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This paper assesses the reliability and validity of cognitive and socioemotional skills measures and investigates the correlation between schooling, skills acquisition, and labor earnings. The primary data from Pakistan incorporates two innovations related to measurement and sampling. On measurement, the paper develops and implements a battery of instruments intended to capture cognitive and socioemotional skills among young adults. On sampling, the paper uses a panel that follows respondents from their original rural locations in 2003 to their residences in 2018, a period over which 38 percent of the respondents left their native villages. In terms of their validity and reliability, our skills measures compare favorably to previous measurement attempts in low- and middle-income countries. The following are documented in the data: (a) more years of schooling are correlated with higher cognitive and socioemotional skills; (b) labor earnings are correlated with cognitive and socioemotional skills as well as years of schooling; and (c) the earnings-skills correlations depend on respondents' migration status. The magnitudes of the correlations between schooling and skills on the one hand and earnings and skills on the other are consistent with a widespread concern that such skills are under-produced in the schooling system. [This report was prepared by the World Bank Group's Development Research Group, Development Economics. Funding was provided by RISE and World Bank's Strategic Research Program Fund.]

Approximately 450 community colleges nationally are part of formal statewide or national initiatives to implement guided pathways reforms to improve student success, and many other colleges are implementing guided pathways practices on their own. Because guided pathways is a whole-college reform--and because it takes several years to fully implement--it is challenging to evaluate. This paper presents a methodology for assessing the scale of adoption and estimating the causal effects of guided pathways within states and across colleges that have adopted the approach. To measure the scale of adoption of guided pathways practices, we will conduct institutional surveys and phone interviews with college leaders and examine the websites of every community college in Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington (70 institutions total). We plan to use these data to estimate each college's scale of adoption using a rubric with indicators for scale and timing. Drawing on strategies used in K-12 whole-school reform evaluations, we propose to examine pre-reform adoption trends and apply a single interrupted time series design to project what students' early outcomes would have been in the absence of guided pathways. We then propose to use a comparative interrupted time series design (which closely resembles a difference-in-differences approach) to exploit variation in the intensity of guided pathways practices and the timing of their adoption across colleges by comparing early student outcomes in colleges that have adopted guided pathways practices at scale and those that have not or those with a low scale of adoption. [This report was written with Hana Lahr.]

Which occupations are best for wellbeing? There is a large literature on earnings differentials, but less attention has been paid to occupational differences in non-pecuniary rewards. However, information on both types of rewards is needed to understand the dispersion of wellbeing across occupations. We analyse subjective wellbeing in a large representative sample of UK workers to construct a measure of "full earnings", the sum of earnings and the value of non-pecuniary rewards, in 90 different occupations. We first find that the dispersion of earnings underestimates the extent of inequality in the labour market: the dispersion of full earnings is one-third larger than the dispersion of earnings. Equally, the gender and ethnic gaps in the labour market are larger than data on earnings alone would suggest, and the true returns to completed secondary education (though not to a degree) are underestimated by earnings differences on their own. Finally, we show that our main results are similar, and stronger, for a representative sample of US workers. [Funding for this report was provided by an Écoles Universitaires de Recherche, EUR (University Research Schools, EUR) grant.]

There is growing interest in using measures of teacher applicant quality to improve hiring decisions, but the statistical properties of such measures are poorly understood. We present evidence on structured ratings solicited from teacher applicants' references. We find that the reference ratings capture only one underlying dimension of applicant quality, which may indicate a need to broaden the range of questions posed to professional references. Point estimates of inter-rater reliability range between 0.23 and 0.31 and are significantly lower for novice applicants. It is difficult to judge whether these levels of reliability are high or low in the current context given so little evidence on comparable applicant assessment tools.

This working paper will share the experience of Ashta No Kai (ANK), a grassroots nonprofit the author founded in 1998 in 10 villages in Shirur County, Maharashtra state, India, to promote the empowerment and education of women and girls in rural areas. The paper will, at first, examine the state of education in India including the Indian government's policies and programs that are attempting to address the gender gap in girls' education. Next, the barriers that girls in rural areas face to access their right to an education will be discussed followed by an introduction of various holistic, need-based, and low-cost educational interventions that ANK has initiated to address some of these impediments. Findings will then be reported from quantitative and qualitative surveys conducted, as well as case studies to gauge the impact of these interventions. Finally, the paper will propose evidence-based recommendations of integrated and sustainable strategies and approaches as guidance to policy practitioners to help promote educational outcomes and enhanced agency for adolescent girls to better navigate their world.

