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This study investigates racial disparities in school closures both within California and nationally. Findings highlight an alarming pattern: Schools enrolling higher proportions of Black students are at significantly increased risk of closure relative to those enrolling fewer Black students, a pattern that is more pronounced in California than elsewhere in the United States. This study also finds that conventional explanations for school closures--such as declining enrollments, poverty rates, and achievement differences--cannot fully account for why schools enrolling larger shares of Black students have greater odds of closure. These findings underscore that school closures in California and elsewhere reflect racial inequalities that require adequate policymaking to ensure equitable and fair school-closure proceedings

We document the characteristics of children and young adults identified in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics as having a learning disability and study whether legislative changes in diagnosis criteria have had a noticeable effect determining who receives a diagnosis. We further document that children and young adults identified as a having a learning disability experience less desirable outcomes early in life, including trouble with the police, drug use, violent behavior, incarceration, self-reported low levels of well-being, lower educational attainment, and less favorable labor market outcomes. We also find that the mothers of children diagnosed with learning disabilities are less likely than other mothers to participate in the labor market.

The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study monitors historical and developmental changes in substance use prevalence among key subgroups of the general U.S. adolescent and adult population. The current study first devised and evaluated a cohort-specific pooled analysis weighing procedure for the MTF panel study that weighted back to the initial 12th grade samples. Following this, the cohort-specific weights were updated to age-specific weights in order to provide increased flexibility for a wide range of model specifications and to avoid the need to re-calculate a first half-sample respondent's final weight at a particular wave after the full cohort had completed that wave. The cohort-specific pooled analysis weights appear to result in an overall improvement in the degree to which the sociodemographic distributions of the initial 12th grade samples are retained, as well as likely producing slightly improved substance use estimates due to accounting for historical variation in panel sample selection and attrition over time. The updated age-specific pooled analysis weights continued to provide the benefits associated with the cohort-specific weights, but also brought increased flexibility for modeling both cohort- and age-specific research questions, and allowed all respondents' weights at each specific age to remain fixed across time.

This paper examines how different measures of teacher quality are related to students' long-run educational trajectories. We estimate teachers' "test-based" and "nontest" value-added (the latter based on contributions to student absences, suspensions, grade progression, and grades) and assess how these predict various student postsecondary outcomes. We find that both types of value-added have positive effects on student outcomes. Test-based teacher quality measures have more explanatory power for outcomes relevant for students at the top of the achievement distribution, such as attending a more selective college, while nontest measures have more explanatory power for whether students enroll in college at all.

We provide the first causal evidence of the returns to maternal educational curricula on offspring's health at birth. Educational programs that aim to deliver more general knowledge may potentially improve women's earning potential and maternal prenatal investment by increasing the portability of skills across occupations and improving women's ability to make informed decisions about fertility options and health behavior. We study the impacts of a comprehensive educational reform that postponed students' curriculum choices and integrated more general education into the high school system on infant health outcomes. Using a dose-response difference-in-differences (DiD) model research design applied to linked population registries, we find that the reform led to a significant reduction in the incidence of very low birth weight (less than 1,500 grams) and very preterm birth (less than 33 gestation weeks). Overall, the reform's positive effects on infant health at birth seem to be driven by increased mothers' labor market opportunities and better family planning, rather than increased ability to avoid risky behaviours or increased women's earnings via different occupational choices or assortative mating. [This report received additional funding from Fundación Ramón Areces and the Spanish National Research Plan 2017-2020.]

Across six Sub-Saharan African countries, grade 4 students of teachers who were hired after a free primary education reform perform worse, on average, on language and math tests--statistically significantly so in language--than students of teachers who were hired before the reform. Teachers who were hired just after the reform also perform worse, on average, on tests of subject content knowledge than those hired before the reform. The results are sensitive to the time frames considered in the analysis, and aggregate results mask substantial variation across countries--gaps are large and significant in some countries but negligible in others. Analysis of teacher demographic and education characteristics--including education level or teacher certification--as well as teacher classroom-level behaviors reveals few systematic differences associated with being hired pre- or post-reform. [Additional support for the working paper from the Research in Improving Systems of Education (RISE) (United Kingdom) and the Knowledge for Change Program (KCP) Trust Fund.]

