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We use administrative panel data from seven states covering nearly 3 million students to document and explore variation in "academic mobility," a term we use to describe the extent to which students' ranks in the distribution of academic performance change during their public schooling careers. On average, we show that student ranks are highly persistent during elementary and secondary education--that is, academic mobility is limited in U.S. schools as a whole. Still, there is non-negligible variation in the degree of upward mobility across some student subgroups as well as individual school districts. On average, districts that exhibit the greatest upward academic mobility serve more socioeconomically advantaged populations and have higher value-added to student achievement.

There is empirical evidence of substantial heterogeneity in economic mobility across geographic areas and the efficacy of schools has been suggested as an explanatory factor. Using administrative microdata from seven states covering nearly 3 million students, we explore the potential role of schools in promoting economic mobility by estimating cross-district variation in "academic mobility"--a term we use to describe the extent to which students' ranks in the distribution of academic performance change during their schooling careers. We show that there exists considerable heterogeneity in academic mobility across school districts. However, after aggregating our district-level measures of academic mobility to the commuting-zone level and merging them with geographically matched external estimates of economic mobility, we find little scope for geographic differences in academic mobility to meaningfully account for differences in economic mobility.

In the United States, the prevailing high school mathematics course sequence begins with a year of Algebra I, followed by a year of geometry and a year of Algebra II. Educators and others have raised concerns about the extent to which this sequence, which prioritizes the mastery of algebra, is appropriate for the longer-term education and career goals of students who do not intend to pursue STEM degrees in college. These concerns have impelled educators and policymakers to reexamine the prominence of algebra in high school mathematics curricula and to consider new approaches that provide students with more mathematics course options better aligned with their academic and career goals. In this paper, we explore existing approaches to high school mathematics curricula as well as new developments in the field. To start, we discuss a range of high school mathematics course sequences that are currently offered across the country and look at some of the systemic challenges embedded within the traditional paradigm. Then we explore federal and state changes to the provision of high school mathematics in the early 21st century, which we follow with a look at the influence of postsecondary institutions on high school math curricula. We then introduce short case studies of innovative high school math reforms that are occurring in five states. We conclude the paper by considering the Charles A. Dana Center's new initiative, Launch Years, and how this project works to reimagine high school mathematics and its relationship to postsecondary education and careers.

College students who are parents or caregivers of dependent children make up more than one in five U.S. undergraduates. Colleges need basic information about the experiences and outcomes of the student parents they serve, since these students face distinct challenges, including high rates of economic insecurity and significant time and caregiving demands that can affect their educational outcomes (Institute for Women's Policy Research and Ascend at the Aspen Institute 2019). This briefing paper discusses why data on student parents are critical to increasing equity in college outcomes, and reviews existing and potential new data sources on undergraduate college students with children. It also provides recommendations for improving data collection efforts around parent status, including examples of how these data can be collected by institutions of higher education.

This topic paper details how dual and concurrent enrollment programs can help states overcome workforce readiness and postsecondary access and completion challenges and how governors can strengthen these programs by using their bully pulpit, agenda setting authority and budgetary authority to do so. It concludes with a number of examples of how governors are acting to strengthen equity and access to these programs. It also includes a number of resources for interested policy makers.

Augmented-reality (AR) technology, and its impacts on teaching and learning, have already made their way into elementary, secondary, and higher-education classrooms. The authors discuss why AR matters in the higher-education context, and they describe current examples of AR use that can enhance teaching and learning across multiple fields in higher education, including but not limited to medical education, language learning, and science. They also review AR's pedagogical benefits as well as its challenges and conclude by offering tips for implementing AR in higher education. Although some may be hesitant to adjust their curriculum to accommodate AR, higher-education professionals should at least be aware of how augmented reality can shape teaching and learning, especially as current elementary and secondary students become accustomed to using similar technology in the classroom.

Advanced information, communication, computation and collaboration technologies, known as "cyberinfrastructure," have become essential elements for research, education, and innovation in the 21st century. A major challenge confronting the United States today is how to ensure that all colleges and universities, including those that have not traditionally benefited from leading-edge research infrastructure, can participate seamlessly in national and multinational cyberinfrastructure-enabled efforts. The minority-serving-institution community has unique expertise, knowledge, and resources to share. Western leaders from the fields of science, education and cyberinfrastructure recognize an urgent need for action. Participants in the 2006 "Lariat Summit on Minority Institutions and Cyberinfrastructure in the West" gathered in Bozeman, Montana to develop strategies and recommendations for connecting minority-serving institutions in the West to national advanced cyberinfrastructure. This document is a first step towards developing both the will and the resources to ensure that minority-serving institutions are among the "connected" institutions in the Western states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington. (Contains 2 figures and 11 endnotes.) [Financial support for this white paper was provided by the University of Washington, Internet2, and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop.]

