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Proposition 209 banned the use of racial preferences in admissions at public colleges in California. We analyze unique data for all applicants and enrollees within the University of California (UC) system before and after Prop 209. After Prop 209, graduation rates increased by 4.4%. We present evidence that certain institutions are better at graduating more-prepared students while other institutions are better at graduating less-prepared students and that these matching effects are particularly important for the bottom tail of the qualification distribution. We find that Prop 209 led to a more efficient sorting of minority students and the sorting effects explain over 20% of the graduation rate increase. Further, universities appear to have responded to Prop 209 by investing more in their students, explaining between 30-45% of the graduation rate increase. An appendix contains: (1) Table 9: Characteristics of UC Applicants, Admits, and Enrollees by Race, Pre-Prop 209 and Change Post Prop 209; and (2) Table 10: Estimates Using the Baseline Method for Under-Represented Minorities, Whites and Asian Americans.

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) was asked by Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Directors Australia to consider, in a discussion paper for their conference held on the Gold Coast in September 2009, how a "tertiary education" sector impacts on the way people think about research and statistics. While a tertiary education focus would be a forward-looking step, it is important that both vocational education and training (VET) and higher education issues receive due attention. Individuals need to build on the good work done for the VET sector rather than subsume it in any sense. What is needed to make sense of the education, participation and achievement of individual students is an integrated tertiary education statistical system. This would require a common core set of standards. It would be relatively straightforward to populate a tertiary education student database from different collections. This database would then be a resource for policymakers and researchers. An integrated approach is required, not an approach which appends higher education statistics to the VET statistics or vice versa.

As a research and technical assistance organization, CNA Education would be the last to deny the importance of good data and the first to applaud efforts to improve the quality and scope of the data available. Solid data are critical to CNA's mission to further general understanding of the efficacy of specific education reform initiatives and to address the needs of their district-level and state-level customers and constituents for a clearer assessment of their own specific efforts and of the available options for improving their education outcomes. The three papers in this collection ("The State Data Analysis Gap: A Threat to Education Reform" by Arthur Sheekey and Michael Allen; "Getting State Education Data Right: What We Can Learn from Tennessee" by Kyle Southern and Joe Jones; and "The Equitable Distribution of Effective Teachers: Can States Meet the Research Challenges Required for Success?" by Michael Allen) make the strong case, however, that the availability of good data is not all that policymakers and educators need for their decisions. In addition, they need to understand the limitations of their data and how to use and interpret them appropriately. And they must ask--and answer to their satisfaction--a number of conceptual and technical questions that have implications for the validity, interpretation, and very meaning of the data they seek to use.

By definition, youth transitions involve young people moving between school, post-school study and employment. It is a time of flux, as young people try out different school, post-school work and study options. But are those who don't find work immediately likely to make a poor transition? Given that many may well have a spell out of the labour force, everyone needs to understand when this becomes a risk factor. This briefing paper draws on related research and some primary data analysis to consider whether being "at risk" is a permanent or transitory state. It suggests that, rather than counting the numbers of young people who are detached from work, study or other meaningful activities, everyone should focus on those who remain disconnected. It is important to be able to identify who may be most "at risk" of an unsuccessful transition to ensure that targeted and appropriate interventions can be implemented. Young people who accumulate disadvantage through poor literacy and numeracy and who are uninterested in school appear particularly vulnerable. They tend to leave school early and suffer disproportionally in the labour market. If this detachment from work or study continues for an extended period of time, the young person's inability to develop employability skills and their lack of work experience adversely affect their prospects of future employment. This is detrimental not only to the individual but also to the nation's productivity. Therefore, programs which help young people to make smoother and faster transitions into further study or employment are important. (Contains 6 tables, 3 figures and 4 footnotes.)

The OECD Survey of Adult Skills is the jewel in the crown of its Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). This paper argues that the findings and policy lessons from the project to date justify the high hopes which were placed in PIAAC when detailed planning for the project began in 2003. First, it presents a brief recap of PIAAC and its two predecessor international skills surveys. Second, it outlines the main themes which have been investigated to date using data from PIAAC. Third, the main findings and policy lessons drawn from PIAAC are highlighted. Finally, looking forward to the second cycle of PIAAC, for which planning is now underway, the paper suggests some priority areas for improvement to the survey design in order to add to its analytical usefulness and enhance its utility to policy makers.

