Education Policy Commons^™

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Descriptive Report On Participating Schools 2008 – 2009, Brian Kisida, Laura I. Jensen, Patrick J. Wolf

School Choice Demonstration Project

This report is the third in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that will provide descriptive information about the schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This year’s report contains a new section that examines schools from both the public and private sectors that are no longer receiving public funds.

The Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation Of The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Summary Of Third Year Reports, Patrick J. Wolf

School Choice Demonstration Project

The city of Milwaukee is often called a laboratory for experimentation with parental school choice. Milwaukee is home to the first urban school voucher program, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), which has grown over the past 19 years to enroll 19,803 students in 127 different private schools in 2008-09. A total of 59 public charter schools operate within the city’s boundaries, enrolling 17,158 students last year. Even students in the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) system have a variety of magnet, community, open enrollment, and inter-district school choice options available to them, so long as transportation funding holds out. When …

School And Sector Switching In Milwaukee, Joshua M. Cowen, David J. Fleming, John F. Witte, Patrick J. Wolf

School Choice Demonstration Project

In this report we analyze the movement of students to and from the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). We also analyze student mobility between schools within each sector. The analysis rests on two separate sets of data: the administrative records we have collected as part of our separate analysis of academic achievement in MPCP (Witte , Wolf, Cowen, Fleming, & Lucas-McLean, 2010), and the results of an extensive set of surveys collected from parents of private and public school students.

Creating A Comprehensive Profile Of The Academic Competitiveness Grant, Kelsea Klein

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The recent push for more Americans to attend postsecondary institutions has led to the development of numerous and far-reaching government student financial aid programs. These programs have aimed at supplying the whole of the population with financial assistance regardless of color, gender, or age. However, the distribution of the aid has encountered many problems as critics argue that the recipients of the aid are primarily limited to a narrow subgroup of the population. A new program created under the Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 called the Academic Competitiveness Grant is no exception. Preliminary logit analysis of the reception rates …

Horton’S Odyssey: The Politics Of School Finance Reform In Connecticut, Lesley Denardis

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

School finance reform has been one of the most controversial and contentious issues in public policy over the last thirty years. Public schools have served as battlegrounds over fundamental questions of equality, liberty, and access to social and economic opportunities. Since the historic decision rendered by the California Supreme Court in Serrano v. Priest (1971) equated public education with a fundamental right, a wave of legal and legislative reforms swept the nation including the state of Connecticut. Following the lead of California, plaintiffs in the Horton v.Meskill (1977) case argued that the Connecticut’s heavy reliance on the property tax to …

An Analysis Of First Amendment Jurisprudence On The Supreme Court Case Of Locke V. Davey, Alexander John Herzog

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Scholarship programs authored by state legislatures may conflict with a state's constitution. In the case of Locke v. Davey 540 U.S. 807 (2003), Joshua Davey challenged the State of Washington's withdrawal of his Promise Scholarship claiming violation of his First Amendment rights under the United States Constitution.

This study is a historical case study analyzing the Supreme Court jurisprudence regarding legal issues concerning the issuance of state funded scholarships for the purpose of religious studies. A complete legal study was conducted that included a review of all relevant court cases, court filings, legal journals and legal briefs.

A micro legal …

Innovation Education: Problems And Prospects In Governance And Management Of The Vietnamese Higher Education System, Taylor Brooks

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Vietnam is currently in the process of creating and implementing an important series of reforms to their higher education system. Their commitment to the process is encouraging, but the level of institutional autonomy at the college and university level is still low. Higher education institutions are unable to fully make academic and financial decisions without government oversight, an issue that appears to be hindering innovation and development within the sector. Based on the high importance of human resource development, and higher education’s distinct role in that process, these reforms are becoming increasingly important and necessary. Reforms are being created but …

International Comparisons: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Ellen Hazelkorn

Other resources

The presentation addresses the question of why international comparisons, e.g. rankings and benchmarking, have become so important for higher education. It looks at the thinking behind making comparisons, what kind of evidence we need to make valid comparisons and explore the basic questions of indicators, data, whether the process is fit-for-purpose, and the pitfalls in using comparative data.

The Educational Role Of Research Libraries In Higher Education: A White Paper For The Directors Of The Greater Western Library Alliance, Patricia A. Iannuzzi

Library Faculty Research

This white paper provides background about the convergence of disparate undergraduate education movements in higher education that affect GWLA individual institutions, particularly those initiatives related to the reinvention of undergraduate education in research universities. It provides suggestions for how individual GWLA member libraries can take advantage of an unprecedented interested in education reform to assume leadership roles on our campuses, and in doing so, provide greater security for libraries during fiscal uncertainty as they position themselves, their collections, and their services as an integral part of the instructional agenda as well as the research agenda. Finally, it suggests some ways …

Catholic Schools, Urban Neighborhoods, And Education Reform, Margaret F. Brinig, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Notre Dame Law Review