Higher levels of civic and community engagement in higher education are positively associated with students' academic performance and they also build upon citizenship skills such as informed voting. Yet, while these are worthy and important outcomes of higher education, students from disadvantaged backgrounds can have more difficulty navigating civic engagement. Focusing on students at thirteen major public universities in the United States, and utilizing survey data generated by the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium, this study suggest social perspective-taking has a significant positive effect on all students' probability of voting and participating in community service. Students who were asked to identify challenge/solutions to social problems and reflect/act on community issues in the classroom were also more likely to participate in community service. Additionally, Hispanic students and students from lower-income households are significantly less likely to vote and perform community service--findings corroborated by previous research. Females are more likely to vote and participate in community service--findings also corroborated by prior research. Hispanic students and students from low-income backgrounds were more likely to participate in voting and community service if they had increased rates of social perspective-taking. These results suggest that increased opportunities to connect with classmates in the classroom and develop perspective-taking skills (e.g. appreciating the world from someone else's perspective, acknowledging personal differences, interacting with someone with views that are different from your own, and discussing and navigating controversial issues) are potentially quite powerful ways to foster civic engagement among students who traditionally have the lowest civic engagement rates compared to their peers.

Asthma is the leading chronic health condition among children in the United States and a major cause of childhood disability. It also disproportionately affects low-income and racial and ethnic minorities. Although a wide range of interventions have been implemented to improve asthma-related outcomes among socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority children, disparities persist. This paper, which was commissioned by the JPB Foundation and conducted by MDRC in partnership with the National Academy for State Health Policy, standardizes and compares effects from rigorous evaluations across three main types of interventions: those that focus on improving education and self-management, those that focus on addressing remediation of the conditions that trigger asthma in the home environment, and those that focus on improving health care provider practice. While prior reviews have summarized findings for each intervention type, this review systematically compares findings across a range of outcomes and a spectrum of different approaches to addressing childhood asthma, drawing from about 30 independent studies and earlier published reviews. In addition, the paper includes case studies of various local programs and state-level policy initiatives to illuminate current efforts to address childhood asthma in low-income communities and barriers faced in sustaining asthma programs. Key findings include: (1) Providing education on how to manage asthma is fundamental to improving outcomes, but it may not be enough to alleviate disparities in asthma management; (2) Some local programs are clearly bridging informational gaps among low-income families and are helping them maintain a safe home environment for their children with asthma; (3) The health care benefits of interventions that go beyond education are unclear; (4) Barriers to medication management are complex and medication adherence is difficult to influence; and (5) The role of the state, and the Medicaid program in particular, is relevant for the financing and sustainability of asthma programs for low-income children. Although the long-run sustainability of some of the programs highlighted in this report is uncertain, what is clear is that combating the disparities in the prevalence of asthma among different populations will require more than an agreement on standard asthma management practices within the medical community. The following are appended: (1) Methodology for Literature Review; (2) Summaries of Asthma Studies; (3) Detailed Case Studies of Local Asthma Programs; and (4) Detailed State-Based Case Studies. [This working paper was written with Felicia Heider, Carrie Hanlon, and Taylor Kniffin.]

Children's academic and social development before third grade is highly predictive of later success in school and beyond. Research shows that during those early years, the gains children make in language and literacy, mathematics and social skills, and their growth as learners and thinkers are associated with a range of benefits, from academic achievement to economic stability to healthy habits and behaviors. "The Untapped Potential of an Early Childhood Assessment System: A Strategy for Improving Policies and Instruction from Early Childhood through 3rd Grade" outlines how state leaders can reduce or streamline the assessments being used in early learning programs and elementary schools, achieve economies of scale for educator training and leverage existing data systems to yield more powerful data to inform decision-making.

Due to data limitations, very little is known about patterns of teacher cross-state mobility. The issue is important because barriers to cross-state mobility create labor market frictions that could lead both current and prospective teachers to opt out of the teaching profession. For this paper, we match state-level administrative data sets from Oregon and Washington and present evidence on patterns of in-service teacher mobility between these two states. We find levels of cross-state mobility that are drastically lower than levels of within-state mobility, even when accounting for proximity to the border. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that there are significant penalties to cross-state mobility that may be attributable to state-specific licensure regulations, seniority rules and pension structures.