Learning communities are a popular strategy that community colleges nationwide have embraced in support of developmental students. In a learning community, a cohort of students takes two or more courses linked by integrated themes and assignments that are developed through ongoing faculty collaboration. While the number of learning community programs continues to grow, rigorous studies measuring their effectiveness are limited. To address this need for evidence, the Learning Communities demonstration, launched in 2007, uses random assignment to test models of learning communities at six community colleges: Kingsborough Community College, Queensborough Community College, Hillsborough Community College, Merced College, Houston Community College System, and Community College of Baltimore County. The study is designed to determine: (1) how learning communities can be designed to address the needs of academically underprepared students; (2) the effects of learning communities on student achievement, as measured by test scores, credits earned, and grades; (3) the effects of learning communities on students' persistence in higher education; and (4) what learning communities cost and how these costs compare with the costs of standard college programs for students with low basic skills. Preliminary findings will be available in 2009. This working paper describes the study's design, including a summary of the theoretical and empirical research relevant to learning communities, descriptions of the sites and their learning community models, the random assignment procedures, and plans for data analysis. (Contains 7 tables, 1 figure, and 67 notes.) [This paper was produced by the National Center for Postsecondary Research. It was written with the assistance of Oscar Cerna, Christine Sansone, and Michelle Ware.]

Status quo approaches to teacher evaluation have recently come under increasing criticism. They typically assign most teachers the highest available score, provide minimal feedback for improvement, and have little connection with student achievement growth and the quality of instruction that leads to higher student growth. A more comprehensive approach has been demonstrated for ten years by TAP[TM]: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement. This system includes both classroom observations and student achievement growth measures, provides feedback to teachers for improvement, is aligned to professional development and mentoring support, and provides metrics for performance-based compensation. This paper describes the TAP system, and examines data from a large sample of teachers to assess the distribution of TAP evaluations and their alignment to student achievement growth. We find that TAP evaluations provide differentiated feedback, that classroom observational scores are positively and significantly correlated with student achievement growth, that TAP teachers increase in observed skill levels over time, and that TAP schools show differential retention of effective teachers based on these evaluation scores. Appended are: (1) Components of the TAP Skills, Knowledge, and Responsibilities Performance Standards; and (2) Weighting in the Skills, Knowledge, and Responsibilities Score. (Contains 15 figures, 3 tables and 3 footnotes.) [For "A Teacher Evaluation System That Works. Research Brief," see ED533381.]

Providing remedial (also known as developmental) education is the primary way colleges cope with students who do not have the academic preparation needed to succeed in college-level courses. Remediation is widespread, with nearly one-third of entering freshman taking remedial courses at a cost of at least $1 billion per year. Despite its prevalence, there is uncertainty surrounding its short- and longer-run effects. This paper presents new evidence on this question using longitudinal administrative data from Texas and a regression discontinuity research design. We find little indication that remediation improves academic or labor market outcomes. Additional data are appended. (Contains 32 footnotes, 11 tables, and 5 figures.) [This article has been published as: Martorell, Paco and Isaac McFarlin Jr. 2011. "Help or Hindrance? The Effects of College Remediation on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes," The Review of Economics & Statistics, 93(2): 436-454.]

In 2009, the "East Valley Tribune and the Arizona Republic" alleged that Arizona's individual income tax-credit scholarship program disproportionately serves privileged students from higher-income families over those from lower-income backgrounds. Yet neither paper collected the student-level, scholarship recipient family income data needed to verify their allegation. This analysis does by using family income and related data provided by school tuition organizations (STOs) for 19,990 individual income tax-credit scholarship recipients, representing almost 80 percent (79.4 percent) of all scholarship recipients in 2009. These student-level data show there is no factual basis for claims that the individual income tax-credit scholarship program fails to help poor and lower-income students. This analysis finds that scholarship recipients' median family income was almost $5,000 lower than the U.S. Census Bureau statewide median annual income. It was also almost $5,000 lower than the median incomes in recipients' neighborhoods, as estimated using student addresses and zip codes. More than two-thirds (66.8 percent) of scholarship recipients' family incomes would qualify them for Arizona's means-tested corporate income tax-credit scholarship program, which is limited to $75,467 for a family of four. Finally, a higher proportion of scholarship recipients come from families whose incomes qualify them as poor (at or below $20,050 for a family of four) than the U.S. Census Bureau statewide average, 12.8 percent compared to 10.2 percent. (Contains 2 tables and 19 footnotes.)

