Education Policy Commons^™

2012 Arkansas Report Card, Gary Ritter

Education Report Card

The OEP is pleased to bring you its 2012 Report Card for Arkansas’ public schools highlighting Arkansas’ education performance and characteristics through the 2011-2012 academic year. This is the 5th year in a row we have produced an Arkansas Report Card. We hope this report is accessible and informative for educators and policymakers in the state. The charts and figures here are a reflection of the progress we have made as a state in the last decade. They also serve as a reminder that we still need improvement and reform to continue that progress.

An Examination Of Summer Bridge Programs For First-Generation College Students, Emily Christine Otewalt

Psychology and Child Development

During the last fifty years, nearly half of all students who entered a two- or four-year university withdrew without obtaining a degree. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnic minority students, and students who were the first in their family to attend college were particularly vulnerable to this attrition. The following senior project examines current research on the backgrounds and attrition rates of first-generation college students, how "Summer Bridge Programs" aim to assist these students, and where shortcoming exist in current "Summer Bridge Program" assessments.

Fifth…Or Forty-Ninth? Examining Educational Rankings In Arkansas, Reed Greenwood, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Media outlets, as well as many leaders across the state, have recently been trumpeting the Natural State’s fifth-place ranking in the latest release of Education Week’s Quality Counts, which assigns letter grades to every state on a menu of education measures, to suggest that Arkansas schools “rank fifth in the country.” On the other hand, the state received a D on the Student Achievement category of Quality Counts and many Arkansans are accustomed to seeing Arkansas ranked at or near the bottom among all states on measures related to education and economic well-being. For example, on measures of college degree …

Bargaining Quality In Part-Time Faculty Working Conditions: Beyond Just-In-Time Employment And Just-At-Will Non-Renewal, Gary Rhoades

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

Two aspects of part-time faculty members’ working conditions that are problematic for educational quality are examined in this article—“just-in-time” employment and “just-at-will” non-renewal. With an eye to enhancing student learning conditions, the article explores feasible strategies that are found in the collective bargaining agreements of units for part-time only bargaining units. Collective bargaining provides a reasonable framework for rethinking, redefining, and renegotiating the working conditions of faculty working in part-time positions to improve student learning outcomes and educational quality.

It's All About The Power, James Castagnera

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Quality Counts 2013, Reed Greenwood, 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. The 17 h annual report - Quality Counts 2013 - was released in January. Overall, Arkansas maintained last year’s ranking of 5 th among the 50 states and earned the highest score of the eight states in the U.S. that received a B- (dropping from a grade of ‘B’ last year). This policy brief examines Arkansas’ rank in each category of the report as well as the quality of the report …

Academic Performance Of Charter Schools In Arkansas: 2011-2012, Reed Greenwood, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The 2013 legislative session is underway, and there are a number of policy changes under consideration. One hotly-debated issue involves whether the state should allow for multiple authorizers for charter schools (currently, only the State Board of Education may authorize charter schools). Moreover, several charter schools will testify before the State Board of Education in spring 2013 seeking charter reauthorization. As the issue of charter schools again takes center stage, we present an extension of our 2012 policy brief focused on charter schools. While our previous brief presented descriptive data on state’s open enrollment charter schools, this policy brief takes …

Gaging The Education Abroad Perception: A Survey Of Personnel At The University Of Wisconsin-Platteville, Jennifer R. Krahn

Capstone Collection

As higher education institutions nationwide are striving to increase the number of U.S. students having international experiences, it is important that international programs professionals are not the only advocates for education abroad on campus. Administration, faculty, and staff buy-in is invaluable as the policy makers and leaders across campus, and their personal experiences, opinions, and endorsements are powerful. The University of Wisconsin system has a system-wide goal for each campus to have 25 percent of their students study abroad, and therefore, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville (UW-Platteville) is looking to administration, faculty, and staff for support in increasing education abroad participation. …

From Toxic Tours To Growing The Grassroots: Tensions In Critical Pedagogy And Community Development, Celina Su, Isabelle Jagninski

Publications and Research

Structural inequalities in American public education are inextricably tied to deep-seated patterns of racial and economic segregation. Children in poor neighborhoods are less likely to have the household resources, neighborhood institutions, or school amenities necessary for a good, challenging education. In response, a growing number of organizations have launched initiatives to simultaneously revitalize neighborhoods and improve public education, emphasizing youth participation as an essential component in their efforts. We draw upon ethnographic data from two such organizations to examine their practice of place-based critical pedagogy in community development. We focus on how they engage marginalized, “hard-to-reach” youth via (1) experiential …

The Growth Of Single-Sex Schools: Federal Policy Meets Local Needs And Interests, Katherine Cumings Mansfield

Educational Leadership Publications

Changes to Title IX allowing the growth of single-sex schools have garnered media attention promoting the benefits of separating boys and girls. Alternately, civil rights groups such as the ACLU continue to oppose any type of school segregation. Within this context, a private philanthropy, the Foundation for the Education of Young Women (FEYW) has established public-private partnerships with six Texas school districts to open all-girls’ public college prep magnet schools with plans to expand. This multi-year ethno-historical case study explores the meaning making of one community in the FEYW network as it attempts to make sense of federal policy at …