Given diminished governmental support, competition from private counterparts, and public demands for access to services, public universities need to respond in an effective manner to take advantage of opportunities and meet the challenges of today's highly competitive environment. A critical factor in meeting these challenges is the manner in which these institutions are governed. Today's governance structures must enhance institutions' ability to generate resources from multiple sources--tuition and fees, gifts from donors, governmental support, and partnerships with the private sector. To achieve this, authority must be vested at a level where institutions can respond to challenges and opportunities in a timely and nimble fashion. The history of governance of public higher education is characterized by a wide range of models--a single governing board responsible for a single institution, a board overseeing a university with branch campuses, university systems with a single governing board for multiple universities. Changes in governance have occurred in response to difficult economic times, like the Great Depression, or the need to meet increased student demand including the surge in enrollment in the 1960s. The challenges facing today's public universities involve not only finances but also the need to use technology to respond to student demand for instructional services and to partner with both government and the private sector. This paper proposes a governance structure for public higher education systems that reinforces the strengths of traditional models while creating opportunities to streamline governance responsibilities in order to strengthen decision making. Contains a bibliography.

In 2012, five foundations launched the Credit When Its Due (CWID) initiative that was "designed to encourage partnerships of community colleges and universities to significantly expand programs that award associate degrees to transfer students when the student completes the requirements for the associate degree while pursuing a bachelor's degree" (Lumina Foundation, 2012, n.p.), also known as "reverse transfer." Initially, 12 states (Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon) were funded to develop and implement these reverse transfer programs and policies, and the Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was chosen as the research partner. In late 2013, three states (Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas) were added to bring the total number of states to 15. At least six additional states have legislation, pending legislation, or statewide initiatives related to reverse transfer. This thought paper describes changes that are occurring at the state, system, and institution levels with implementation of reverse transfer in the 12 original states. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected from the CWID Implementation Study, the authors describe efforts related to the optimization of reverse transfer in these 12 states. The authors define optimization as policy and program change at any level--state, system, or institution--that yields the largest number of students who are eligible for and able to benefit from reverse transfer. The initial results suggest that some states are piloting reverse transfer with a limited set of public community college and university partnerships, and others are striving for system-level reforms that eventually may impact all forms of transfer. Understanding what optimization means and how it works is possible because of this variation in implementation approaches among states, and this thought paper explores how states are implementing and optimizing reverse transfer.

The education system of the United States is not adequately preparing a large proportion of its students for college, career-training, and, ultimately, jobs that provide enough income to support a middle class standard of living. Because the education system has failed to attain hoped-for outcomes, some states are investigating new systems, including competency-based education (CBE). A model based on CBE starts by assessing what a student knows and then allows that student to advance at a pace that reflects his or her knowledge and skills. In the process, CBE encourages student success by providing targeted learning support, thereby creating a more personalized educational experience. Once in higher education or job training, CBE allows older students (traditional-age college students or adult learners) to learn on their own time at their own pace. As competency-based pilot projects are developed in kindergarten to high school classrooms and schools (K-12) and higher education institutions, policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels are discussing options about how to support and expand CBE in both K-12 and higher education, as well as strengthen the bridge between the two systems. CBE has the potential to improve the education system of the United States by allowing more students to receive the support they need when they need it to learn effectively and master the desired content and skills, and governors are in a position to bring these efforts together and explore the transition from an education system that holds time constant and varies what students learn to a CBE system that varies time but holds content mastery constant. The promise of such a system is that it can adjust the methods of instruction and assistance to provide deeper, more personalized learning and help ensure that all students meet or exceed the high expectations of rigorous and relevant standards.

