Education Policy Commons^™

Financial Well-Being In Low- And Moderate-Income Households: How Does It Compare To The General Population?, Sicong Sun, Olga Kondratjeva, Stephen P. Roll, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Research Brief (18-03)

Research has increasingly shed light on the precariousness of many households’ financial situations. For example, a large national survey showed that 41 percent of adults lack sufficient liquidity to cover even a modest $400 emergency without taking on debt or selling an asset; a problem that is exacerbated for lower-income households. Compounding this issue is the fact that financial shocks, such as the loss of income or a major car repair, are common; 60 percent of U.S. households reported a shock in the prior year at a median cost of $2,000.

We would expect that these indicators …

Financial Well-Being In Low- And Moderate-Income Households: How Does It Compare To The General Population?, Sicong Sun, Olga Kondratjeva, Stephen P. Roll, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Research has increasingly shed light on the precariousness of many households’ financial situations. For example, a large national survey showed that 41 percent of adults lack sufficient liquidity to cover even a modest $400 emergency without taking on debt or selling an asset;¹ a problem that is exacerbated for lower-income households.² Compounding this issue is the fact that financial shocks, such as the loss of income or a major car repair, are common; 60 percent of U.S. households reported a shock in the prior year at a median cost of $2,000^.3

Democracy And Civil Society In Latin America And The Caribbean In A Time Of Change, Susan Appe, Daniel Barragán, Anabel Cruz

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Nadia Rubaii, Santiago Leyva

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

Content, . .

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

The Growing Need For Diverse Teachers In The Mountain West, Michael Hansen, Diana Quintero

Brookings Mountain West Publications

This policy brief examines the racial and ethnic diversity of the public teacher workforce in five Mountain West states, drawing on survey data from 1993 to 2016. We find increases in student diversity are generally outpacing teacher diversity in the region, though important differences in teacher-student parity and access to nonwhite teachers across states are also evident. In addition, we demonstrate the recruitment and retention of nonwhite teachers in these states lag considerably behind the rest of the U.S. This brief concludes with recommendations to help Mountain West states and districts promote greater racial and ethnic diversity among their teacher …

Charter School Funding: (More) Inequity In The City, Corey A. Deangelis, Patrick J. Wolf, Larry D. Maloney, Jay F. May

School Choice Demonstration Project

Public charter schools are a growing part of K-12 education. Charter schools are public schools that are granted operational autonomy by their authorizing agency in return for a commitment to achieve performance levels specified in a contract. Like traditional public schools, charter schools are prohibited from charging tuition, must not discriminate in admissions or be religious in their operation or affiliation, and are overseen by a public entity. Unlike traditional public schools, however, most charters are open to all students who wish to apply, regardless of where they live. If a charter school is over-subscribed, random lotteries usually determine which …

Skills And Student Affairs: A Discourse Analysis, Shannon Mckechnie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Media, industry, and other public actors have claimed that a ‘skills gap’ exists in students exiting post-secondary education and entering the workforce. The Ontario provincial government has developed policy, the Highly Skilled Workforce Strategy, to provide directives to universities in the province to provide skills development to students to aid in closing the gap and providing a workplace relevant education. In this study, I explore the experiences of student affairs and services (SAS) staff responsible for enacting provincial policy related to skills development at the university level by investigating the discourses that shape policy and practices of these staff …

School Climate In The School Choice Era: A Comparative Analysis Of District-Run Public Schools And Charter Schools, Christopher Damian Duszka

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Comparative analyses of district-run public schools and charter schools are limited to performance outcomes. There is a dearth of research on how the school-types vary on factors consequential to performance such as school climate. Public-private distinctions, such as in organizational autonomy, value orientations, funding structures, and management practices, could result in school climate dissimilarities between district-run public schools and charter schools.

The aim of this dissertation is to assess the influence organizational factors have on school climate and determine if school-type affects school climate. Student and staff school climate survey data from the Miami-Dade school district were utilized for this …

Different Choices: A Public School Community’S Responses To School Choice Reforms, Amanda U. Potterton

The Qualitative Report

In the United States, state and federal reforms increasingly encourage the expansion of school choice policies. Debates about school choice contrast various concepts of freedom and equality with concerns about equity, justice, achievement, democratic accountability, profiting management organizations, and racial and class segregation. Arizona’s “market”-based school choice programs include over 600 charter schools, and the state’s open enrollment practices, public and private school tax credit allowances, and Empowerment Scholarships, (closely related to vouchers), flourish. This qualitative analysis explores one district-run public school and its surrounding community, and I discuss socio-political and cultural tensions related to school choice reforms that exist …

Consolidation And Elimination Of North Dakota School Districts: A Research Note, Nicholas Bauroth

Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy

In 1940, there were 2,272 school districts across North Dakota; by 1960, there were ‘only’ 1,351. This study examines the consolidation and elimination of school districts across North Dakota from 1950 to 1966. It finds that the decline in school district numbers was largely driven by the end of one-room schoolhouses as a means of providing public education, though school district taxes and county population density played a significant role as well.