This paper explores the ways in which school leaders are turning to student services staff as local experts in data analysis and use to meet the demands of high-stakes accountability. The authors have been collecting data, as part of a 5-year National Science Foundation-funded study, on how school leaders create data-driven systems to improve instruction at their schools. They found that while schools already had significant capacity to design curriculum-level interventions to address the needs of groups of students, leaders in the schools investigated turned to special education practices and professionals to provide the in-house expertise necessary to create a variety of student-level interventions. This paper provides a picture of the increased role that student services staff have had in developing and maintaining program- and student-level support programs. Specifically, it investigates two central issues: (1) the practices of student services staff provide a precedent for student-level intervention design; and (2) student services staff play new roles as data-savvy instructional leaders. (Contains 1 figure and 3 footnotes.) [This paper was originally prepared for the annual convention of the University Council for Educational Administration (San Antonio, Texas, 2006).]

Exploiting a statewide cutoff point on the placement examination used to assign students to remedial courses in Tennessee, this study employs a regression discontinuity research design to provide causal estimates of the effects on student outcomes of recently redesigned remedial courses at three Tennessee colleges. Moreover, using data on student outcomes prior to the course redesigns, the study also tests whether the redesigned remedial programs were more effective in preparing students for success in postsecondary education than the remedial programs they replaced. The findings indicate that, among students on the margins of the cutoff score, the effects of enrollment in developmental mathematics were positive and statistically significant on early student persistence as well as on the number of credits attempted but not completed in the first semester. However, these effects did not persist over time, as the results show no statistically significant differences between groups after two years. Yet the study also finds that students who were exposed to redesigned developmental math courses had more positive outcomes than did their peers in non-redesign institutions during the same period and also when compared with students who were exposed to the previous version of traditional remediation within their institution in prior years. Students appear to have benefited from redesigned courses at two of the three institutions. The results of this analysis provide insight into the extent to which the particular instruction and delivery methods of remedial courses affect subsequent student academic outcomes, thus informing administrators and policymakers as to how best to help underprepared students. Summarizing Course Redesign at Each Campus is appended. (Contains 7 tables, 4 figures and 22 footnotes.)

College students are increasingly combining studying with paid employment, and community college students tend to work even longer hours compared with students at four-year colleges. Yet, there is little evidence on the academic consequences of community college students' term-time employment. Using a rare administrative dataset from Washington State that combines students' quarterly transcript records with earning records from the state Unemployment Insurance system, this study relies on two causal strategies: first, an individual fixed effects strategy that takes advantage of the quarterly nature of the data to control for unobserved and time-invariant differences among students, and second, an instrumental variable--difference-in-differences framework that takes advantage of the fact that there is an exogenous supply of retail jobs during the winter holidays. The study compares academic outcomes in the fall and winter quarters for students who were more likely to work in retail and those less likely to work in retail based on pre-enrollment association with retail jobs. The findings reject the possibility of large negative effects for small increases in employment for community college students. (Contains 6 tables, 3 figures and 5 footnotes.)

The implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) over the coming years will provide an opportunity for K-12 and postsecondary educators to share and use data effectively to support alignment between the sectors and reduce the need for remedial education. This brief describes how these groups can work together to make the most of data and their shared expertise to increase the proportion of students who are college ready. It also provides a framework for collecting data and information on the critical goal of improving college readiness, including data on related outcomes, processes, and inputs. In an upcoming report, the authors will provide recommendations for key data and other information that can be used to support specific goals and strategies being developed by Affinity Network teams. (Contains 9 references and resources and 2 footnotes.)