Bolstered by the recommendations of the 1998 Boyer Report, US federal agencies have put significant resources into promoting opportunities for undergraduates to engage in research. American universities and colleges have been creating support programs and curricular opportunities intended to create a "culture of undergraduate research." Yet our knowledge about the commonality of undergraduate research engagement--how it integrates into the educational experience, and its benefits or lack thereof--is still very limited. Universities exude the ideal of a pivotal link of teaching and research. We have assumed that personal interactions between active scholars and undergraduates--via traditional curriculum, research courses, working in a lab or doing fieldwork--have positive influences on students' maturation and their overall academic and social experience. The following exploratory study looks at data generated by the 2010 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) undergraduate survey, an online census administered that year at fifteen major research-intensive universities. In this case study of mostly AAU campuses, we find that while some 83 percent of upper division students (juniors and seniors) students experience one or more courses with a significant research requirement like a research paper or project, many lower and upper division students do not--a disappointing finding that needs to be addressed by these campuses. At the same time, undergraduate research engagement outside of the traditional classroom is a relatively common experience. Among those students we find that research engagement leads to self-reported learning gains across many areas, but especially in the areas of field knowledge, how to present and communicate knowledge, research skills, higher levels of satisfaction, better use of time, and higher levels of non-quantitative skills. Yet not all research activities are created equally. Participating in student research and independent studies contribute much more to the learning gains across all dimensions than merely assisting faculty in research. Among the two research activities, participating in student research course is more effective than independent studies in enhancing student learning. Among the three activities involving assisting faculty research, assisting faculty research as a volunteer without credit tends to be connected to higher level of gains than for credit and for pay. Taken together, it appears that research activities that involve active learning contribute more to student learning. We offer a number of recommendations to SERU campuses, including: 1. We encourage member campuses to explore what are the causes for some students not engaging in a research paper or project and seek a path to have all students have this form of research engagement; 2. Use the SERU database to provide regular reports on undergraduate research engagement, and include those reports in Academic Program/Department reviews; 3. Expand existing efforts so that most, if not all, undergraduates have the opportunity for two or more non-classroom forms of research engagement, perhaps depending on the field of the major and discipline. [The 1998 Boyer Commission Report--"Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Research Universities" is available in ERIC at ED424840.]

Concerned about the persistently high dropout rates from big-city secondary schools, education leaders are trying a new approach to increasing the graduation rate--multiple pathways to graduation. Multiple pathways initiatives are relatively new and far from proven. Even the most advanced examples face significant issues, i.e., the need to demonstrate that students who graduate via multiple pathways are as well prepared as graduates from regular high schools. However, multiple pathways initiatives are clearly a significant new development, using analysis of student data to provide much better targeted remedies to students' individual problems than were possible in earlier dropout prevention programs. This report is based on interviews with district and foundation leaders and scholars who were among the originators of the multiple pathways idea. This report provides snapshots of different approaches to multiple pathways evident in New York, Portland, Oregon, other Eastern and Midwestern cities, and a California multi-district collaborative. This report distinguishes three different approaches to providing multiple pathways to graduation: (1) Targeted Population approach; (2) District-Wide approach; and (3) Linked Learning approach. This report describes these approaches in detail, provides examples of each, and analyzes what district leaders must do if they want to implement one or another of the approaches. The report ends with an analysis of how well the different multiple pathways approaches are likely to work in districts with particular characteristics. Appendices include: (1) Interview Questions; (2) Interviewees; (3) Graduation Rate Measurements; and (4) Suggested Effectiveness Dashboard. (Contains 1 figure and 23 footnotes.) [This paper was written with Paul Hill.]

At open-access two-year public colleges, the goal of the traditional assessment and placement process is to match incoming students to the developmental or college-level courses for which they have adequate preparation; the process presumably increases underprepared students' chances of short- and long-term success in college while maintaining the academic quality and rigor of college-level courses. However, the traditional process may be limited in its ability to achieve these aims due to poor course placement accuracy and inconsistent standards of college readiness. To understand current approaches that seek to improve the process, we conducted a scan of assessment and placement policies and practices at open-access two-year colleges in Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. We describe the variety of approaches that systems and colleges employed to ameliorate poor course placement accuracy and inconsistent standards associated with the traditional process. Taking a broad view of the extent of these approaches, we find that most colleges we studied adopted a "measured" approach that addressed a single limitation without attending to other limitations that contribute to the same overall problem of poor course placement accuracy or inconsistent standards. Much less common were "comprehensive" approaches that attended to multiple limitations of the process; these approaches were likely to result from changes to developmental education as a whole. Drawing from the study's findings, we also discuss how colleges can overcome barriers to reform in order to implement approaches that hold promise for improved course placement accuracy, more consistent standards of college readiness, and, potentially, greater long-term academic success of community college students. Data Collection Process is appended. (Contains 3 tables and 3 footnotes.)

The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast two types of scholarly article designs, quantitative and qualitative, as to how two research designs can be similar and different, and how the authors conduct their research and present their results. When researching and analyzing two scholarly articles of different design types, it is imperative to understand how vocabulary describes research, how research can produce varying data, how their results can be analyzed differently. References included two scholarly articles, one qualitative and one quantitative, and six secondary sources. A review of the two articles using research appropriate vocabulary would provide a more in-depth explanation of the research designs. Analysis revealed that even though both articles shared the same research design, various analytical techniques can produce different perspectives of the results.