El Orden De La Libertad, De Mauricio García Villegas, Gabriel-Ignacio Gomez

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

El Derecho De Acceso A Información Pública Como Mecanismo De Control Social: Análisis Comparado En Cinco Países Latinoamericanos, Erik Moreno R., Christopher Ramírez S., Matías Salazar S.

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

El presente estudio busca revisar el estado y el desarrollo institucional de las políticas en materia de transparencia y derecho de acceso a la información presentes en la región. Una vez dentro de la conceptualización pertinente, donde se consultan diversas fuentes que tratan el Accountability, se realiza una comparación que permite identificar posteriormente las condiciones para que las herramientas presentes en cada uno de los países analizados, conforme a su propia legislación, permitan ejercer el Accountability y configurar el acceso a la información, tanto como derecho autónomo como medio efectivo de control social a la gestión pública.

La Artesanía Del Orden Social, Luis Felipe Dávila

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Lo que pretende exponer este artículo tiene que ver con la importancia de descartar la idea de que toda institución eficiente es fruto de la intencionalidad de un poder político centralizado que puede cambiar la historia por medio de herramientas artificiales, desconociendo los procesos históricos y evolutivos del orden social, en un espacio-tiempo determinado. Además, los diferentes fines que persiguen los actores involucrados pueden ser incluso antagónicos entre sí, pero en conjunto pueden llegar a producir armonía y beneficios para los sujetos involucrados, aunque el resultado sea diferente al que buscaban individualmente. Para dicho propósito, se abordan en este artículo …

Analysis Of The Perceptions About The Organizational Environment In Colombia’S Public Sector, Fabian Telch, Pablo Sanabria

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Public servants are conditioned by perceptions about their jobs environments that can lead them to have less appreciation for their organizations. There are few studies that focus on a theoretical and practical understanding of the organizational environment as a factor that may lead public workers to low motivation and job satisfaction levels. We aim to explore organizational environment of Colombia’s public-sector entities as a key organizational aspect, considering the demographic characteristics of Colombian public servants. Through multivariate statistics we explore whether some demographic and organizational traits of public officials play a role on their appreciations of their organizational environments. To …

Editorial Spanish, Nadia Rubaii, Santiago Leyva

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

Editorial English, Nadia Rubaii, Santiago Leyva

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

Table Of Content

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Teacher Race On Student Perceptions In Low-Income Schools, Benton M. Brown

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision, thousands of teachers of color lost their jobs as black students were integrated into mostly white schools. The number of black teachers in schools across the United States has never recovered resulting in a teaching workforce that is less diverse than the student population that they teach. Many studies have examined the possible impact of this discrepancy including the possibility that this has contributed to the black-white achievement gap that exists in the United States. Other studies have examined the non-academic impacts of a less diverse workforce including …

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

Introduction, Marcy Murninghan

New England Journal of Public Policy

America faces a reckoning, a crucible of what Reinhold Niebuhr observed more than eighty years ago. Our democratic principles and traditions are imperiled by the power of financial oligarchs and unfettered money flows, which have contributed to massive inequality that, in turn, has given rise to political unrest and a sense of cultural unmooring.

The articles presented here are both descriptive and normative, setting forth a complex social problem with seemingly bottomless proportions and then offering a design or set of remedial actions to alleviate them. Drawing on my professional experience going back to the mid-1970s, I wrote these pieces …

Bigger Bang, Fewer Bucks? The Productivity Of Public Charter Schools In Eight U.S. Cities, Corey A. Deangelis, Patrick J. Wolf, Larry D. Maloney, Jay F. May

School Choice Demonstration Project

School choice skeptics frequently claim that public charter schools perform no better than traditional public schools (TPS) on standardized test scores. Although a few individual studies of public charter schools have supported that claim, the most comprehensive research reports conclude that, though results vary across states and charter school networks, on average public charter schools have a positive effect on student achievement. Charter school performance appears to be especially strong in cities. Moreover, none of the studies of the relative effectiveness of public charter schools have explicitly considered the funding differences that exist across the two public school sectors. All …

Employee Financial Wellness Programs: Differences In Reach By Financial Circumstances, Sophia R. Fox-Dichter, Yingying Zeng, Mathieu R. Despard, Ellen Frank-Miller, Geraldine Germain

