Education Policy Commons^™

Identifying Naturally-Occurring Direct Assessments Of Social-Emotional Competencies: The Promise And Limitations Of Survey And Assessment Disengagement Metadata, James Soland, Gema Zamarro, Albert Cheng, Colin Hitt

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is gaining increasing attention in education policy and practice due to evidence that related constructs are strongly associated with long-term academic achievement and attainment. However, the work of educators to support SEL is hampered by a lack of available, unbiased measures of related competencies. In this manuscript, we review a recent and growing body of literature suggesting that metadata captured when assessments are administered via computer can provide data on not only test engagement, but also SEL constructs. Implications of this new source of data for practice, policy, and research are discussed.

Arkansas Student Discipline Report, Kaitlin Anderson

Arkansas Education Reports

This report examines student discipline in the Arkansas public schools. Using de-identified student- and infraction-level data from 2007-08 to 2016-17 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. While the data are only limited to what schools report, there are several meaningful findings from this work.

Arkansas Teacher Supply, Leesa M. Forman, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary .W. Ritter

Arkansas Education Reports

There have been widespread reports of an impending teacher shortage crisis in the U.S. for more than 30 years. In the U.S., there are claims of a widespread national shortage while research indicates teacher shortages are specific to certain subjects and schools. Part of the reason for the conflicting accounts is how shortage is identified and what information is used to assess it. In this study, we test whether a uniform teacher shortage exists across the state of Arkansas. We hypothesize that, rather than a universal shortage, teacher shortages are more likely to occur in certain regions and subjects. We …

Arkansas Teacher Supply, Sarah C. Mckenzie

Policy Briefs

This brief examines teacher supply in Arkansas. Using survey data collected in Spring 2017 and data publicly available from the Arkansas Department of Education, we examine how teacher supply varies by district, grade level, and subject across the state. In particular, we examine characteristics associated with the most favorable teaching supply.

Identifying Areas For Change: A Case Study On North Carolina State Public School Performance, Olivia Leeson, Kelly Bean, Jacob Drew

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, we present a framework to identify school-level factors within North Carolina public school administration’s control that have a positive impact on school performance. Public school administrators struggle to improve the academic performance of their schools, as the most influential factors determining overall school performance are outside of their scope of influence. We consider the current circumstances responsible for poor performance in North Carolina public schools and their implications for future academic improvement. Our framework utilizes an extreme gradient boosting model to predict school performance scores using only school-level features that administrators can impact. By varying the inputs, …

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 …

Knappa School District Enrollment Forecast 2018-19 To 2027-28, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Charles Rynerson

School District Enrollment Forecast Reports

This report presents district-wide enrollment forecasts by grade level for the Knappa School District for the 20 year period between 2007-08 and 2027-28. The report also includes the population, housing, social and economic profile Knappa School District 1 as well as the 2000 and 2010 census profile for the school district.

Examining The Meaning Of Course Evaluation, Tyesha Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teaching evaluations significantly influence faculty members’ annual evaluations and progress toward tenure and promotion within academic programs in higher education. Those with consistently strong, positive, teaching evaluations have been deemed effective instructors and often validated with increases in salary, teaching awards, and promotion and tenure. This is especially the case when strong course evaluations are received in addition to documented scholarship and research activities and positively evaluated professional service. However, questions are being raised about the meaningfulness of students' ratings of course instruction. Do these measures effectively assess competence as instructors or do they measure other unknown processes in the …

Portland Public Schools Enrollment Forecasts, 2018-19 To 2032-33: Based On October 2017 Enrollments, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Charles Rynerson, Joshua Ollinger

School District Enrollment Forecast Reports

This report presents the results of a demographic study conducted by the Portland State University Population Research Center (PRC) for Portland Public Schools (PPS). The study includes analysis of population, housing and enrollment trends affecting the District in recent years, estimates of the number of PPS students by housing type, and annual forecasts of enrollment for a 15 year horizon, from 2018‐19 to 2032‐33. Enrollment forecasts were prepared under high, middle, and low scenarios for the District. Forecasts for attendance areas by place of residence and for individual schools are consistent with the middle district‐wide forecast.

The ‘Just City’ Or Just A City? : Evaluating Social Justice And Equity In Planning Education., Wes Grooms

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary evaluations of accredited planning education performance have eschewed the principles and methodologies of formal program evaluation and performance management. This dissertation tests hypotheses that this contributes to the lack of social equity and justice commitment, content, and inquiry on the part of accredited graduate planning degree programs, their clients, and administrators. The organizations, resources, and processes involved in the purveyance of accredited graduate planning education were conceptualized as a singular, evaluable program and illustrated in a series of program logic models. These models revealed sources of the inattentiveness to normative issues that past evaluations have evidenced, and informed assertions …

Participation Patterns In Private School Choice Programs In The U.S.: States, Schools, Students, Yujie Sude

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Private choice programs provide government resources to qualified families to enable them to enroll their children in private schools of their choosing. “Gold standard” experimental studies have found overall mixed impacts of voucher programs, one form of private school choice arrangements, on student academic achievement. Yet, these results face external validity challenges, as both states, schools, and students can choose to participate in private choice programs, generating selection issues.