The business models under which most public universities in the U.S. operate have become unsustainable. They were put in place when state economies were stronger and there were fewer programs making competing claims on state funds. The current Great Recession has made things worse, but the unsustainability of current business models derives from longer-term trends that will prevent state investment in higher education from rebounding to prior levels. States and universities are making both incremental and structural changes in response. Incremental changes work within existing financial and governance parameters to effect cost savings and/or to extend services; they stretch the use of existing or shrinking resources. Structural reforms change financial and/or governance parameters to create different incentives, which focus on performance, outcomes, and stabilizing capacity. A number of these new models are summarized including: "charter" and "public authority" models, the Virginia tiered system model, the Oregon public endowment model, and the UK income-contingent model. Current conditions create both a challenge and an opportunity for statewide higher education systems to re-define their missions and priorities to sustain their public universities for the future. Whether changes are made by drift or by design will determine how well public universities can contribute to the growth of the country in future decades. (Contains 16 endnotes.)

This study of social capital employs data from the Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning (LSAL), funded by the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) and conducted at Portland State University to increase understanding of the learning process of adults with limited formal education. It provides longitudinal data on how people continue learning in multiple contexts--through formal adult education programs and in their daily lives. This paper is presented in two sections. The first is a theoretical exploration of the intersections of critical literacy, adult learning, and social capital theories. The intent of this discussion is to introduce key concepts from multiple disciplines and develop a synthetic model of social capital influences on lifelong learning (SCILL) in which adults construct their social environment and the discourses that influence their learning strategies. The second section empirically tests a piece of the SCILL Model related to the structural and discursive dimensions of social capital, using data from the first wave of the LSAL. Multiple measures of social capital are detailed. The author argues that in addition to the structural dimension of social capital, local discourse generated through interaction is an interpretive dimension of social capital. The discussion ties the empirical and theoretical elements, offering implications for the study of adult education participation in adult education for research on social capital. Appendices include: (1) Longitudinal Study of Adult Literacy Study Design; (2) Instrument Items from LSAL Wave 1; (3) Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Lifelong Learning; (4) Tables of Descriptive Statistics and Univariate Analyses of Indicators; (5) Items Parameters in Final Models; and (6) Model Calibration. (Contains 18 tables, 3 figures, and 6 footnotes.)

The Oregon Quality Education Model (QEM) was developed by the state to identify the fundamental requirements and costs for a quality education that meets Oregon's academic standards. It will determine the funding of Oregon schools. Among the assumptions upon which the QEM is built were that elementary school enrollment is 340 students, middle school enrollment is 500, high school enrollment is 1,000, and schools are close to an urbanized area. In this white paper, the QEM is applied to schools with characteristics significantly different from those assumptions. Data are presented showing how much more education costs in such schools and where those costs are centered. Findings are used to generate recommendations for policymakers on how to assure equity of services for small, rural schools. A review of the QEM funding scheme and the formula that weights the student count to offset additional costs for small schools yields the following recommendations: "small" must be redefined, a middle school element must be created, centralized services must be reviewed for districts with low enrollment, weighting must be modified to reflect QEM cost elements, and funding levels must be aligned with Ballot Measure 1. In addition, some protection is recommended to prevent spending of education dollars on student transportation in sparsely populated school districts. A separate revenue stream may enable remote school districts to access infrastructure commonly available in urban areas. (TD)

While the majority of adults who take the General Educational Development (GED) test do so in order to continue their education, few go on to enter postsecondary education. Yet, these same adults stand to make substantial economic and personal gains when they use their adult secondary credential to move from the ranks of high school dropout to postsecondary graduate, with the possibility of going from low-wage jobs to careers with a livable wage and benefits. Unlike transition services for high school graduates, which are well-established, the transformation of adult basic education (ABE) programs to include transition services for adults is an emerging area of concern for the field of adult education. Identifying adult education models that help adult learners avoid cycles of remediation at the beginning of their college careers is more likely to produce students who can persist and obtain a postsecondary education credential. In the first five years of adult transition work done by staff at the New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC) at World Education, Inc., the team noticed distinct models emerging in the field. To capture and categorize these models, NELRC surveyed adult education centers with transition components from around the United States, guided by the question: Do ABE-to-college transition programs fall into discrete models and, if so, what are the key features of these models? Through the development of program snapshots and four state profiles, the team discovered commonalities, allowing for an extension of an earlier typology of adult transition programs now to include five models: (1) Advising; (2) GED-Plus; (3) ESOL; (4) Career Pathways; and (5) College Preparatory. In addition, analysis of the aggregated data produced a series of themes and recommendations that other states contemplating adult transition services might find helpful. Appended are: (1) Survey Questions on Emerging Transition Models; (2) Survey Questions for State-level Interviews; (3) Programs Surveyed by Model; and (4) Contact Information. (Contains 7 tables and 1 figure.)