By probing the micro-level interactions and experiences shaping students' thoughts, behaviors, and decisions during college the authors hope to generate a better picture of how individuals enact the intersection of their own agency with their given social context. Such insights may enable a more accurate and meaningful interpretation of the association between parental education, first-year GPA, and reverse transfer. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the "remain or reverse transfer" decision more closely by focusing on how it occurs among graduates of Chicago Public Schools (CPS). This study reveals the multiple and complex ways in which a sample of low SES four-year college students enact choices and strategies that have an impact whether or not they remain on a four-year trajectory or experience reverse mobility. Findings demonstrate how the nuances of the pre-college goal-setting process have implications not just for access to college but also for students' trajectories through college. The importance of risk-inducing contexts and risk-management strategies emerge prominently, with the role of social capital in negotiating this process gaining central focus. As the authors see from the quantitative findings, CPS students who enroll in 4-year colleges experience reverse transfer at relatively high rates, and this pathway increases their risk of non-completion. Moving beyond the role of parental education, this analysis of qualitative data highlights the pivotal role of advocates in helping students negotiate institutional contexts that induce risk and present serious academic and financial challenges. (Contains 14 endnotes 2 tables.)

Information on the divergence between student numbers and delivery hours for the period 2002 to 2007 is provided in this technical paper. The change in hours from one year to the next is decomposed into three effects, one of which is "hours inflation", whereby nominal hours increase over time for the same unit of competency or module. Here we show that the "hours inflation" explains relatively little of the divergence between students and hours. However, another form of hours creep, whereby new modules have higher average hours than ceased modules, was of some significance at the start of the period in question. A list of tables representing change in hours by state and territory is appended. (Contains 2 footnotes, 7 tables, and 3 figures.) [This work has been produced by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) as a joint initiative of the Australian Government, and state and territory governments, with funding provided through the Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.]

Principals tend to prefer working in schools with higher-achieving students from more advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Principals often use schools with many poor or low-achieving students as stepping stones to what they view as more desirable assignments. District leadership can also exacerbate principal turnover by implementing policies aimed at improving low-performing schools such as rotating school leaders. Using longitudinal data from one large urban school district we find principal turnover is detrimental to school performance. Frequent turnover results in lower teacher retention and lower student achievement gains, which are particularly detrimental to students in high-poverty and failing schools. (Contains 10 tables and 3 footnotes.)

This paper uses administrative data from the University of Texas-Austin to examine whether high school peer networks at college entry influence college achievement, measured by grade point average (GPA) and persistence. For each freshman cohort from 1993 through 2003 we calculate the number and ethnic makeup of college freshmen from each Texas high school, which we use as a proxy for freshmen "peer network." Empirical specifications include high school fixed effects to control for unobservable differences across schools that influence both college enrollment behavior and academic performance. Using an IV/fixed effects strategy that exploits the introduction and expansion of the Longhorn Scholars Program, which targeted low income schools with low college traditions we also evaluate whether "marginal" increases in peer networks influence college achievement. Results show that students with larger peer network upon entering college perform better than their counterparts with smaller networks at the beginning of their freshman year. Average effects of network size on college achievement are small, but a marginal increase in the size of same-race peer networks raises GPA by 0.1 point. We also find some suggestive evidence that minority students with large high school peer networks reap larger academic benefits than their white counterparts. (Contains 7 tables and 9 footnotes.)

There are fierce debates over the best way to prepare teachers. Some argue that easing entry into teaching is necessary to attract strong candidates, while others argue that investing in high quality teacher preparation is the most promising approach. Most agree, however, that we lack a strong research basis for understanding how to prepare teachers. This paper is one of the first to estimate the effects of features of teachers' preparation on teachers' value-added to student test score performance in Math and English Language Arts. Our results indicate variation across preparation programs in the average effectiveness of the teachers they are supplying to New York City schools. In particular, preparation directly linked to practice appears to benefit teachers in their first year. Sample Results for Math with Pathway/Institution Effects and Description of Variables are appended. (Contains 6 footnotes, 9 tables and 4 figures.) [Funding for this report was provided by the City University of New York.]