The purpose of this occasional paper is to compare point estimates and trends included in the Monitoring the Future (MTF) Panel Study annual report: "National Data on Substance Use among Adults Ages 19 to 60, 1976-2021" prepared using historical post-stratification weights, with the same point estimates and trends obtained when using MTF age-specific panel analysis weights. The current report is organized into four sections: (1) Part 1: Overview of Old and New Weighting Methods; (2) Comparison Approach and Summary; (3) Differences Observed Between Old and New Weighting Approaches, by Substance; and (4) Updated Panel Report Figures and Tables. Evaluating the impact of the new MTF panel analysis weights on point estimates and trends reported in the MTF panel annual report for 1976-2021 indicates that, overall, 63.1% of all point estimate comparisons exhibited less than a |5%| mean change between weighting approaches. Further, no trend comparisons indicated a sign flip, and 87.1% were substantively unchanged in regards to trend significance. [For "National Data on Substance Use among Adults Ages 19 to 60, 1976-2021," see ED623992.]

We provide evidence from a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of a novel, 100-percent online math tutoring program, targeted at secondary school students from highly disadvantaged neighborhoods. The intensive, eight-week-long program was delivered by qualified math teachers in groups of two students during after-school hours. The intervention significantly increased standardized test scores (+0.26 SD) and end-of-year math grades (+0.48 SD), while reducing the probability of repeating the school year. The intervention also raised aspirations, as well as self-reported effort at school.

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.

The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (ICSP), which began in fall 2011, is a state taxpayer-funded financial aid program that helps low and lower-middle income Hoosiers to send their children to the private K-12 school of their choice. This voucher program has been extremely popular among families, as the number of students receiving scholarships has increased from 3,911 students in academic year (AY) 2012 to 36,707 by 2020. This report addresses two questions regarding the fiscal effects of the ICSP up through and including academic year (AY) 2020: (1) The fiscal effects of the ICSP on the state of Indiana budget; and (2) The fiscal effects of the ICSP on local school corporation budgets (in Indiana public school districts are termed "school corporations"). The estimates in this report suggest that the ICSP has provided modest fiscal benefits to taxpayers to date--however, the fiscal savings per scholarship recipient are quite large. Therefore, as more students access the ISCP the savings to Indiana taxpayers will increase significantly. The major findings include: (1) The ICSP saved state taxpayers a total of $42.5 million in 2019-20. These savings translate to savings of $1,158 per scholarship student--a significant sum on a per student basis; and (2) The ICSP yielded a total of $60.6 million in savings to local public school corporations in 2017-18, which was the most recent year with complete data available. These savings to local school corporations were $1,709 per student. These findings are not surprising given that the average scholarship awards are below both total expenditures per student and state per pupil funding as well.

Module A of the OECD Higher Education Policy Survey (HEPS) 2022 elicited information on policies to promote digitalisation of higher education in OECD member and accession countries. In total, 30 jurisdictions responded, providing comparative information on various areas of digitalisation policy, from regulation and governance to financial and human resources. The survey results provide insight into the role of public authorities in guiding, coordinating and resourcing the digital transformation of higher education institutions. The analysis and comparative tables in this working paper provide insights that can support the development of strategic digitalisation policies.

Anti-scientific attitudes can impose substantial costs on societies. Can schools be an important agent in mitigating the propagation of such attitudes? This paper investigates the effect of the content of science education on anti-scientific attitudes, knowledge, and choices. The analysis exploits staggered reforms that reduce or expand the coverage of evolution theory in US state science education standards. I compare adjacent cohorts in models with state and cohort fixed effects and conduct fine-grained placebo tests to rule out scientific, religious and political confounders. There are three main results. First, expanded evolution coverage increases students' knowledge about evolution. Second, the reforms translate into greater evolution belief in adulthood, but do not crowd out religiosity or affect political attitudes. Third, the reforms affect high-stakes life decisions, namely the probability of working in life sciences.

This occasional paper presents national demographic subgroup data for the 1975-2021 Monitoring the Future (MTF) national survey results on 8th, 10th, and 12th graders' use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The study covers all major classes of illicit and licit psychoactive drugs for an array of population subgroups. The 2020 subgroup data presented here accompany the "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use: 1975-2021: Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use" (see ED618240) and the "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2021, forthcoming: Volume I, Secondary School Students." The trends offered here in tabular and graphic forms cover demographic subgroups based on: (1) Gender; (2) College plans; (3) Region of the country; (4) Population density; (5) Education level of the parents (a proxy for socioeconomic level); and (6) Racial/ethnic identification. Detailed descriptions of the demographic categories are provided in the section starting on page 469 of this paper. The graphs and tables in this occasional paper present trend data for 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade respondents separately. Data for 12th grade begins with 1975, the first year in which a nationally representative sample of high school seniors was surveyed. Data for 8th and 10th grades begin with 1991, when the study's nationally representative annual surveys were expanded to include surveys of those lower grade levels.