This analysis addresses the role of car usage in employment outcomes such as employment status, average weekly wages, and weeks worked per year. It postulates that car ownership is an important employment tool for adults of low educational attainment in Portland, even in the context of other factors such as social networks/resources (social capital) and literacy skills (human capital). This research used data from the Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning to examine the role of car usage in employment outcomes. The results indicate a strong relationship between car ownership and employment status, average weekly wage, and weeks worked per year. Additional analysis shows that this relationship remains strong even when other factors, such as education level, literacy proficiency, and social networks are accounted for in the model. Interestingly, the relationship varied by gender. Car usage generally was more influential in the employment outcomes of men than of women. These results show that car usage is important for non-high school graduates in Portland, and that while literacy proficiency is important as well, its impact is separate from car ownership. This work seems to suggest some directions for programs geared toward helping individuals with low educational attainment find and maintain employment. The answer may not necessarily lie solely with car ownership assistance; indeed, as suggested by this research, a combination of literacy proficiency training and flexible transportation alternatives would likely have the greatest impact. (Contains 9 tables, 7 footnotes, and 1 figure.)

This study examined the state of Oregon's efforts at administrative reform in public higher education. The early stages of implementation of the Higher Education Administrative Efficiency Act initiated by Oregon during the 1995 session were analyzed. Four factors were found to be primarily responsible for the need to reform public higher education in Oregon: (1) the presence of financial, social, and political factors; (2) widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo; (3) supportive internal leadership; and (4) timing. The study reinforced the proposition that professional development is an essential part of the successful implementation of public policy. In the early stages of implementing the Act, there was a wide disparity between how successful mid- and upper-level administrators perceived implementation to be. Street-level administrators viewed their new responsibilities under the Act as detracting from human efficiencies, while upper-level administrators viewed increased autonomy as a positive contributor to human efficiency. The study concluded that areas which affect the development and implementation of large-scale administrative change efforts include communication within the organization, access to staff development activities, and the use of available technologies to ease difficulties associated with implementing administrative reform. (Contains 18 references.) (PRW)

This paper addresses the concerns of physical educators who must implement coeducational programs in secondary school physical education. Title IX regulations which relate directly to physical education are presented as well as the Oregon Administrative Rules. The paper covers eight concepts of federal and state regulations that have direct impact on physical education. These concepts are: (1) locker room supervision; (2) facilities and equipment; (3) scheduling; (4) assessing skills; (5) contact sports; (6) grouping by ability; (7) leadership and staffing; and (8) disproportion in classes. For each concept, an interpretation of the law and the law's effect is presented, and recommendations are suggested for implementation. (JD)

The Evaluation of Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) systems was designed to provide the U.S. Department of Labor information on how states are designing, implementing, and operating their worker profiling and reemployment services systems for dislocated workers and to compare the effectiveness of different state approaches to operating WPRS systems in accomplishing the goals of the WPRS initiatives. Phase I of this evaluation examined how Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Oregon, the prototype states, and Maryland, the test state, designed and implemented their WPRS systems. Data were collected through site visits, review of profiling proposals and activity reports submitted by the states, and a consumer satisfaction survey of a sample of profiled and referred claimants in the states. The study found that most of the states used profiling models to identify which claimants were selected for and referred to services. All states initially screened out certain persons, such as those who were expected to be recalled by their employers. The states used the initial unemployment service claim as the main source of data for profiling. Profiling models included as a dependent variable whether a claimant exhausted benefits and explanatory variables such as definitions of declining industries. Special services were provided to the profiled clients, and clients were generally pleased with the way they were treated and that they were encouraged to find suitable jobs. The study recommended steps to improve the implementation of WPRS systems, including early intervention, improved services, more focus on customer satisfaction, automated feedback systems, and sanctions. (The report includes 25 tables of data developed during the study. Four appendixes provide the following: (1) descriptive profiles of the state programs; (2) the customer satisfaction survey; (3) analysis of non-response to the customer satisfaction survey; and (4) a state implementation database. Contains 15 references.) (KC)

Research shows that having a highly educated workforce is critical to states and territories' economic competitiveness and to the well-being of their citizens. A growing number of state policymakers are concerned that the nation as a whole and their states are falling behind in the race to accumulate the educational capital needed to ensure that their states will be world-class, not second class. While everyone is talking about the critical need to develop a more competitive workforce, relatively few states have taken major steps to actually move the agenda forward. More specifically, few states have publicly identified their goals for increasing college completion. This paper presents strategies that governors can adopt to increase their states' educational attainment.