The recent demand for schools to respond to external accountability measures challenges school leaders to create school instructional systems that use data to guide the practices of teaching and learning. This paper considers how local school leaders build data-driven instructional systems (DDIS) by developing new programs and using existing school functions to create an information flow through a school. The paper considers how leaders work with teachers and students to create DDIS to intentionally and systematically improve student learning. The paper begins by presenting a theoretical and analytical framework for understanding the systems that local school leaders create to develop a DDIS to facilitate an information flow about student achievement in schools. The DDIS is presented as six component functions involving (1) data acquisition, (2) data reflection, (3) program alignment and integration, (4) program design, (5) formative feedback, and (6) test preparation. The second part of the paper reviews data collected in a year-long study of four schools, using the DDIS cycle as a framework for describing how school leaders structure opportunities to engage in data-driven decision making. The data provide rich examples of how schools facilitate and impede the flow of student achievement information, and call into question any simple definition of data-based decision making in schools. The following are appended: (1) DDIS Interview Protocol; and (2) DDIS Coding Scheme. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure, and 2 footnotes.) [This paper was prepared for the Annual meeting of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (Washington, DC, July 2005).]

Over 2000 teachers in the state of Washington received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices in the past two years. The authors link data on these RIF notices to a unique dataset that includes student, teacher, school, and district variables to determine the factors that predict the likelihood of a teacher receiving a RIF notice. They find a teacher's seniority is the greatest predictor, but (all else equal) teachers with a master's degree and teachers credentialed in the "high-needs areas" of math, science, and special education were less likely to receive a RIF notice. Value-added measures of teacher effectiveness can be calculated for a subset of the teachers and these show no relationship between effectiveness and the likelihood of receiving a RIF notice. Finally, simulations suggest that a very different group of teachers would be targeted for layoffs under an effectiveness-based layoff scenario than under the seniority-driven system that exists today. (Contains 3 figures, 7 tables and 68 footnotes.)

This report describes a conversion experiment and subsequent reader survey conducted by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Humanities E-Book (HEB) in late 2009 and early 2010 to assess the viability of using scholarly monographs with handheld e-readers. As sample content, HEB selected six titles from its own online collection, three in a page-image format with existing OCR (optical character recognition)-derived text and three encoded as XML files, and had these converted by an outside vendor with minimal editorial intervention into both MOBI (prc) and ePub files. During its in-house assessment phase, HEB experienced some navigational difficulty with both formats and found that annotation and other interaction with the text was difficult using a number of popular e-readers. HEB also found the XML titles to be of limited functionality in the MOBI format and therefore opted not to further poll readers on this subset. About 88% of the 142 survey participants expressed overall satisfaction with the appearance and functionality of the three remaining handheld samples, although roughly half reported some level of frustration with the search function using either format, and only 26% felt they would have an easy time citing and referencing these editions. Satisfaction with other interactive features, such as adding notes, bookmarking and highlighting, was noticeably higher; however, the "n/a" option was also selected frequently for these categories, and it appears that a large number of participants were unable to perform the tasks in question due to confusing or insufficient instructions from the device manufacturer. As formats evolve, future satisfaction with these features may increase. Irrespective of specific limitations, 75% of participants were interested in potentially downloading additional similar titles for free or if priced below $10. HEB's initial findings in this study indicate that titles formatted for existing handheld devices are not yet adequate for scholarly use in terms of replicating either the benefits of online collections--cross-searchability, archiving, multifarious interactive components--nor certain aspects of print editions that users reported missing, such as being able to mark up and rapidly skim text. A turnaround is underway once a common and more robust format optimized for handheld readers is determined and devices themselves evolve, adding improved display options and better and more intuitive web-access, searching and other interactive use of content. Survey Results is appended. (Contains 30 footnotes.)

Remediation is the most common policy designed to prepare students academically and socially during their early stages of college. But despite its profound importance and its significant costs, there is very little rigorous research analyzing its effectiveness. The goal of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for evaluation of remedial education programs. Based on previous literature, we review a list of ingredients for successful interventions, present a number of approaches to remediation that make use of these ingredients, discuss alternative research designs for systematic evaluations, and enumerate basic data requirements. (Contains 19 footnotes.)