Many factors impact one's ability to complete an apprenticeship program. According to the 2015 National Apprenticeship Survey, the most commonly stated reasons for not completing an apprenticeship program were job instability, receiving a better job offer and financial constraints. This survey also showed that apprentices who dropped out of their programs experienced difficulties securing permanent employment with adequate benefits and were more likely to be self-employed (Frank & Jovic, 2017). In addition, those who discontinued had a lower median employment income compared with those who completed their training (Jin, Langevin, Lebel and Haan, 2020). Using data from the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform (ELMLP), this study looks at apprentices who registered between 2008 and 2010 and discontinued their apprenticeship programs within six years of registration. Their future interactions with the Canadian postsecondary education system, up to 2020, are then profiled.

This fact sheet explores the association between parental income and the pathways of young adults in postsecondary education for students who began their studies in the 2012/2013 academic year. Students from low-income families have previously been shown to have lower rates of educational access and attainment. This fact sheet focuses on persistence and graduation indicators, which are now released annually, and furthers the analysis of these indicators by adding a parental income quartile dimension. Overall, the findings provide the following insights: (1) Students in the highest parental income quartile remained enrolled (persisted) and graduated at higher rates than students from the lowest parental income quartile for all selected educational qualifications and groupings. The differences in indicators by the level of parental income were more notable for the graduation rates than for the persistence rates; and (2) For students who graduated, those in the highest parental income quartile graduated as fast or faster than students in the lowest parental income quartile for all selected educational qualifications and groupings, though these differences were generally small. These findings are consistent with similar studies regarding postsecondary experiences of students by socioeconomic status.

This briefing paper explores Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) policies and practices that state early intervention (Part C) programs may consider implementing to meet the social-emotional and mental health needs of infants and toddlers in the context of relationships with their parents and other caregivers.

In this paper, we use NWEA MAP test data to examine variation in students' achievement and growth during the pandemic across multiple dimensions. Consistent with prior evidence, we find that students' test scores in fall 2021, on average, were substantially below historic averages. Moreover, the average scores of students of color, students attending high poverty schools, and students in elementary school were more negatively impacted, and more so in math than reading. We present novel evidence on the distributions of test scores and growth in fall 2021 relative to pre-pandemic distributions, finding disproportionately larger declines for students with lower previous achievement levels across districts. However, between districts, there was considerable variation in the extent to which their fall 2021 achievement and growth distributions shifted from their historical distributions by subject, student subgroups, and baseline achievement levels. Therefore, accurately targeting students and choosing interventions for pandemic-related recovery will require careful assessment by districts of their students' achievement and growth in the 2021-22 school year (and into the future): assuming that students in a district reflect the national trends of achievement will often lead to incorrect conclusions about the degree to which they suffered pandemic-related learning losses and the amount of support they will need to recover. [This research received funding from the Kenneth C. Griffin Foundation.]

A college credential can expand the range of career opportunities available to young adults. However, existing barriers to enrollment for prospective students pose equity gaps in college access and success, particularly for Black college aspirants. In Florida, racial and ethnic disparities in college enrollment contribute to disparities in educational attainment. Only 31% of Black Floridians hold a college degree. This report examines the attainment gap by exploring various factors contributing to Florida college applicants' decisions to enroll. This paper uses survey and enrollment information from two Florida community colleges (Hillsborough Community College and Miami Dade College) to identify factors related to college applicants' enrollment decisions. In the summer of 2021, nearly 15,000 applicants to the two colleges were surveyed about their pre-college experiences, and roughly 1,200 responded, resulting in a response rate of 8%. Of the respondents, 997 applicants identified as Black (i.e., African American, Black Hispanic, African, or West Indian/Caribbean).

Policy makers frequently use education as a welfare policy instrument. We examine one such case, where students from large and financially constrained families, were given the opportunity to be transferred to university departments in their hometown as part of the social policy of the Ministry of Education in Greece. Multiple law changes meant that there was a large and quasi-random variability in the number of transferred students over time, which was orthogonal to the quality of receiving students. We construct a novel dataset by linking students' characteristics and pre-university academic performance with their university academic record until graduation for the top economics department. We present consistent evidence showing how a social policy that is meant to help poor families and to alleviate inequalities has gone bad educationally, by lowering the academic performance of receiving students. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre's Education & Skills Programme. Financial support was provided by Drasi II (2019/2020) AUEB.]

