Education Policy Commons^™

Board Of Trustees Minutes, Oct. 22 2021, Indiana State University Board Of Trustees

Board of Trustees

No abstract provided.

Expanded Child Tax Credit Payments Have Not Reduced Employment, Stephen Roll, Leah Hamilton, Yung Chun

Social Policy Institute Research

Approximately 60 million American children living in 35 million households are now receiving monthly payments from the federal government as part of the temporary Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion. Recently, a debate has emerged over whether or not the expanded CTC will cause parents to leave the workforce. On one side of the debate, a large number of economists have argued that the CTC will not cause a reduction in employment. However, a recent study used a simulation approach to estimate that 2.6% of parents will exit the labor force as a result of the CTC.

The reports below address …

Community Insurgency: Constituency, School Choice, And The Common Good, Andrew Pendola, Bryan Mann, David T. Marshall, Jason Bryant

Democracy & Education

This study explores the ways in which the democratic notion of "the people" may be enacted in the school choice arena. Through an investigation of a charter school movement in a rural and segregated district in the Deep South, we explore themes of the constituent paradox that enabled the community to move beyond individual interests towards an expression of the common good. It is argued that for "the people" to be invoked via the democratic claim, they must identify more deeply than the institutions of their representation and recognize an expanded form of individualism defined through participation over consumption.

Charter School Funding: Dispelling Myths About Emos, Expenditure Patterns, & Nonpublic Dollars, Angela K. Dills, Patrick J. Wolf, Corey A. Deangelis, Jay F. May, Larry D. Maloney, Cassidy Syftestad

School Choice Demonstration Project

Three decades after the first charter school law passed in the United States, myths about these public schools not only persist but continue to fuel strong claims and divisive debates. Commentators point to education management organizations (EMOs), for-profit organizations which manage or operate a network of charter schools, as examples of private entities supposedly profiting off public education.

In this report, we dispel three common myths about charter schools and their funding, spending, and management (see box). We draw upon comprehensive school funding data collected from traditional public schools (TPS) and public charter schools in 18 cities during fiscal year …

Meeting The Moment: New Data On Learning Loss And What We Can Do About It, Emily Eunyoung Cho, Karen Austrian, Nicole Haberland

Adolescents and Young People

The Evidence for Gender and Education Resource (EGER) program, under the Population Council’s Girl Innovation, Research, and Learning (GIRL) Center, hosted a virtual webinar titled “Meeting the Moment: New Data on Learning Loss and What We Can Do About It” in October 2021. This document provides a recap of the webinar, in which panelists shared the significant impact of closed schools on learning levels during the COVID-19 pandemic, striking disparities when we intersect poverty, as well as the crucial need to get children back to school and for evidence-based approaches to support learning, such as aligning teaching to the level …

The Role Of Neighborhood Factors In School Choice Decisions, Sarah Jefferson

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

2020 Arkansas Student Discipline Report, Kaitlin Anderson, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas Education Reports

This report examines student discipline in the Arkansas public schools. Using ten years of de-identified student- and infraction-level data from 2010-11 to 2019-20 provided by the Arkansas Department of Education, our research identifies trends and a number of key student outcomes related to student discipline in the Arkansas public schools. This work builds upon prior editions of this report.1 We assess compliance with recent legislation, passed in 2017, limiting suspensions and expulsions for elementary-aged students. In addition, we continue to report on 2013 legislation banning the use of out-of-school suspensions for truancy. While the data are only limited to the …

The Socioeconomic Impacts Of Covid-19 Study: Survey Methodology Report, Stephen Roll, Sam Bufe, Yung Chun, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and economic shutdowns began in March 2020, households across the United States were faced with an unprecedented crisis that would affect their health, financial security and overall well-being for an unforeseeable amount of time. In order to examine and track the wide-ranging impacts of the pandemic on households, as well as the efficacy of different public and private efforts to mitigate these impacts, the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis (SPI) launched the Socioeconomic Impacts of COVID-19 Survey (SEICS) in the United States just weeks after the pandemic became a national …

Vaccination Options For Medicaid Parents Uncomfortable With Office Visits During Covid Pandemic, Amy Mcqueen, Tess Thompson, Enguday Teshome, Jennifer Staten, Saneel Kulkarni, Thidaporn Tanpattana, Lourdes Balaez, Matthew W. Kreuter

Social Policy Institute Research

Objective: Rates of child vaccinations declined during the COVID pandemic, which increases the risk of outbreaks of preventable diseases among children. Methods: We conducted an online survey of parents of Medicaid beneficiaries age 0-5 years old in Florida USA during January 2021 to assess barriers and strategies to increase adherence to childhood vaccinations.

Results: We surveyed 1,951 parents. Most (91%) respondents reported their child was up-to-date with childhood vaccinations, but fewer (36%) children had received a flu shot. Some (31%) parents had wanted to take their child to see a doctor but decided not to, and 22% were …

Use Of Public Benefits Over The First Year Of Pandemic: Exploring Access, Delays And Outcomes, Sam Bufe, Stephen Roll, Katie Kristensen, Dan Zhao, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

In response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. federal government enacted initiatives designed to help households weather the pandemic’s effects. These initiatives included expansions of existing programs, such as unemployment insurance, as well as new programs like the economic impact payments. In this brief, we investigate the extent to which households relied on an array of public benefit programs over the course of the pandemic, how they used their economic impact payments, and the extent to which the unemployment insurance expansion was effective in insulating recipients from hardship during the pandemic.