A quality education that promotes learning among all students is a prerequisite for an economy that increases opportunity, prosperity, and growth. School accountability policies, in which school performance is evaluated based on identified metrics, have developed over the past few decades as a strategy central to assessing and achieving progress toward this goal. The recent federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), requires states to add at least one measure of "school quality or student success" to its statewide accountability system. When students are absent from school, regardless of reason, they are not learning what is being taught--resulting in lower performance on coursework, course exams, and standardized tests and lower rates of high school graduation. Based on lessons learned from the No Child Left Behind Act and analyses based on the statutory and draft regulatory requirements under ESSA, we propose that states adopt chronic absenteeism as their measure of school quality or student success. Figures are appended and a Technical Appendix is included. A list of Hamilton Project Papers on Education is also included.

Perceptions and values of Oregon professional foresters on components of forestry education were evaluated. Three objectives guided the study: (1) the importance foresters place on incorporating forestry education in school curriculum; (2) foresters' opinions about agency involvement in schools; and (3) the value foresters place on forestry instruction in secondary school curriculum. A survey instrument was developed to collect information relative to the three objectives on: forest education perceptions, forest education solutions, high school instructional units, and demographic information. The study population was composed of 600 full members of the Oregon Society of American Foresters; 400 usable responses were analyzed. Five major findings pertained to study objectives: (1) forestry education should be infused into school curricula; (2) there was no adequate forestry education on environmental issues; (3) foresters should promote forestry education; (4) the timber industry's involvement in forestry education is poor; and (5) priority should be given in addressing forest ecology/forest management. (Twenty references and three appendices are included: the survey instrument, respondent demographics, and findings tables.) (NLA)

Afterschool and competency-based learning are increasingly emerging as student-centered, supportive learning models to prepare students for college and career. This white paper explores the intersection and relationship between these two fields, recommends ideal policy environments for implementing successful programs, provides real-world examples, and shines a spotlight on emerging trends for the future.

Pension legacy costs can restrict the amount of resources available for current public education, potentially making it more difficult to attract and retain high-quality teachers. Oregon provides a useful case study in pension legacy costs because many school districts in the state are now reallocating General Fund expenditures to cover sizeable past pension promises. In this "Issue Brief," we describe how Oregon's past pension promises, compared with nearby Washington's, are affecting the level of resources available to compensate new teachers. We then assess potential impacts by examining how new teacher turnover differs in districts along the Oregon-Washington border and within Oregon across school districts. We find early career quit rates in school districts on the Oregon side of the Oregon-Washington border have exceeded those on the Washington side in recent years, and overall teacher experience on the Oregon side has fallen below that on the Washington side. Further, using district-level variation within Oregon, we find early career quit propensities are positively associated with the percentage of General Fund revenues allocated to Oregon's Public Employees Retirement System expenditures. These findings are consistent with the notion that Oregon's pension legacy costs are negatively impacting teacher retention.

Oregon's Tier One Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) covered members prior to January 1, 1996. This "Issue Brief" documents the generosity of the money match provision under Oregon's Tier One plan relative to the Tier One defined-benefit formula, and relative to other plans in Oregon and Washington and to representative plans nationally. We then examine the extent to which Oregon's pension system impacted its K12 workforce, as greater pension generosity could incentivize longer tenures. In the case of Oregon's money match provision, however, the true magnitude of its generosity was largely unknown to teachers until just prior to retirement. As such, any economic incentives to promote longer tenure among midcareer teachers may have been muted, while the plan's generosity, once apparent just prior to retirement, created strong wealth effects that may have enabled earlier K12 exits. We find evidence for both of these outcomes. Midcareer quit rates in Oregon were unremarkable based on an analysis of teacher work histories in Oregon from 2000 to 2013. Further, based on an analysis of 8,621 teachers in Oregon who were aged 50 and older in 2000, our findings suggest that the generosity of Oregon's Tier One money match encouraged earlier departures from the K12 workforce, with teachers leaving, on average, one year earlier than what would have been expected under Oregon's defined-benefit plan formula. These findings suggest that pension generosity alone does not incentivize longer tenure--even in the extreme case of Oregon--as the true generosity of a plan must be known to employees throughout their careers to impact midcareer work decisions.