This Article explores the implications of a dramatic shift in the American educational landscape—the rapid disappearance of Catholic schools from urban neighborhoods. Primarily because of their strong track record of educating disadvantaged children, these school closures are a source of significant concern in education policy circles. While we are inclined to agree that Catholic school closures contribute to a broader educational crisis, this Article does not address well-rehearsed debates about educational outcomes. Rather than focusing on the work done inside the schools, we focus on what goes on outside them. Specifically, using three decades of data from the Project on …

Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas De La Esperanza, Miriam V. Mollan Gundersen

Social Sciences

Social inequality and environmental degradation are motivating informed young people into action and connecting impoverished regions of the world with students in more developed nations. This Social Sciences senior project is to analyze an alternative development model designed by a group of Californian university students. The project, named Chimeneas de la Esperanza, is designed to help impoverished Nicaraguan women start a ceramics business. The major hurdle of this mission is to establish a market for the ceramics product. Energy efficient ceramic stoves and smoke ventilating chimneys would benefit the community and avoid an impacted crafts market. The project encompasses ideas …

Algebra For All?, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In Arkansas, students graduate from high school at a relatively high rate – 72% versus the national rate of 69%. However, according to the ACT, only 35% of Arkansas graduates are ready for college-level work (based on Arkansas’ College Readiness Benchmark Scores). Our state's rate of completion from college also ranks below the national average (See Table 3.5 in OEP’s report card here). There is a strong correlation between the successful completion of an algebra course and readiness for college-level work. Because of this, there has been a great deal of interest recently in the question of whether educators in …

2009 Report Card On Arkansas Public Schools, Gary Ritter

Education Report Card

As part of our effort to monitor K-12 education in Arkansas and provide useful information to all those across the state interested in our schools, the OEP is happy to publish our 2009 Report Card on Arkansas Public Schools. The report card provides information on the performance of our students on standardized assessments, the achievement gaps between our students, how our students fare when they leave secondary school, and school and student characteristics.

Head Start: It Works For Indiana Children And Families!, Jennifer Dobbs-Oates, James Elicker, Volker Thomas

Center for Families Publications

This technical report summarizes new and existing data to address the question, “Does Head Start work for Indiana children, families, and communities?” Data sources consulted in this study include the state Head Start Program Information Report, local Indiana Head Start and Early Head Start Programs, existing national studies of Head Start and Early Head Start, and local and national data available on children’s development in early care and education programs for low-income families. This report concludes that Indiana’s Early Head Start and Head Start programs are indeed providing substantial benefits to children, families, and communities. The report summarizes the outcomes …

What Have We Learned About And From Rankings?, Ellen Hazelkorn

Other resources

The presentation discusses the pros and cons of higher education rankings, and examines the impact and influence that rankings are having.

Quality Counts 2010: Arkansas Holds Steady, Nathan C. Jensen, 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 14th annual report - Quality Counts 2010 - was released in January. Four of the six categories (Chance for Success, School Finance, The Teaching Profession, and Standards, Assessment and Accountability) were updated to reflect the most current (2010) data. Arkansas received the highest possible grade (A) in the Standards, Assessments & Accountability category, receiving perfect scores in the subcategories for Standards and School Accountability. Similarly, Arkansas' grade for Transitions and …

Charter School Review In Arkansas And Across The Nation, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

At the most recent State Board of Education meeting, State Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell addressed the need for more monitoring of charter schools to ensure that these schools meet their stated goals, including the types of students they intend to serve and the scope of the schools’ curricula. Additionally, he noted that the current process for reviewing applications for charter schools is inadequate, and acknowledged the need for a more systematic review process. As a result, Dr. Kimbrell reported that the state is planning to create a charter review council that will serve two important functions: reviewing charter applications prior …

Shilpa Sayura Foundation - The Shilpa Sayura E-School, Lien Centre For Social Innovation

Social Space

In a country like Sri Lanka ravaged by decades of civil war, access to educational resources for an ethnically diverse population is scant at best, leading to disproportionate failure rates among high school students. The Shilpa Sayura team proposes to transform 600 existing tele-centres that facilitate e-learning and self-learning of the national curriculum to a new domain of digital knowledge that develops rural education in Sri Lanka.

Mira - Intermediary For Micro-Philanthropy, Lien Centre For Social Innovation

Social Space

Lack of access, or financial means, continue to be the most significant reason for why up to 18 million children in Southeast Asia are not enrolled in schools. Mira’s goal is to make education universally accessible by creating a personalised scholarship fund online that is self-managed and data-driven, enabling a collaborative sponsorship model that links funders to a particular student, with real-time updates from both parties.

Contribution Of Tertiary Education To Human Capital Development, Labour Market And Skills In The State Of Victoria, Australia, Ellen Hazelkorn

Articles

This chapter examines how effectively TAFE Institutes and universities in the State of Victoria contribute to meeting the social and economic needs of the population in terms of opportunities to study and relevance of the qualifications offered. It identifies some key achievements and areas for improvement. The chapter closes with a series of recommendations that include the need for a greater system approach to tertiary education in order to support sustainable regional development and the role that the State of Victoria can play in this strategy.