The OECD Higher Education Policy Survey (HEPS) is a new instrument developed by the OECD Higher Education Policy Team to gather comparative information on system features and characteristics of policies across OECD jurisdictions, to support policy analysis and peer learning. The first HEPS was fielded in 2020, to support the ongoing thematic project on Resourcing Higher Education. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the results of the survey, examining student support systems, institutional funding mechanisms, human resource policies and higher education resource governance across the 29 OECD jurisdictions responding to the survey.

A valuable supplement to student evaluations of teaching (SETs) is the mid-semester feedback (MSF) technique, an intervention that can facilitate meaningful improvement of the teaching and learning experience. Scheduling time for an MSF enables a systematic, formative evaluation of instruction on a specific student population in a given semester. The authors introduce and provide an overview of the MSF, unpack the procedure step-by-step, share research on the MSF, and offer guidance for implementing several variations for instructors who find themselves short on resources and time.

Stackable credentials--sequential postsecondary awards that allow individuals to progress on a career path--have been suggested as a way to enhance the labor market prospects of middle-skill workers. Yet, thus far, little evidence has been provided on the economic value of these credentials. Here, we report a series of estimates on the association between stackable credentials and earnings. We use national, survey, and college-system-level datasets. A significant body of evidence indicates that the labor market returns to certificates--along with those to college degrees--are positive. But our estimates of stackable credentials show only weakly positive and inconsistent gains from these award combinations. Generally, these estimates are indistinguishable from the returns to only one postsecondary credential. There is no clear evidence of how earnings vary across types of stack--progressive, supplemental, or independent--or student characteristics. However, estimated earnings gains from stackable credentials may be imprecise. Few college students stack awards, the motives for stacking are unknown, and notably, the number of stacked awards depends on whether general vocational awards are included. Future research should examine why students stack awards and how they can choose combinations of awards that maximize their earnings gains from stacking.

This paper illustrates similarities and differences between two international surveys that assess adults' skills: the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and the Skills Towards Employment and Productivity (STEP) survey. In particular, the paper highlights the issues that can arise for researchers interested to jointly analyse the data from the two surveys and to compare their results. The paper finds that, in spite of the many similarities, important differences exist between PIAAC and STEP, both in the way the data are collected, and in the way the proficiency of respondents is estimated. These issues can indeed affect the cross-country comparability of results from the two surveys. There is instead little evidence that the literacy assessment used in the two surveys is not adequate to form a basis for a valid assessment of adults' proficiency on a global scale.

This paper examines technology-mediated advising reform in order to contribute to the understanding of how colleges engage in transformative change to improve student outcomes. Conceptualizing such change as occurring along three interrelated dimensions of organizational functioning (structural, process, and attitudinal), we seek to understand the contexts that encourage or discourage transformation of advising and student support. We use in-depth pre/post data from six colleges deploying integrated planning and advising for student success (iPASS) to investigate the reform process. Three of the six colleges made steps toward transforming their student support delivery, shifting along all three dimensions. We identify four contextual features that appear to underpin colleges' likelihood of transformative reform. Technology and vendor relationships form an important foundation. Reform vision and rationale, leadership, and the college's orientation toward student success are important institutional influences. Our findings support the hypothesis put forth by Karp and Fletcher (2014) in their Readiness for Technology Adoption framework that technology is necessary but not sufficient for transformation, and that project-level and organizational factors are perhaps more important. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that technology can spur substantial institutional change, but only under certain circumstances.

The purpose of the "Colorado K-12 & School Choice Survey" is to measure public opinion on, and in some cases awareness or knowledge of, a range of K-12 education topics and school choice reforms. A total of 601 telephone interviews were completed from August 29 to September 16, 2015, with questions on the direction of K-12 education, statewide performance, education spending, grades and preferences for different types of schools, charter schools, school vouchers, education savings accounts, and tax-credit scholarships. The organization of this paper has three sections. The first section describes key findings and presents charts for additional context. The second section details the survey's methodology, summarizes response statistics, and provides additional technical information on call dispositions for landline and cell phone interviews and weighting. The third section lists the survey questions and results, allowing the reader to follow the survey interview as it was conducted with respect to item wording and ordering.

