develop the skills needed to enroll and succeed in a two- or four-year postsecondary institution.

This report, by researchers in the Adult Literacy Research Center and the Child & Family Policy Lab, examines the number and characteristics of these learners in Georgia who subsequently enroll in the state’s public technical colleges, colleges, and universities …

On Income Inequality And Poverty In Egypt: Is Prosperity Immoral?, Mohamed Karim Lotfy Abdelkhalek

Theses and Dissertations

There are varying perspectives on, and divergent solutions to, the phenomena of income inequality and poverty. There seems to be polarizing views on both of these sensitive topics. One side of the argument believes income inequality should in itself be mitigated through redistribution measures, while the other argues that this should not be the focus of policy makers, as it deters them from facing the more pressing issue facing society – which is absolute poverty. The relationship between income inequality, poverty, and citizen well-being in Egypt is one that warrants further research, and this paper aims to fill this lacuna. …

Exposure To Free School Meals In Kindergarten Has Lasting Positive Effects On Students’ Attendance, Samantha Trajkovski, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Michah W. Rothbart

Population Health Research Brief Series

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is the country's second-largest food assistance program, serving free or reduced-price meals to 30 million students daily. A growing number of schools and districts offer Universal Free Meals (UFM), which provides free meals to all students regardless of income. This brief summarizes findings examining the relationship between exposure to UFM in kindergarten and attendance and weight outcomes in NYC students from grades K-3. The results demonstrate that children who receive free meals through UFM in kindergarten have better school attendance than those who do not. In addition, there is no evidence that receipt of …

Arkansas’S 9th Grade Course Failures And Building Configurations, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Sarah R. Morris

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we examine the relationship between course failures among Arkansas’s 9th grade students and the grade levels served in their school. We find that in schools that terminate at 9th grade, 9th graders are less likely to fail one or more course during the year compared to failure rates in schools that terminate at 12th grade. We suggest an increase in awareness and examination of how we assess 9th graders in Arkansas.

Fostering Expertise, Confidence, And Passion In Writing Education: How A Common Sense, Nonbinary Education Policy May Serve To Enrich Teachers’ Writing Lives, Shrink The Divide Between Literacy Educators, And Finally Improve Literacy Among New York City Students, Rebecca I. Wallace-Segall

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I examine the ongoing youth literacy crisis in New York City and, along with it, two long-standing, opposing education policies—progressive and traditional—that have sought to address it. I argue that resisting dogmatic adherence to one or the other of these approaches, coupled with teacher-centered professional development opportunities that emphasize educators’ reconnection to the personal experience of writing, will improve classroom writing education goals. Over the course of a decade and a half, I co-designed a new educational framework that combines and elaborates upon the strengths of both approaches; over the past year, I co-designed a teacher-centered professional development opportunity for …

Covid-19 Education Response Mapping Study: Building Resilience In The Philippines: Readiness, Response, And Recovery, Anna Dabrowski, Maya Conway, Yung Nietschke, Amy Berry, Chaula Yoga Pradhika

International Education Research

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has caused unprecedented levels of disruption to education systems worldwide. Across the Asia region, it is estimated that around 760 million children were impacted by school closures at the height of the pandemic. Government response strategies have varied across the region, with some countries imposing prolonged school lockdowns while others have had short, repeated closure periods. As countries begin to reopen schools and prepare for subsequent waves of COVID-19 infection, there is a need to develop a higher capability of education systems to safeguard learning and address persistent barriers to learning equality by harnessing …

Covid-19 Education Response Mapping Study: Building Resilience In Lao Pdr: Readiness, Response, And Recovery, Yung Nietschke, Anna Dabrowski, Maya Conway, Chaula Yoga Pradhika

International Education Research

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has caused unprecedented levels of disruption to education systems worldwide. Across the Asia region, it is estimated that around 760 million children were impacted by school closures at the height of the pandemic. Government response strategies have varied across the region, with some countries imposing prolonged school lockdowns while others have had short, repeated closure periods. As countries begin to reopen schools and continue to prepare for subsequent waves of COVID[1]19 infection, there is a need to develop the greater capability of education systems to safeguard learning and address persistent barriers to learning equality …

Covid-19 Education Response Mapping Study: Building Resilience In The Kyrgyz Republic: Readiness, Response, And Recovery, Yung Nietschke, Anna Dabrowski, Maya Conway, Chaula Yoga Pradhika

International Education Research

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis has caused unprecedented levels of disruption to education systems worldwide. Across the Asia region, it is estimated that around 760 million children were impacted by school closures at the height of the pandemic. Government response strategies have varied across the region, with some countries imposing prolonged school lockdowns while others have had short, repeated closure periods. As countries begin to reopen schools and continue to prepare for subsequent waves of COVID-19 infection, there is a need to develop the greater capability of education systems to safeguard learning and address persistent barriers to learning equality …

Covid-19 Education Response Mapping Study In Asia: Executive Summary, Yung Nietschke, Anna Dabrowski, Maya Conway, Chaula Yoga Pradhika

