Education Policy Commons^™

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).

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 …

Democratizing The Economy Or Introducing Economic Risk? Gig Work During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Daniel Auguste, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard

Social Policy Institute Research

Though the growth of the gig economy has coincided with increased economic precarity in the new economy, we know less about the extent to which gig work (compared with other self-employment arrangements and non-gig work) may fuel economic insecurity among American households. We fill this gap in the literature drawing on a sample of 4,756 workers from a unique national survey capturing economic hardships among non-standard workers like app-and platform-based gig and other self-employed workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from generalized boosted regression modeling, utilizing machine learning to account for potential endogeneity, demonstrated that gig workers experienced significantly greater …

Science And Engineering State Indicators: Mountain West States, Olivia K. Cheche, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet examines the Science & Engineering State Indicators database from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

Usage And Impact Of Benefits Among Frontline Healthcare Workers, Mathieu Despard

Social Policy Institute Research

We completed a study about frontline healthcare workers – the benefits they get through work and how they are doing financially. This brief provides highlights from our survey to 2,321 workers and interviews with 30 workers.

The Great Student Swap, Aaron Klein

Policy Briefs and Reports

For the last twenty years, nearly every flagship university in the U.S. has been decreasing its share of in-state students and enrolling more students from out of state, a phenomenon I call the “Great Student Swap.” Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), I examine every “flagship” public university by comparing incoming first year students from 2002 through 2018 (those who would have graduated in the spring 2022 assuming the traditional four-year timeframe for completion). I find that the share of out-of-state students has risen by an average of 55 percent since 2002 and that 48 of …

Public Charter And District Public Schools In The Mountain West, 2019-2021, Zachary Billot, Kristian Thymianos, Vanessa Booth, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet explores data from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) report, “Voting With Their Feet: A State-Level Analysis of Public Charter School and District Public School Trends.” Specifically, we examine enrollment trends for district public schools and public charter schools in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years.

Caged Animals: The Reproduction Of Social And Educational Inequalities In Indian Secondary Schools, Vishakha Agarwal

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

There is a continued crisis in public schooling in India’s low-income and socially disadvantaged communities. Schools are supposed to provide a safe and healthy environment conducive to learning that ultimately helps to disrupt the transmission of intergenerational poverty and leads to social and economic mobility among low-income and socially disadvantaged students. In practice, however, schools have served to disproportionately exclude marginalized populations from attaining quality education. Previous research has revealed that less affluent students attend under-resourced schools in buildings with poor infrastructural facilities and fewer or unqualified teachers (India Infrastructure Report, 2012), where they face hidden normative barriers that negatively …

Combatting Rising Healthcare Costs For Healthier Adults, Alejandra Muñoz-Rivera

Social Policy Institute Research

In 2020, healthcare expenditures averaged $12,530 per person, up 9.7% from 2019. In 2018, 19% of U.S. households had medical debt with $2,000 being the median amount owed. Over half of adults between 18 to 64 years of age are estimated to experience some form of medical financial hardship including medical bills or debt, stress about medical bills, and delaying or forgoing treatment specifically due to cost. In a 2022 survey of 140 Medicaid and Marketplace members by researchers from the Social Policy Institute (SPI) and the Centene Center of Health Transformation, one-third of respondents reported having unpaid medical bills. …

Sustainable Development Goals Within Canadian Universities, Kavanagh S.A Lambert

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were created for all countries by the United Nations in 2015 with the aim of transforming the world for the better. Each country is responsible for working towards achieving these SDGs. Within Canada, fifteen research universities known as the U-15 make up the majority of private-sector research and innovation. About 65% of these U-15 institutions have developed their own SDG report/plan, illustrating a high level of initiative and involvement when it comes to the SDGs. Research indicates that as countries continue to improve their efforts towards the SDGs, there will be a need for …

Emergency Care For Youth Who Experience Suicidality And Identify As Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer/Questioning (Lgbtq+): An Interpretive Phenomenology, Theresa Schultz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Suicide is a leading cause of death in children; youth who identify as LGBTQ+ are at an exponentially higher risk of suicide. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of young adults who identify as LGBTQ+ and sought emergency care for suicidality when they were adolescents.

Methods: Heideggerian hermeneutics phenomenology is the research method used in this study. Youth, ages 18-25 years, who identify as LGBTQ+ and sought emergency treatment for suicidality when they were adolescents (13-17 years) were recruited to participate;fifteen youth enrolled. Individuals ranged in age from 20 to 25 years. Participants described …

Changes In State Fiscal Support For Higher Education In The Mountain West, 2016-2021, Vanessa Booth, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet explores higher education budget appropriation changes from fiscal year 2016 (FY16) to fiscal year 2021 (FY21) in the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. This fact sheet reports data original presented in the 2021 Inside Higher Ed report, “States Maintain Higher Ed Funding,” by Emma Whitford.