Initiatives to increase leadership accountability coupled with efforts to promote data-driven leadership have led to widespread adoption of instruments to assess school leaders. In this paper we present a decision matrix that practitioners and researchers can use to facilitate instrument selection. Our decision matrix focuses on the psychometric properties of the instrument; the model of leadership used to construct the instrument; the feasibility of implementation; and the extent to which feedback lends itself to changes in behavior (actionability). We apply this decision matrix to two of the most prominent leadership feedback instruments, CALL and VAL-ED. We find substantial similarities between the instruments, yet each has unique strengths and drawbacks. We discuss the implications of the comparative strengths and drawbacks of the two instruments and how they might be most effectively deployed to improve leadership practices.

Recent changes to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) require a state's child care market price survey to: (1) be statistically valid and reliable and (2) reflect variations in the cost of child care services by geographic area, type of provider, and age of child. States may use an alternative methodology for setting payment rates--such as a cost estimation model--to take into account the cost of meeting quality requirements. This brief provides an overview on how states can adapt to meet these new requirements and also align price surveys to better support efforts to improve the access that children have to high-quality early learning programs.

Although results showing coaching effectiveness are accumulating, coaching is often included with other forms of Professional Development (PD) support including teacher in-service (Powell, Diamond, Burchinal, & Koehler, 2010; Kretlow et al., 2011), access to an annotated video library (Allen et al., 2011), and access to ongoing learning communities (Gallucci, Van Lare, Yoon, & Boatright, 2010; Matsumura, Garnier, & Spybrook, 2012). The presence of multiple intervention components obscures the unique effect of coaching and makes drawing conclusions about coaching effectiveness impossible. There is a critical need for identifying effective, sustainable approaches for teacher PD in delivering instruction to foster science practice skills. The purpose of this research study was to: (1) determine the effects of a professional development intervention comprised of a summer institute and follow-up technology-delivered instructional coaching on teacher and student science practice knowledge, skills, self-efficacy, and engagement; and (2) isolate specific effects of coaching when combined with more traditional teacher workshops. The intervention model described here was designed to equip middle and high school science teachers with knowledge and skills to use a guided scientific inquiry approach to teach science practice skills integrated into content as specified by Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The project involved a randomized controlled trial aimed at addressing the following research question: What is the impact of a summer institute focused on guided scientific inquiry with follow-up coaching (treatment) versus no professional development (control) on (a) teacher science practices knowledge, skills, self-efficacy, and beliefs and (b) student science practices knowledge, skills, engagement and self-efficacy? A secondary question involved the independent effects of the summer institute and coaching: What were the separate effects of the summer institute and coaching on teacher and student outcomes? The study was conducted with 124 science teachers (63 treatment and 61 control) from 110 rural schools (61 treatment and 49 control) in Nebraska and Iowa. Results from this study show the promise of coaching and its value added to traditional teacher in-service. While this study shows the promise of coaching in impacting teacher change, more research is needed to investigate what specific aspects of the coaching process (i.e., rapport and trust between teacher and coach, coach qualifications, teacher self-reflection) are most responsible for these effects.

This study examines the relationship between student goal orientation and student satisfaction, academic engagement, and achievement. A variety of studies has shown that the type of goal orientation determines students' cognitive and behavioral reactions as well as their educational performance. Using data on 2309 college students from the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES), this study analyzes the relationship between different types of goal orientations and student behavior and academic outcomes. Three questions are addressed in this paper: First, it explores how students can be classified according to their goal orientation. Second, the study examines how multiple achievement goals relate to different socio-demographic characteristics. Third, the relative influence of goal orientation on indices of satisfaction, achievement, and academic engagement among undergraduate students is assessed. The results support the notion that students pursuing both mastery and performance goals are more satisfied with their academic experience, show a higher degree of academic engagement, and achieve better grades than students who pursue a mastery orientation alone or a work-avoidance/performance orientation. One practical implication of the study of goal orientation is that student applicants could be screened on the basis of both a high mastery as well as a high performance orientation. Items and Reliabilities for Scales Used in the Study are appended. (Contains 1 table and 7 figures.)