International Education Research

This document provides a summary of research exploring the systems, policies, and school-level practices that have supported learning continuity in Asia during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a review of policy documents on COVID-19 responses in Asia and a deep dive analysis of system and school-level responses in the Philippines and the Kyrgyz Republic, the findings from this study provide policymakers and education stakeholders with evidence of promising practices that could be leveraged to support learning recovery and education system resilience. In addition, a policy review was conducted on the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), which focused …

Appraising The Devos Tix Rule: Due Process In Campus Adjudication Processes, Athulya Nath

CMC Senior Theses

The increasing awareness and desire to fight sexual violence on college campuses have led to focusing campus adjudication processes on achieving justice. This thesis will analyze Betsy DeVos’s Title IX changes and explore whether she achieves due process protections in the new policy. This thesis will detail DeVos’s various changes – increased evidentiary standard, live hearing and cross-examination, narrowed definitions, reduction of responsible employees, and presumption of innocence for accused students – and how these changes are beneficial or detrimental to due process as a whole. This thesis will also explore the presence of rape culture on college campuses, the …

Teacher Labor Markets In Metro Atlanta During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sarah S. Barry, Tim R. Sass

Georgia Policy Labs Reports

The COVID-19 pandemic affected teachers in myriad, unprecedented ways. In spring 2020, most schools in the United States shut their doors and were forced to switch to remote learning. Changes in instructional mode, coupled with general health and economic concerns brought on by the pandemic, negatively impacted teachers and led to increases in levels of stress and burnout.

In this report, Sarah S. Barry and Tim R. Sass use administrative data covering SY 2016–17 through fall of SY 2021–22 from two metro-Atlanta school districts (DeKalb County School District and Gwinnett County Public Schools) to analyze trends in teacher hiring and …

Opening The Halls Of Power: Implementing A Community Organizing Approach To Parent Engagement In New York City’S Community Schools, Andrew R. King

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York City launched a Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS) in 2014 that now includes more than 300 schools, making it the largest school improvement plan of its kind in the country. Bloomberg, the previous mayor, had championed market-based reform strategies by closing struggling public schools and replacing them with privately run charter schools. In contrast, the community schools model supports struggling schools by providing them with wraparound services to address not only the academic—but also the health, social, and emotional—needs of the “whole child.” Research has shown the NYC initiative has had positive impacts …

Censorship In Schools: Reading's Position In The Landscape Of Policy Creation, Rachel Beckham

Honors Theses

Censorship is not new to current issues. It has affected authors and speakers for centuries, but it is especially prevalent today, especially in schools. Teachers and librarians are often challenged for the materials they choose to provide to students. Concerned parents object to the materials for containing sexual content, profanity, or LGBTQ+ characters or themes. This study aims to answer the question, “What role, if any, do books containing controversial topics serve in the literature classrooms of today’s students?” To answer this question, the author of this study conducted a literary analysis on the top three most banned books of …

Critical (Re)Approach To Higher Education Admission Policy: The Impact Of Open Enrollment Policy Implementation, Shirdonna Yvonne Lawrence

Theses and Dissertations

Federal and state policies affecting higher education, like the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1832, Brown vs. Board of Education, and Higher Education Act of 1965 have posited change regarding the proliferation of diversity and expansion of access (Thelin, 2011).

I analyzed BOT policies for enrollment and conducted a socio-diagnostic CDA on the implementation of admission policy to understand the impact of the policies’ implementation. I focused on 1) exploring how open enrollment (OE) policies were constructed, 2) how institutions adopt and interpret these policies, and 3) how individuals at the institution enact these policies, by conducting a discourse-historical analysis …

The Merit Of Inclusion: A Policy Review Examining The Convergence Of Special Education And Inclusions Policies With Compensatory Medicaid Policies In The Wake Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Corbyn Baggett

Capstone Experience

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognized the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak as a global pandemic. This global issue compelled governments to announce careful virus containing policies in order to prevent further spread and control of the disease. Although it has been proven that measures like social isolation could aid in scaling the spread of illness, the resulting extended school closures that occurred in response to an increased number of COVID-19 outbreaks posed significant challenges for all students, but especially those students with special needs. The unpredictable nature of COVID-19 at the outset of the pandemic …

Natural History Of Discourse Of Missouri House Bill 1042: Bringing A Critical Perspective To Policy Engagement In Two-Year Contexts, Mary Casey Reid

English Theses & Dissertations

In this autoethnographically-infused natural history of discourse (NHD) (Silverstein and Urban, 1996; Slembrouck, 2001), I use methods from critical discourse studies (CDS) to trace 10 years of changes in “remediation” discourses within a corpus of texts associated with Missouri HB 1042, a piece of legislation passed in 2012 that requires higher education institutions to “replicate best practices in remediation” (CBHE, 2013). After providing national and state context related to HB 1042 and the discourses circulating within the HB 1042 corpus of texts, I describe what I call the “higher ed’s remediation problem” discourse, focusing on three discourse features that I …

Values And Power As Levers To Influence Accountability Policy In Virginia: A Case Study, Angela M. Rhett