Barriers to the cross-state mobility of the teacher workforce can have undesirable effects on the teacher workforce and student outcomes. While a large literature addresses issues related to within-state mobility, very little is known about patterns of cross-state mobility. This paper addresses that research gap. We describe features of Oregon's and Washington's teacher labor markets that impose barriers to mobility and use state administrative data sets to identify teachers who have crossed the state border. Large disparities between levels of within-state and cross-state mobility are evidence of significant barriers to mobility between Oregon and Washington. In fact, teachers are over four times more likely to undertake a "within-state" move of 250 or more miles than they are to undertake a cross-state move of any distance. Even teachers employed in a district on the state border are at least as likely to move 225 or more miles within their state as they are to move across the border. Observed patterns of cross-state mobility are consistent with some of the variation in costs imposed by licensure procedures, seniority rules, and pension structures. In particular, less experienced teachers are significantly more mobile. However, we observe a similar pattern in regard to within-state mobility, suggesting that fewer experienced teachers cross state borders because they are less mobile in general, and not necessarily because they face higher costs to cross-state mobility in particular. More nuanced analyses is required to better understand the mechanisms driving low rates of cross-state mobility. Appendices provide a supplemental figure and a discussion on pension wealth in Oregon and Washington.

Barriers to the cross-state mobility of the teacher workforce can have undesirable effects on the teacher workforce and student outcomes. While a large literature addresses issues related to within-state mobility, very little is known about patterns of cross-state mobility. This paper addresses that research gap. We describe features of Oregon's and Washington's teacher labor markets that impose barriers to mobility and use state administrative data sets to identify teachers who have crossed the state border. Large disparities between levels of within-state and cross-state mobility are evidence of significant barriers to mobility between Oregon and Washington. In fact, teachers are over four times more likely to undertake a within-state move of 250 or more miles than they are to undertake a cross-state move of any distance. Even teachers employed in a district on the state border are at least as likely to move 225 or more miles within their state as they are to move across the border. Observed patterns of cross-state mobility are consistent with some of the variation in costs imposed by licensure procedures, seniority rules, and pension structures. In particular, less experienced teachers are significantly more mobile. However, we observe a similar pattern in regard to "within"-state mobility, suggesting that fewer experienced teachers cross state borders because they are less mobile in general, and not necessarily because they face higher costs to cross-state mobility in particular. More nuanced analyses is required to better understand the mechanisms driving low rates of cross-state mobility. Two appendices provide: (1) Entry Level Salaries for Teachers with a Bachelor's Degree (2013) [figure]; and (2) Pension Wealth in Oregon and Washington.

The tension at the heart of pension politics is the incentive to address today's claimants and focus on the here-and-now at the expense of long-term concerns and more dispersed constituencies. In the private sector, rules and regulations seek to tame corner-cutting and short-sighted behavior. In the public sector, the primary safeguard is the self-discipline of public officials and the hope that they will not be unduly tempted by short-term electoral considerations or influential constituencies. Teacher pensions, in particular, pose two challenges for K-12 schooling. The first challenge is the political incentives that lead to irresponsible fiscal stewardship, as public officials make commitments to employees that outstrip the available funds. The second is that of electoral considerations which hinder modernization, as policymakers dance around existing structures built to serve an industrial-era workforce and ill-suited to attracting talent in the contemporary labor market. The alignment of the political stars has helped states and localities to address the first challenge, but there has been little evidence of a willingness to tackle the second. The authors examine the political control of public pensions, the influence of teacher associations, and the lack of institutional constraints on public officials to explain the severity of these challenges. Those dynamics are illustrated via discussion of fiscal crises in New Jersey, Oregon, and San Diego and the way in which those crises created opportunities for addressing enormous shortfalls in funding. The authors close by suggesting several measures that may encourage public officials to be more responsible fiscal stewards or to revisit anachronistic retirement systems in order to promote teacher quality. (Contains 124 footnotes.)

What are the relationships between policy and evaluation within state departments of education? How does policy influence what is evaluated in such settings and how does evaluation inform policymaking? Directors of evaluation in six state education agencies address these issues through detailed descriptions of their operations: Gordon Ascher, Oregon; Gerald Bracey, Virginia; David L. Donovan, and Stanley A. Rumbaugh, Michigan; James H. Gold, Wisconsin; Alfred Rasp, Jr., Washington; and Paul D. Sandifer, South Carolina. An educational philosopher specializing in policy analysis, Thomas F. Green, then provides a commentary on the preceding six papers. (Author/BW)