This paper explores the relationship between teacher testing and teacher effectiveness using a unique dataset that links teachers to their individual students. My findings show a positive relationship between some teacher licensure tests and student achievement. But they also suggest that states face significant tradeoffs when they require particular performance levels as a precondition to becoming a teacher: some teachers whom we might wish were not in the teacher workforce based on their contribution toward student achievement are eligible to teach based on their performance on these tests, while other individuals who would be effective teachers are ineligible. (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure and 25 footnotes.)

This report from the Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel, a group of nine researchers convened by the National Charter School Research Project, examines the existing research on student achievement in charter schools and details how future research could be improved. The panel reviewed and rated more than 40 evaluations of charter school performance released between 2000 and 2005. Studies evaluating charter schools nationally or across states were found to be "fair" to "poor." Two key findings are that: (1) no one research method or approach is problem-free; and (2) the results of studies focused on one kind of charter school cannot be generalized to all charter schools. The panel offers guidelines for local, regional, and national studies and recommends that the research community consider the pattern of results from multiple studies instead of relying on a single study for definitive results. This White Paper is the first in a series of reports from the consensus panel, all of which will be concerned with assessing and strengthening the evidence about charter school outcomes. Appended are: (1) List of Charter School Studies Included in Literature Review; and (2) Details on the Literature on Charter Schools. (Contains 6 tables and 3 figures.) [Principal drafters of this report were: Julian Betts and Paul T. Hill.]

The U.S. Department of Education recently held a competition for grants to support states in their efforts to build longitudinal data systems to track and analyze student and school performance. The Value-Added Research Center (VARC) at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, proposed a Tri-State Partnership in collaboration with the states of Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Fourteen states were funded, with the Tri-State Partnership proposal the only multi-state effort to win approval. This paper outlines the initial design and work plan of the partnership. It also presents several of the design concerns related to complex system development for educational improvement. (Contains 2 figures.)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Validity Studies Panel undertook a systematic analysis to consider the domain of validity threats to NAEP and to identify the most urgent research priorities. A framework of six broad categories was developed: (1) the constructs measured within each of NAEP's subject domains; (2) the manner in which these constructs are measured; (3) the representation of the population; (4) the analyses of data; (5) the reporting and use of NAEP results; and (6) the assessment of trends. Panel subcommittees prepared papers laying out the critical validity issues in each area. These papers, which are presented in chapters 2 through 7 of this report, are: (1) "Validity Issues Representing Populations" (Donald H. McLaughlin, Peter Behuniak, and James R. Chromy) (Chapter 4); (2) "Issues and Recommendations on NAEP Data Analysis" (R. Darrell Bock, Albert Beaton, and Gerald DeMauro) (Chapter 5); (3) "Validity and Utility Issues in NAEP Reporting and Data Releases" (Frances B. Stancavage and Ina V. S. Mullins) (Chapter 6); and (4) "Estimating Trends from NAEP Scores: Rationale and Research Directions" (David Grissmer, Albert E. Beaton, and Larry Hedges) (Chapter 7). The panel reviewed these papers and set priorities in each area by a consensus process. Sixteen suggested studies or areas of study were identified. Four stood out as essential, nine others were considered "highly needed," and three were found to be less important. The panel indicated unanimously that studies are essential to evaluate the validity aspects of NAEPs new role under the No Child Left Behind Act. The appendix to chapter 4 is attached. (Contains 6 figures and 26 tables.) (SLD)

This paper addresses three key topics related to making state National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments more efficient: (1) reducing the burden for the states; (2) stabilizing the assessment schedule; and (3) facilitating and promoting the use of state NAEP data. The paper recommends promoting the use of state NAEP data for the continued success of the NAEP program. It suggests that this could involve devoting greater attention to how best to link state assessment and NAEP results, developing more timely and user-friendly reports and working with states and other organizations to address the needs of different NAEP audiences more effectively. The paper also suggests spending proportionately less of the state NAEP resources on data collection and more on disseminating information about the many uses of the program. (Contains 3 tables and 10 references.) (SLD)

Using detailed administrative data for the public K-12 schools of North Carolina, we measure racial segregation in its public schools. With data for the 2005-2006 school year, we update previously published calculations that measure segregation by unevenness in racial enrollment patterns, both between schools and within schools. We find that classroom segregation generally increased between 2000-2001 and 2005-2006, continuing, albeit at a slightly slower rate, the trend of increases we observed over the preceding six years. Segregation increased sharply in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, which introduced a new choice plan in 2002. Over the same period, racial and economic disparities in teacher quality widened in that district. Finally, we compare our basic measure to two alternative measures of segregation. An appendix is included. (Contains 31 footnotes and 11 tables.)