This analysis uses the case of the Better Math Teaching Network (BMTN) to explore whether individuals participating in a networked improvement community (NIC) experienced common developmental trajectories on known dimensions of engagement. The analysis included quantitative data from annual network member surveys and qualitative data from annual member interviews. Evidence suggests potential developmental trajectories on three key dimensions of network participation: (1) learning how to engage in a network; (2) learning to use the tools of improvement science; and (3) learning to take up the theory of improvement. Additional findings show preliminary variations based on participant characteristics such as teaching tenure, whether they participated in the network with a colleague they knew prior to joining the network or with a school-based colleague, the context of their school, and how student centered they were at the outset of their participation.

This study reports achievement and growth from kindergarten to 4th grade for three groups of English Learners (ELs): (a) ever-ELs; (b) ELs consistently eligible for service; and (c) EL and Special Education dually-identified students. All three EL groups had lower test scores than never-ELs throughout K-4. In math, ELs grew more than never-ELs during academic years but lost more during summers. In reading, ELs grew less than never-ELs in K-1 and grew more in later grades, but ELs also lost more during summers. These findings suggest summer support is required to help ELs maintain and develop academic skills.

We investigate whether student participation in undergraduate research--a high impact practice at TBR community colleges--has an effect on (1) academic performance; (2) probability of graduation, university transfer, and student departure; and (3) time to completion, transfer, and departure. Using enrollment, graduation, and course-taking data on community college students from the Tennessee Board of Regents and National Student Clearinghouse, we track the 2017 freshmen cohort over twelve calendar semesters and examine their exposure to undergraduate research experiences and their key educational outcomes. We generate propensity scores with a machine learning algorithm and use a doubly robust inverse probability weighting estimator to mitigate the selection bias and compare outcomes of similar students among undergraduate research participants and nonparticipants. Overall, we find that undergraduate research participants demonstrate better academic performance, are more likely to graduate and transfer, are less likely to depart, and progress to transfer and departure slower than similar nonparticipants. The effects grow in size with an increase in frequency of undergraduate research experiences.

Motivation for the study: The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) is implementing and expanding a suite of high impact practices (HIP) in its community colleges. Service learning, one of such HIPs, is incorporated into general education or degree programs' requirements via credit-bearing service learning components of different durations. While service learning participation and student results are examined periodically, this study contributes to the program evaluation by conducting a series of quantitative analyses that aim to assess whether a causal relationship exists between service learning experiences and key educational outcomes of first-time freshmen at community colleges. Objectives: To investigate whether participation in serving learning HIP affects: (1) the probability of earning a college credential, transferring to university, and student departure; (2) time to graduation, university transfer, and departure; and (3) academic performance. To examine if and how these effects, if any, differ by service learning duration and frequency of participation. Methods: Different types of propensity score analysis were used, including inverse probability of treatment weighting and matching and nonparametric regression, to estimate the effect of service learning participation on outcomes of interest in general and by duration level. In the final models, propensity scores were estimated using generalized boosted modeling. Dosage analysis was employed to examine the effect of frequency of service learning participation. The following modeling techniques were used for different outcomes: logistic and OLS regression, and event history analysis (Cox regression model). Results: Service learning participation increases the probability of graduation and university transfer, decreases the probability of student departure, expedites progression to graduation, delays progression to university transfer and departure, and is associated with a higher final GPA. The estimated results differ by duration level and frequency of service learning experience. Conclusion: Service learning, as implemented at TBR colleges, is an efficacious HIP, which contributes to both community college freshmen student success and institutional performance.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, several unprecedented government interventions related to COVID-19--including the closure of non-essential businesses, travel restrictions and public health measures limiting public interactions--have been put in place. These measures, implemented by public health officials across Canada, had a clear impact on the Canadian labour market, as businesses and institutions in a variety of industries announced layoffs, reduced employment hours and halted many on-the-job opportunities. In response, to support Canadians facing the labour market impact of the COVID-19 economic shutdown, the Government of Canada introduced a temporary benefit, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). The CERB paid $500 a week to those who made at least $5,000 in the preceding 12 months and whose income was drastically reduced because of the pandemic. It was a temporary program introduced on March 15, 2020, and was replaced by Employment Insurance and other recovery benefits on September 27 of the same year. The COVID-19 pandemic had large impacts on many of those in the skilled trades, as these jobs often require hands-on and close-proximity interactions. However, journeypersons in different trades had different impacts. Some sectors deemed non-essential services were hit harder than sectors deemed essential services. In addition, geographic variations in easing and reinstating restrictions over time affected journeypersons and apprentices across regions differently. Using data from the Education and Labour Market Longitudinal Platform, this study examines the proportion of journeypersons who received the CERB among those who certified between 2008 and 2019. By examining the proportions across trades, geography and population groups, this study can provide further insight into how the early months of the pandemic affected those in the skilled trades and the differing impacts across trades and groups.