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The education landscape has been inundated in recent decades with a plethora of accountability measures. New mandates and processes are conceived at the hands of policymakers, and concepts such as power and values are at the core of accountability changes. The purpose of this research study was to uncover the web of unwritten structures and systems in place that influence the educational accountability policy process using complexity theory as the guiding theoretical framework (Shoup & Studer, 2010). Complexity theory dispels the notion of simplistic cause and effect relationships as predictors for accountability trends, and, instead, posits the multiplicity of factors …

Delaying College For Domestic Civic Service: The Gap Year Experiences Of City Year Americorps Alumni, Christopher John Bryson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade the concept of taking a gap year has become mainstream in the US. This idea of delaying enrollment, or taking a break from college, before beginning a bachelor’s degree, has gained popularity, especially as the cost of attendance in higher education has soared and the burden of paying for it has been placed on the student as the consumer. Similarly, the sought-after gap year experiences offered in the private sector are often costly. With the rising popularity of gap years, it is important to identify experiences that are accessible to a wide variety of backgrounds and …

Financial Well-Being Of Frontline Healthcare Workers: The Importance Of Employer Benefits, Mathieu Despard, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Haotian Zheng, Grace Anderson, Olivia Borland, Kourtney Gilbert

Social Policy Institute Research

Frontline healthcare workers – especially direct care workers (DCWs), such as home health aides, struggle due to low pay, lack of benefits, and difficult working conditions. The need for these workers is growing. Unless frontline healthcare jobs improve, positions may be difficult to fill, and care for vulnerable members of society may be compromised.

In this study, we surveyed 2,321 frontline healthcare workers and conducted in-depth interviews with 30 of these workers concerning pay, benefits, work conditions, and financial well-being. Key survey findings included:

• Only 39% of workers were eligible for at least four out of five major benefits (e.g., …

Teacher Salaries In The Mountain West, 2019 - 2021, Corryn Richardson, Joshua Padilla, Hira Ahmed, Zachary Billot, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet examines state-level data of teacher salary benchmarks from the National Education Association, a labor union representing public school teachers and other education faculty in the U.S. Data are presented on average teacher salaries, average teacher starting salaries, and teacher pay penalties in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah).

Student Achievement Growth During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Spring 2022 Update, Tim Sass, Salma Mohammad Ali

Georgia Policy Labs Reports

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close and abruptly switch to remote learning. Since that time, schools have slowly transitioned back to in-person learning, and school year (SY) 2021–22 was the first full year where most students returned to in-person learning. In this report, we continue the Metro Atlanta Policy Lab for Education’s (MAPLE) research agenda analyzing how the pandemic has affected student achievement in three metro-Atlanta school districts—focusing on recent pandemic-era student achievement growth during SY 2021–22. This report is the third in a series of reports where we measure pandemic-era student achievement growth. In this …

Assessing Atlanta's Place-Based College Scholarship, Carycruz M. Bueno, Lindsay C. Page, Jonathan Smith

GPL Working Papers

We investigate whether and how Achieve Atlanta’s college scholarship and associated services impact college enrollment, persistence, and graduation among Atlanta Public School graduates experiencing low household income. Qualifying for the scholarship of up to $5,000/year does not meaningfully change college enrollment among those near the high school GPA eligibility thresholds. However, scholarship receipt does have large and statistically significant effects on early college persistence (i.e., 14%) that continue through BA degree completion within four years (22%). We discuss how the criteria of place-based programs that support economically disadvantaged students may influence results for different types of students.

The Impact Of A 2021 Summer School Program On Student Achievement, Sarah S. Barry, Tim Sass

Georgia Policy Labs Reports

In summer 2021, a metro-Atlanta school district offered a voluntary summer school program that provided opportunities for credit recovery and acceleration to address the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement growth. Students who met any one of a set of eligibility criteria were invited to participate, but others could opt in to the program—even if they were not specifically invited. We analyze the impact of inviting students to participate in this program on student achievement and provide descriptive evidence on which students chose to participate in the program.

In this report, Sarah S. Barry and Tim R. …

The Evolution Of The Southern Nevada Healthcare Economy: Building The Unlv Academic Health Center, The Lincy Institute

Lincy Institute Events

With the successful launch of the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV and the completion of its medical education building, Southern Nevada is positioned to expand its healthcare infrastructure - and its healthcare economy - to create a comprehensive, integrated healthcare system to serve our fast-growing community. As UNLV moves forward with the development of an integrated academic health center within the Las Vegas Medical District, understanding the economic and social benefits of such a transformational project is important to stakeholders throughout the region.

The Lincy Institute hosted representatives of Tripp Umbach - the nation's leading consultant on community …

Driving The Southern Nevada Health Economy Forward: Benefits Of A Transformational Unlv Academic Health Center, Tripp Umbach

Policy Briefs and Reports

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) plans to develop an integrated academic health center within the Las Vegas Medical District (LVMD). The academic health center includes UNLV’s five health science schools and mental and behavioral health, which is distributed among several colleges (medicine, liberal arts, urban affairs, and education) in the university. University Medical Center (UMC), a major teaching hospital, will also be an important driver of the academic health center. For the purposes of this report, UNLV’s medical and health science entities along with UMC are referred to collectively as the UNLV Academic Health Center. Additional academic health …