Using evidence from Durham, North Carolina, we examine the impact of school choice programs on racial and class-based segregation across schools. Theoretical considerations suggest that how choice programs affect segregation will depend not only on the family preferences emphasized in the sociology literature but also on the linkages between student composition, school quality, and student achievement emphasized in the economics literature, and on the availability of schools of different types. Reasonable assumptions about how these factors differ for students of different races and socio-economic status suggest that the segregating choices of students from advantaged backgrounds are likely to outweigh any integrating choices by disadvantaged students. The results of our empirical analysis are consistent with these theoretical considerations. Using information on the actual schools students attend and on the schools in their assigned attendance zones, we find that schools in Durham are more segregated by race and class as a result of school choice programs than they would be if all students attended their geographically assigned schools. In addition, we find that the effects of choice on segregation by class are larger than the effects on segregation by race. (Contains 9 tables and 12 endnotes.)

This paper describes several methodological decisions made during a study of linguistic development of French in British classroom learners, highlighting the significance of choosing suitable tools for collecting, transcribing, and analyzing oral interlanguage data and noting the usefulness for interlanguage research of the CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System) procedures, which consists of three integrated components: the Talkbank database, CHAT (Codes for Human Analysis of Transcripts), and CLAN (Computerized Language Analysis). This paper is based on the Linguistic Development in Classroom Learners of French research project, which documents linguistic progression among classroom learners of French in grades 9-11, analyzes the development of morphosyntactic structures in spoken learner French, and evaluates the creative construction process and its interaction with formulaic languages among instructed learners. The paper notes general problems with the transcription and coding of French interlanguage but suggests that experiences to date with using CHILDES is encouraging. Three appendixes include elicitation tasks, CHAT symbols, and examples of preliminary transcription. (Contains 14 references.) (SM)

The Commission has started collecting data for the 2007 University Eligibility Study. This study is the latest in a series that began in 1966 to estimate the percentage of California public high school graduates who meet the admission requirements of the California State University (CSU) and the University of California (UC). California Education Code Section 66903 (q) directs the Commission to conduct periodic eligibility studies. The most recently completed eligibility study was for the high school graduating class of 2003. Eligibility studies are conducted by collecting a sample of transcripts from high schools throughout the State. The transcripts are reviewed by university staff to compare admission requirements with the courses, grades, and test scores of the sampled students. Statewide eligibility rates are estimated from this sample.

From its founding, The After-School Corporation (TASC) has worked to advance two interrelated goals: (1) Increase the availability of after-school opportunities by providing resources and approaches for establishing new projects and expanding existing projects; and (2) Enhance the quality of after-school services by incorporating research-based program components that are associated with student success and program sustainability. These goals have led TASC to engage in the rapid development and scaling up of after-school programming, in itself a major logistical accomplishment, and also the implementation of project monitoring, technical assistance, and professional development, along with the creation of special initiatives to address the relationships and supports that sustain TASC's network of after-school projects. These Supplementary Papers describe the overall goals and mission of TASC, the after-school service approach that it adopted, the resources and partnerships that support TASC, and its efforts to develop an after-school workforce. Appended are: (1) Criteria and Initial Characteristics of Participants, Active Participants, and Nonparticipants; and (2) Details of Data Used in Analysis of Changes in School Attendance. [This report was prepared for The After-School Corporation. For the Summary Report of the TASC Evaluation, see ED491883.]