Jasmine’S Day: An Ai Education Story, Rob Weil

New England Journal of Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Proactive Union And Teacher Strategies For Shaping Technology In Education, Thomas A. Kochan

New England Journal of Public Policy

Artificial intelligence and related technologies will have profound effects on the future of work in all industries and occupations, including education. But technology has no predetermined effects. How it will change work, working conditions, and the performance of organizations depends on who participates in the key decisions that (1) define the problems technology is asked to solve, (2) set the design parameters that shape specific applications, (3) link new technologies and work processes, (4) ensure that the workforce is well-prepared to use advanced technologies, (5) determine who controls the data generated by these tools, and (6) address the needs of …

At The Intersection Of The Future Of Work And Education, David Edwards

New England Journal of Public Policy

“At the Intersection of the Future of Work and Education” explores work in education as well as the contribution of education to the future of work in other sectors. It argues that, in both instances, a strong, well-financed, high-quality system of public education is needed.

The operation of school systems during the pandemic deepened long-standing problems of financing, segregation, inequality, and discrimination inside and between countries. Distance learning was a quantum leap in the use of artificial intelligence and other technology depriving learners of social relationships.

Governments are not implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 4 on education. That …

The Future Of Work In Education: Teachers’ Professional Commitment In A Changing World, Ee Ling Low, Sao-Ee Goh, Jocelyn Shi Yah Tan

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the midst of a changing global societal workplace and landscape, it is natural to hunt for stability. In the educational realm, however, finding stability is about what we can simplify and clarify in order to keep driving a high level of professional commitment by teachers with the goal of producing high teacher-quality outcomes. This article aims to identify the factors that drive teachers’ career-long commitment to their profession. We studied thirty-five primary school teachers across six career stages, from beginning teachers to those close to retirement, to uncover essential conditions, such as a supportive school leadership that helps teachers …

Smart Education Technology: How It Might Transform Teaching (And Learning), Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article highlights the importance of digitalization as a societal trend for education and discusses how artificial intelligence and learning analytics are transforming (or have the potential to transform) educational practices. It showcases the opportunities of smart technologies for education systems and how the work and role of teachers could be affected, before making some forward-looking concluding remarks.

Assessing The Impact Of Intergovernmental Grant Policies In Education - The Case Of Florida, Nga (Angie) Le

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent decades, grant funding from federal and state governments has played an increasing role in school finance. However, prior research shows that education grants are not always effective, and the resources distributed to school districts are often not efficient. Increased federal and state funding does not always improve schools’ effectiveness but instead may trigger greater bureaucracy and a mass-production vision in local education administration.

This research aims to provide a theoretical foundation for and empirical evidence on the impact of intergovernmental aid in education and inform future policy reforms. This study investigates the effects of federal and state grant …

School Related Criminal Acts, Interpersonal Problems, And Classroom Behaviors As A Function Of The Proportion Of Black Students And Black Teachers, Leanne Zaire

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

This study’s purpose was to investigate school-level behavioral outcomes in relation to the proportion of Black teachers and students in U.S. schools. Negative school outcome and academic achievement gaps are well-documented. However, many of these studies utilized small, localized populations; my research used national data and focused on the problem behaviors in school. Drawing from Critical Race Theory, I hypothesized that a greater proportion of Black teachers would reduce school student problems and negative behaviors (e.g., student verbal abuse of teachers, widespread disorder in classrooms). After receiving a restricted-use license, I utilized data from 25,818 schools from the National Teacher …

Experimental Evidence On Consumption, Saving, And Family Formation Responses To Student Debt Forgiveness, Jason Jabarri, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard, Leah Hamilton

Social Policy Institute Research

As policy-makers grapple with whether or not to forgive student debt, for who, and how much, it is important to explore how student debt forgiveness would relate to intended household decisions and behaviors. We conducted a survey experiment that asked participants with student debt to imagine a scenario in which the federal government forgave a certain amount of student debt. We then had these participants report on how this would affect their decisions and behaviors. 1,053 participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions that offered $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, and complete debt forgiveness. Our results indicate that student debt …

Private Choice, Public Impact: How The Choices Of San Francisco Private School Families Impact The Public School System, Julia S. Roehl