Social Policy Institute Research

Workplace-based Employee Financial Wellness Programs (EFWPs) aim to strengthen employees’ financial well-being through services such as financial coaching, payroll advances and short-term installment loans, credit counseling, debt management, and online financial management tools. Although EFWPs are a fast-growing part of employee benefit packages, offerings vary widely in service type and delivery method across em-ployers, and little research has assessed their efficacy and reach.1 Our prior research2 indicates significant differences among employees, includ-ing by race/ethnicity3, regarding their awareness, utilization, and self-reported benefits from EFWP services. This brief adds to this research by exam-ining these differences in EFWP reach by employ-ees’ financial …

How Fair Is The New York State Education Aid System?, John Yinger, Emily Gutierrez

Center for Policy Research

It’s Elementary is a series of essays on topics in education and education policy. The main focus is on education finance in New York State, but general research findings in education and education policy issues in several other states are also discussed. John Yinger, Professor of Economics and Public Administration at the Maxwell School, Syracuse University is the author of most of these essays, although a few are written by or co-authored with other scholars.

Massachusetts School Discipline Policy Change: Exclusion, Alternatives, And Inequality In Public District And Charter Schools, Aster Richardson

School of Public Policy Capstones

School discipline reform is of growing interest to policymakers as ongoing research reveals the negative effects of current school discipline policies. In the U.S., the most popular models of school discipline use exclusionary practice, which includes suspension and expulsion. Studies have shown that exclusionary discipline contributes to undesired social outcomes such as poor academic performance, school drop out, unemployment, and even incarceration. Additionally, exclusionary discipline and its negative consequences disproportionately affect racial minorities and other vulnerable groups of students. Reform of current state policy is a necessary first step toward implementing alternative discipline practice in schools. In 2012 Massachusetts legislature …

Access To Technology And Student Academic Achievement: Empirical Evidence From Nepal, Palista Kharel

School of Public Policy Capstones

My research explores the linkage between access to technology and student academic achievement in Nepal. I measure access to technology using four proxies: availability of electricity, radio, TV and computer at home. I measure academic achievement using student test scores in the Grade 10 national level examinations.

My results indicate that students with access to electricity, radio, TV and computer at home, have higher average test scores overall. Particularly, access to a computer has the largest positive effect on a student’s academic achievement. Simple OLS regression results suggest that those with access to a computer score 64 points higher than …

Public Policies Involving Pregnant And Parenting Secondary Students From Perspectives Of Educators, Tomecole Hilliard-Carlton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite a significant drop in the number of pregnant adolescents and reforms to fight

gender discrimination under Title IX, teen pregnancy and risk factors including poverty,

stigma, and substance abuse, which may lead to different negative outcomes, such as

depression, social isolation, and lowered self-esteem remain a persistent problem in the

United States. Due to these factors, pregnant and parenting teens have been noted to drop

out of high school prematurely. Using incrementalism as a theoretical framework, the

purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore and describe Title IX

compliance and local policies and practices of educators …

Prosecution As The "Soul Crushing Job:" Complexities Of Campus Sexual Assault Cases, Tammi L. Slovinsky

Theses and Dissertations

On April 4, 2011, the U.S. Department of Education issued a Dear Colleague Letter on campus sexual assault reaffirming the intent of Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits discrimination sex-based under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. In response to growing concern over due process rights for defendants, in September 2017 the guidance was rescinded. Public policy continues to evolve, leading to potentially lasting institutional changes on many college campuses. These developments include the formalization of campus investigations and adjudications, the development of campus coordinating committees and expanded support mechanisms for victims. In Virginia, laws passed …

Employee Financial Wellness Programs: Differences In Reach By Race And Ethnicity, Sophia R. Fox-Dichter, Mathieu R. Despard, Ellen Frank-Miller, Geraldine Germain

Social Policy Institute Research

Employee Financial Wellness Programs (EF-WPs) consist of a wide array of workplace-based services and benefits that aim to enhance em-ployees’ financial well-being, such as in-person financial coaching, online financial management tools, and payroll advances or short-term loans. EFWP provision varies across employers with few organizations offering the same set of services. The recently released Employee Financial Well-ness Programs Project: Comprehensive Report of Findings notes that EFWP utilization rates and employee self-reported benefits also vary widely. This report continues the examination of varia-tion in EFWP trends by breaking down measures of EFWP reach by employee race and ethnicity. We examine three …

The Relevance Of Caste In Contemporary India: Reexamining The Affirmative Action Debate, Shambhavi Sahai, Shambhavi Sahai

CMC Senior Theses

With the changing significance of caste and caste identity, this thesis explores the role of affirmative action or "reservations" in Indian higher education. Specifically, it aims to reopen the debate on the dominance of a "creamy layer" among the OBCs in an increasingly nationalist India. Viewing caste through the lens of ethnic identity, this thesis draws comparisons between the identity of OBCs and Scheduled Castes and Tribes, OBCs of the "Hindi Belt" and OBCs of the South, followed by an analysis of the politicization of caste identity today. The thesis concludes with an evaluation of affirmative action today and possible …