This occasional paper updates and extends earlier papers in the Monitoring the Future project. It provides a detailed description of the project's design, including sampling design; data collection procedures; measurement content; and questionnaire format. It attempts to include sufficient information for others who wish to evaluate the results, to replicate aspects of the study, or to analyze data that is archived. Although there have been additions to the study design and procedures, the basic study design described in a 1978 paper has remained constant in its fundamental characteristics, which is considered the key condition for its ability to successfully measure change. Following an introduction and overview, this paper presents the scope, purposes, and rationale for the nationwide sampling of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students. In the measures section, an overview is presented of the conceptual framework of the study, the outline of questionnaire content, the questionnaire organization, and the consent and format of the 8th and 10th grade questionnaires. Sampling and data collection procedures are included in the next section, which is followed by the representativeness and validity. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures, and 106 references.) (JDM)

The prominent role of Boolean classes in qualitative data analysis software is viewed by some as an encroachment of logical positivism on qualitative research methodology. The authors articulate an embodiment perspective, in which Boolean classes are viewed as conceptual metaphors for apprehending and manipulating data, concepts, and categories in the same way we perceive and manipulate worldly objects and containers. Drawing on examples from seminal approaches to qualitative methods, they demonstrate how one central aspect of qualitative research practices--the process of coding data--can productively be viewed as collecting and containing concepts and categories in this embodied sense. They discuss the implications of this view for coding and for bridging qualitative and quantitative methods of inquiry. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Systemic efforts to implement data-based decision making at the school and classroom level face several challenges. First, most data available within district information systems are limited to what has been deemed important for the operational needs of schools and the district. Second, educational organizations have little experience integrating complex data into their decision-making processes. Third, although large-scale assessment and accountability data are more generally available for gauging the performance of educational systems, there are major differences between the evidence used for external accountability systems and the data needed for making instructional decisions on a daily basis in the classroom. (Contains 2 figures, 1 table, and 6 notes.) [The research reported in this paper is also sponsored by the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, School of Education, University of Wisconsin--Madison.]

A school locale code defines show a school is situated in a particular location in terms of the size of the community in which it is located and the proximity of that community to urban and metropolitan areas. School locale codes are part of the general information reported by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the Common Core of Data (CCD) Public School Universe file. This paper includes information on the history of locale codes; the definitions of codes and how they have changed since the original codes were developed; the original methodology for assigning school locale codes, metro status codes, and district-level locale codes; and the changes that have taken place in the methodologies. It is intended as a resource for those who use local code statistics from multiple years of the NCES CCD files. Locale codes were first used in the school year 1987-1988 data collection, but their definitions have changed over the years, and will continue to change as the need arises. (SLD)

This paper presents a model for analyzing and drawing inferences from pre- and post-assessment data that are not as clean as might be desired. The model was applied to comparison of freshman and senior scores on the Academic Profile and Short Form at Cardinal Stritch University (Wisconsin). As of 1997-98, 891 pre-tests had been administered to new students and 514 post-tests to completing seniors. However, some seniors students were never post-tested, some students took the test more than once, and some students didn't take the test seriously. This study eliminated scores that were greater or less than two standard deviations from the gross means, then recalculated means and standard deviations. Then separate t-tests were compared: (1) pre- and post-test scores of students who had taken both tests (matched pairs); (2) scores of students who had taken only the pre-test or post-test (independent samples); and (3) comparisons of classic predictors of college success (college entrance exam scores, high school grades). Comparison of matched pairs indicated significant differences favoring the post-tests as did comparison of the independent samples. However, several predictor measures for pre-test takers were higher than for post-test takers, an unexpected finding for which possible interpretations are offered. (DB)

This paper describes the strategies used at the University of Puerto Rico (Humacao) to overcome limitations resulting from a low response rate to their alumni surveys. Evaluation of earlier experiences with alumni studies led to identification of two principles for effective alumni studies: (1) the alumni study has to be a collaborative effort between the faculty in the academic programs and the institutional researchers, and (2) graduates' loyalty is more to their faculty and their programs than the institution as a whole. The revised approach utilized a questionnaire evaluating both the institution and the specific program. It addition to the questionnaire, the approach used focus groups and personal interviews. Findings indicated: increases in response rates from 28 percent to 41 percent for one-year graduates and from 12 percent to 33 percent for three-year graduates; increases in faculty participation from 6 departments (46 percent) to 12 departments (92 percent), and implementation of a new institutional study of employers and graduate schools. (Contains 30 references and 7 tables.) (DB)