Master's Projects and Capstones

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has worked toward increasing diversity in San Francisco schools, but predominately white families are still leaving public schools. Due to the significant number of families opting out of the public school system, the public education resource is depleting as funding relies on a per-pupil model. The issue of modern-day segregation exists because of the disproportionate access white middle to upper-middle-class families have to private education in contrast to those who rely on the public resource. To address this issue, my Capstone Project asks, what are the factors that lead San Francisco families to …

State School Finance In The Mountain West, 2019, Kristian Thymianos, Ally M. Beckwith, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet examines K-12 school finance indicators drawing from an original report by Albert Shanker Institute and Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. These indicators show whether states are funding school districts to national standards. This fact sheet examines state-level data for the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) from the State School Finance Profiles report for the 2018-2019 school year.

Student And Faculty Diversity: University Of Nevada, Las Vegas (Unlv) And University Of Nevada, Reno (Unr), 2012-2020, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet highlights data on the racial and ethnic diversity of students, tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, and non-tenured/tenure-track faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Data are presented for each year from 2012 to 2020. The UNLV Office of Decision Support and representatives at UNR assisted in the compilation of this data.

The Value Of Education: School Policy Decisions During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elika W. Somani

Individually Designed Interdepartmental Major Honors Project

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lacking national U.S. policies, wide variation and conflict over chosen public school policy decisions emerged. What factors and guidelines informed the decision-making process in K-12 public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and who were the key stakeholders? This study examines three school district types – a large city, medium city, and small-town – across Minnesota as case studies to unpack how policy decisions were made during the pandemic. Stakeholder interviews uncovered that the school decision-making process was a) connected to a district's political opinions, b) made by the superintendent and school board, c) primarily influenced by …

2023 Graduate Program Rankings, Unlv & Unr, Olivia K. Cheche, Joshua Padilla, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet highlights the 2023 U.S. News and World Report graduate program rankings for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Rankings are displayed for graduate programs in the following fields: business; education; engineering; fine arts; law; medical; sciences and mathematics; and social sciences and humanities.

Both UNLV and UNR first achieved Carnegie R1 status in 2018 and retained the designation of very high research activity in December 2021. The graduate program rankings explored in this fact sheet help to illuminate efforts toward enhancing graduate education, an important metric to achieving and …

The State Of Mental Health In The Mountain West, Olivia K. Cheche, Kristian Thymianos, Katie M. Gilbertson, Kelliann Beavers, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

This fact sheet explores mental health rankings of Mountain West states from Mental Health America’s (MHA) 2022 report, The State of Mental Health in America. This study offers a snapshot of U.S. mental health based on data across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. MHA is the nation’s leading community based mental health nonprofit, founded in 1909, and “dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and promoting the overall mental health of all.” This report is a companion to MHA’s interactive data available through its website.

2014-2019 National Science Foundation (Nsf) Rankings By Total R&D Expenditures, Katie M. Gilbertson, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet presents National Science Foundation (NSF) funding data for 10 individual research universities in addition to the combined funding received by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) for the years 2014 to 2019.

Charter School Funding Inequities: Rochester, New York, Josh B. Mcgee, Patrick J. Wolf, Larry D. Maloney

School Choice Demonstration Project

Public charter schools are increasingly becoming part of both the broader national conversation about education policy as well as the local urban scene in the United States. The latter is certainly true in Rochester, New York, where charter schools serve more than 18 percent of the students who attend school in the city. Given the important role that charter schools play in educating Rochester’s students, we sought to learn if students who attend the city’s charter schools are funded equitably when compared to students in Rochester City School District (RCSD) schools.

Si Los Demás Se Distancian: Acción Colectiva, Confianza Y Normas Sociales Para El Cuidado En Tiempos De La Covid-19. Análisis Del Primer Año De La Pandemia, María Antonia Chinkousky, Ricardo Pérez, Santiago Silva Jaramillo

Gobernar: The Journal of Latin American Public Policy and Governance

Este artículo revisa la coyuntura del primer año de la pandemia del COVID-19 a la luz de las normas sociales y la prosocialidad. Para esto, nos acercamos sintéticamente a la metodología de bola de nieve para analizar una serie de experiencias e intervenciones de entidades públicas y privadas que alentaban comportamientos prosociales para evitar contagios masivos en la población en 2020, en el momento más inicial de la pandemia. Los resultados de estos estudios se presentan como recomendaciones para los tomadores de decisión y otros interesados en aplicar herramientas similares para crisis de salud pública. El texto finaliza recopilando los …