We find that, in …

Housing Hardships During Covid-19, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Yung Chun, Stephen Roll, Katie Kristensen, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. households were burdened by the cost of rental and mortgage payments, burdens which disproportionately fell on Black and Hispanic families. Using a 5-wave survey, we examined whether disparities in housing cost burden continued throughout the pandemic and trends in how households fell behind on rent and mortgage payments. We found that more than a third of households experienced housing cost burdens during the pandemic, with a slightly higher percentage of households of color bearing cost burdens than white households. Renters had greater cost burdens than homeowners.

During the pandemic, significantly more Black and …

Employment Changes During Covid-19, Mathieu Despard, Sam Bufe, Stephen Roll, Katie Kristensen

Social Policy Institute Research

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. unemployment peaked at 14.4%. While some workers have returned to payrolls, others have been left behind. This brief examines the nuances of employment changes over the course of the pandemic and the impact of those changes on household financial well-being. Our study finds that the proportion of employees who were laid off peaked in the spring of 2020 and has only recently returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Meanwhile, self-employment rose during the pandemic by 42% between the springs of 2020 and 2021. In households where someone lost a job during the pandemic, rates of financial …

Employment, Financial And Well-Being Effects Of The 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit: Wave 1 Executive Summary, Leah Hamilton, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard, Elaine Maag

Social Policy Institute Research

The 2021 temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) is unprecedented in its reach and is predicted to cut American child poverty by more than half. The expanded CTC provides families with $3,600 for every child in the household under the age of six, and $3,000 for every child between the ages of six and 17. Almost all middle- and low-income families with children are eligible for the CTC. Married parents making less than $150,000 and single parents making less than $112,500 per year will receive the full amount of the credit, which begins to phase out slowly after …

Impact Of Covid-19 On Households With Children: Family Hardships And Policy Insights, Alejandra Muñoz-Rivera, Jason Jabbari, Stephen Roll, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruptions in employment, child care and education. As a result, both parents and children experienced a variety of hardships in their work and education. While these hardships had reverberating effects throughout households, they were not equally distributed across families with children. In this brief, we explore the effects of COVID-19 on families with children, highlighting unaddressed areas of need, as well as potential points of intervention. In this study we find:

• Almost one-quarter (22%) of families experienced job or income loss as a result of child care disruptions, which was especially prevalent in households with …

A Student Conduct Administrator’S Journey To Wellness, Corie Amanda Marie Mccallum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation research chronicles my experiences with emotions and learning as a student conduct administrator throughout the arduous process of investigating, becoming, and transforming by engaging sociocultural theory. Grounded in Authentic Inquiry (Tobin, 2006), this research centers my lived-experience and nuances the role of emotions in student affairs and especially student conduct practices. Throughout this dissertation I address themes surrounding reflexivity (Bourdieu, 1992), emotions (Turner, 2002) (Collins, 2004), and self-care. Each chapter is interpretive and impressionistic and represents my thinking as a researcher and conduct administrator. Throughout the chapters I narrate salient events and experiences in my student conduct practice …

Pandemic Schooling: Lessons In Equity, Advocacy, And Racial Justice, Donna Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

It was my fourth year of teaching at a Brooklyn elementary school when the COVID-19 pandemic forced school buildings, and the entire city, to enter a world of lockdown and quarantine. New York City was an early epicenter of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, and the virus quickly revealed severe racial and socioeconomic disparities across the city. A disproportionate number of cases, serious illnesses, and death has been experienced by low-income Black and Latinx communities. At the same time, 2020 also ushered in a national racial reckoning following the May murder of George Floyd.

In this thesis, I will provide a …

Towards Improving Engagement Of Youth Of Color In Cross-Age Mentoring Programs In High Poverty, High Crime Neighborhoods, Maria V. Wathen, Patrick L.F. Decker, Maryse H. Richards, Katherine Tyson Mccrea, Cynthia Onyeka, Charity N. Weishar, Donnelly Will

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This study examines predictors of attendance in a cross-age youth mentoring program offered in four high-poverty, high-crime communities. Youth in greatest need of after school and summer interventions are those residing in such communities, but programs are scarce. More specific to mentoring programs that do exist, past research has demonstrated the significance of attendance as a predictor of positive outcomes. Two datasets were combined for this study: The Saving Lives, Inspiring Youth (SLIY) mentoring program dataset and a neighborhood database. OLS regression results show that for all participants, traveling from a lower-crime home area to a program in a higher-crime …

The Advantages Of Internationalization In Higher Education, Brenda Rojas

International Programs

All those involved in the Internationalization in Higher Education, such as academics, researchers, and students, benefit from advantages that affect various areas, which allow educational, professional, and social interconnection. Each area focuses on the development of skills that allow training to face an increasingly globalized world.

Student And Teacher Diversity In The Mountain West, Marie A. Falcone, Guadalupe De La Rosa, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

K-12 Education

This fact sheet highlights public K-12 teacher and student diversity in the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. We explore data from Michael Hansen and Diana Quintero’s “Mountain West states face growing teacher diversity gaps” a 2018 Brookings Institution report. Specifically, we explore the teacher and student population in Mountain West states by race, revealing a disproportionate gap between students of color and teachers of color.

“Take My Word For It”: Group Texts And Testimonials Enhance State And Federal Student Aid Applications', Jason Jabbari, Stephen Roll, Sam Bufe, Jessica Mckay

Social Policy Institute Research

"As the cost of college continues to rise, it has become increasingly important for students to apply for financial aid. However, many students are unaware of the benefits of FAFSA. We launched a field experiment with a non-profit organization to explore the impact of text message interventions on FAFSA application rates. 2,236 potential students were randomized into three groups: a control group that focused on reminders for upcoming deadlines, a treatment group that focused on benefits-framed messaging, and a second treatment group that added social proofing and norming. Each group received 8 text messages from late September 2020 to early …