Maine's Improving Schools: An Examination Of Distinguishing Features Of A Sample Of Maine's Improving Public Schools, Erika Stump Phd, David Silvernail Phd, Catherine Fallona Phd, Lori Moran Gunn

School Improvement

In 2010, at the request of the Maine state legislature, the Maine Education Policy Research Institute (MEPRI) at the University of Southern Maine (USM) began a multi-year study of two sets of schools in Maine. One set of schools was unique because they were found to be examples of More Efficient Maine schools. The second set were unique because they were examples of Improving schools, schools on their way to becoming more efficient. Following a summary of the findings from the study of some of Maine’s More Efficient schools, this report provides a summary of the findings from the study …

“Bridges To Nowhere”: Rethinking Summer Bridge Programs For Historically Underrepresented Students, Donald Mitchell Jr., Ph.D.

Executives, Administrators, & Staff Publications

While institutions continue to use and develop summer bridge programs (SBPs), the influences of SBPs remain unclear. The purpose of this current note is to highlight existing literature on SBPs for historically underrepresented students and provide recommendations for building and sustaining successful SBPs.

Educating For The Twenty-First Century, Judith A. Ramaley

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

In his first inaugural speech, President Obama declared that "our schools fail too many" and an essential component of laying "a new foundation for growth" will be "to transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. " Concerns about our nation s position in the global education race have led to a focus on college completion. Policymakers and foundations are setting goals for degree completion and are pressing colleges and universities to shorten the degree programs offered, address the barriers to degree attainment, rethink how best to help underprepared students be successful in …

Social And Emotional Learning: An Argument For Religious Pluralism, Debra Mayconich Baron

Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to argue that in order for social and emotional learning (SEL) goals to achieve their intended outcomes for students and society, religious pluralism must be reflected in student instruction. SEL involves the use of evidence-based practices to provide opportunities to develop competencies related to self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making which are intended to enable students to demonstrate morally appropriate actions and ethical decisions, which I am calling "right behavior."

It is my argument that one's understanding of right behavior embodies both implicit and explicit moral beliefs based on one's …

The Role Of At Epistemic Community In Haitian Education Reform Post Earthquake 2010, Joy Okeefe

Master's Theses

This is a study of the role of an epistemic community involved in the policymaking of education reform in Haiti after the devastating earthquake of 2010. It uses Peter M. Haas' (1992) framework as a theoretical lens. According to Haas, epistemic communities are conceptualized as "a network of professionals with recognized expertise and competence in a particular domain and an authoritative claim to policy relevant knowledge within a domain or issue area" (3). The epistemic communities involved in the policymaking of the current education reforms specifically related to privatization in Haiti are identified and analyzed through the content analysis of …

Women's Access To Secondary Education In Colonial And Postcolonial Tanzania And Rwanda, Emlyn Ashley Ricketts

Master's Theses

This paper will examine how the politics of colonialism and independence during the twentieth century, as well as the culture of each country, have created and limited secondary educational opportunities for women in Tanzania and in Rwanda. I will argue that the English and Belgian colonizers' goals of the education systems in colonial Tanganyika and Ruanda-Urundi-how much education they thought was appropriate for women to have and their overarching goals in creating the education systems in the colonies-shaped the place of women within Tanzania and Rwanda today. I will argue that English and Belgian colonizers imposed a western, Christian, patriarchal …

Program Innovation In Higher Education : An Exploratory Study Of The Creation Of New Degree Programs In Chilean Universities, Gonzalo Zapata

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Many researchers have studied differentiation in higher education systems, considering the multiplicity of new programs as one of its relevant features. In Chile, as well as in Latin America, there is ample literature on emerging higher education institutions and their growing differentiation, but very little or almost none devoted to emerging programs and the program dimension of differentiation.

A Study Of The Associations Between Conditions Of Performance And Characteristics Of Performers And New York State Solo Performance Ratings, Elizabeth Curran Vonwurmb

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation undertakes an analysis of 1,044 performance evaluations from New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Spring Festival solo adjudication ratings of student performers from a large suburban school district. It relies on results of evaluations of observed performances, and takes these evaluations as assessments of what the student performers know and are able to do in this field. The analyses undertaken in this study seek to uncover patterns in performance ratings by identified conditions of performance (time of day of performance, level of music performed, and performance medium) and characteristics of performers (gender, race/ethnicity, and grade level). The …

The Family And Its Effects On Intergenerational Educational Attainment In The Bahamas, Marcellus C. Taylor

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This exploratory study examines the individual and family effects on intergenerational educational attainment mobility giving focus to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, a small, newly-independent nation in the Caribbean region.

An Implementation Study Of The Science And Technology Entry Program (Step) In New York State, Susan C. Perkins

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

As global demands for workers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields persist, there are increased opportunities for historically underrepresented African-American and Latino youth to fill STEM career pipelines. African-American and Latino youth have long faced disproportionately high unemployment rates. Joblessness has been complicated by lower high school graduation rates for African-American and Latino youth. Significant federal and state funding has been allocated to address this state of affairs. Research findings on STEM career development programs for historically underrepresented youth can inform public policy and resource allocation.