This dissertation focuses on the decision-making of states, schools, and students in participating in private school choice programs. The first study estimates the effect of state-level social factors on private school …

The Private School Advantage: Evidence From School Vouchers And Educational Leadership, Mohammad Danish Shakeel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School choice is becoming increasingly popular around the globe. Broadly the term ‘school choice’ is used to describe the options available for families to send children to school(s) other than the one they are residentially assigned to. Private school choice interventions known as ‘school vouchers,’ offer public or private funding to enable families to send their children to private school.

Research in 1970s and 80s by James Coleman and his colleagues showed a private school advantage in student achievement and graduation rates, in comparison to traditional public schools. Competing evidence was presented by Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Lubienski in 2013, …

Localized Teacher Supply And Demand In Arkansas: An Exploration Of The Supply And Demand Of Teachers In Arkansas School Districts, Leesa M. Foreman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There have been widespread reports of an impending teacher shortage crisis in the U.S. for more than 30 years. In the U.S., there are claims of a widespread national shortage while research indicates teacher shortages are specific to certain subjects and schools. Part of the reason for the conflicting accounts is how shortage is identified and what information is used to assess it. In this study, I test whether a uniform teacher shortage exists across the state of Arkansas. I hypothesize that, rather than a universal shortage, teacher shortages are more likely to occur in certain regions and subjects. I …

On The Same Page: A Formal Process For Training Multiple Interviewers, Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj

The Qualitative Report

The increased utilization of qualitative methodologies as part of mixed-method health and social science research has highlighted the need for training procedures for every stage of qualitative data collection and analysis. Yet, few group training models exist for collecting reliable, valid qualitative interview data. This article presents a multi-stage, collaborative interview training process for a large team of research assistants. The training program combines insights and techniques used in both structured and semi-structured interviewing. It also includes ongoing instruction and feedback prior to and during data collection in an effort to ensure consistency and reliability. In the article, I describe …

Review Of Demographics And The Demand For Higher Education, By Nathan Grawe (2018), Michael T. Catalano

Numeracy

Nathan D. Grawe. 2018. Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press). 175 pp. ISBN 9781421424132.

Grawe introduces the Higher Education Demand Index (HEDI), a new probabilistic model designed to produce more nuanced forecasts of college attendance in the US than one-dimensional predictions based on the declining number of 18 year-olds. Using HEDI, Grawe confirms that nationwide attendance at both 2-year and 4-year schools is likely to decline over the next decade, but that the nature of this decline will vary by type of institution, geography, race and ethnicity, and parental income and education levels; some …

Evidence, Standards, And School Librarianship: Prevailing Policies, Promising Methods, And Progress On A Research Agenda, Barbara Schultz-Jones, Sue C. Kimmel, Marcia A. Mardis, Faye R. Jones, Shana Pribesh, Laura Pasquini

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Guided by the question, "What are the implications of national educational evidence standards for school librarianship research?," prevailing U.S. evidence-driven educational policies are examined to identify implications for school librarianship research; promising methods to contribute to building this evidence base are explored; and finally, progress on a long-term research agenda designed to enable school librarianship researchers to contribute evidence to educational policy is reviewed. As promising methods are explored, an actionable agenda is proposed that school library researchers can undertake to participate in a causal research environment.

2017 Pulaski County Education Report Card, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Education Report Card

There are many things that contribute to a ‘good’ school, but we believe student academic growth is perhaps the most meaningful measure of school performance or school effectiveness. Many Pulaski County schools had high growth at one or two school levels, and there is evidence of variation in growth rates between schools within the same districts. We recommend district and school leaders examine where their students are not demonstrating high growth, examine high growth schools to see what those schools are doing differently, and consider how they can further support learning for their students.

2017 Northwest Arkansas Education Report Card, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Education Report Card

This report card presents information about these key performance indicators for the districts in Benton and Washington counties. The Growth, Achievement, School Quality, and Overall scores of each 15 traditional districts are compared to the average scores of the regional districts with similar enrollment 5 large districts and 10 small districts. The scores of the 5 public charter schools are compared to the average scores of all schools in the NWA area.

Introduction: A Vision For Transforming Early Childhood Research And Practice For Young Children Of Immigrants And Their Families, Fabienne Doucet, Jennifer Adair

Occasional Paper Series

This special issue of the Occasional Paper Series describes practices and policies that can positively impact the early schooling of children of immigrants in the United States. We consider the intersectionality of young children’s lives and what needs to change in order to ensure that race, class, immigration status, gender, and dis/ability can effectively contribute to children’s experiences at school and in other instructional contexts, rather than prevent them from getting the learning experiences they need and deserve.

The El Dorado Promise: Impacts On Postsecondary Enrollment And Completion, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The El Dorado Promise has offered scholarships to almost 3,000 students since its creation in 2007. In this brief, we examine the impact of the placebased scholarship on postsecondary enrollment and completion for all students and for certain subgroups. Our results indicate that the Promise has significantly increased overall postsecondary enrollment and BA completion.