As a result of increased national emphasis on preparing future faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to teach undergraduates, more research universities offer teaching development (TD) programs to doctoral students who aspire to academic careers. Using social cognitive career theory, we examine the effects of these programs on early-career STEM scholars' sense of self-efficacy as postsecondary teachers. In 2011, a survey questionnaire was administered to 2,156 people who in 2009 were doctoral students in STEM departments at three U.S. research universities; 1,445 responded (67%). Regression analysis revealed positive relationships between participation in TD and participants' college teaching self-efficacy, and positive interaction effects for women STEM doctoral students. The paper discusses implications for doctoral students, faculty advisors, and TD programs. The following are appended: (1) Variable Descriptions; and (2) Tables.

In 2011, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) founded the Center for Community College Advancement to provide training and resources to help community colleges build and sustain effective fundraising, alumni relations, and communications and marketing programs. A goal for the center is to collect data on best practices at community colleges. This white paper summarizes the results of a survey on foundation operations at community colleges across the United States and Canada. The purpose of the survey was to help community college staff benchmark their foundation experiences and programs with their peers. Participation in the survey was strong, with representatives from 122 foundations in the United States and Canada having contributed data (approximately 10 percent of the universe of institutions). Their responses revealed that foundations have evolved into significant contributors at community colleges through consistent positive results, service to a variety of stakeholders and leveraging of political capital--all while maintaining a low staff count and limited expenditures. Two appendices provide data tables and the survey questions.

Students often express surprise at their grades on papers. This gap between expectation and achievement may stem in part from lack of facility with revision strategies. How, then, can teachers work with their students to foster more effective revisions? This question in teaching and learning has inspired an interdisciplinary collaboration: one of us is a management and leadership professor (Sharen), and the other is an English/communication professor (Feltham). In this essay, we describe a research study from winter 2013 in which we explored how a series of interventions improved students' mindsets about the process of drafting and revising reports for a second-year-university course entitled "Women and Leadership." After outlining key aspects of this study that we feel are of general interest, we then present a series of reflective suggestions about how to teach revision derived from both our experiences and a selective survey of the literature on both revision and self-regulation.

Holding a summer job is a rite of passage in American adolescence, a first rung towards adulthood and self-sufficiency. However, over the past decade, youth employment during the summer has decreased significantly. Summer youth employment has the potential to benefit high school students' educational outcomes and employment trajectories, especially for low-income youth. Despite the potential importance of youth employment during summer, evidence of the impact of summer jobs on youth outcomes is limited to only a few studies. Our research examines summer youth employment, beginning with academic outcomes, by studying New York City's Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). SYEP provides jobs to youth ages 14-24, and due to high demand for summer jobs, allocates slots through a random lottery system, allowing for causal estimates of program impact. Our study uses student-level data from the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (the SYEP administrating agency) and New York City Department of Education, encompassing approximately 300,000 student SYEP applicants for the 2005-2009 program years. This paper examines the impact of SYEP on a wider range of academic performance outcomes, including test taking, passing rates and scores. It also attends to variation in these outcomes. Our findings suggest that SYEP has positive impacts on some student academic outcomes, and that these effects are heterogeneous. Future analyses will focus on examining program, student and school characteristics that might explain these variations. The following tables are appended: (1) Lottery randomization results; (2) Attrition in year following application to SYEP, Grade 8-11 and alternative program, 2005-08; and (3) Impact of selection on attrition, by grade.

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) measures trends in children's reading literacy achievement. PIRLS was conducted for the third time in 2011. It is conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and compares the reading attainment and attitudes to reading of over 200,000 9- and 10-year-old children around the world. It is the only international study to provide information on the reading habits of primary-aged children: the survey collects information not just on reading attainment, but also about children's reading attitudes and habits, and whether and what they read for pleasure. Background information is also collected from headteachers and teachers and this provides further comparative information about schools and the teaching of reading. NFER was commissioned by Save the Children to provide international research evidence to support a major UK initiative, "Read On. Get On". As part of this, NFER has produced an evidence paper which accompanies the coalition report. This additional report contains analysis of data from PIRLS 2011 to provide further evidence on the attainment gap in England. Key findings include: (1) In England the score difference between the lowest and highest performers is larger than in countries with comparable overall performance; (2) Only five per cent of pupils in England do not reach the Low International Benchmark, with more boys than girls failing to reach this level. This gender gap is larger than in countries with comparable overall performance; (3) England has among the highest percentage of pupils reaching the Advanced International Benchmark, with more girls than boys performing at this highest level. In almost none of the comparison countries is the gender gap at the Advanced International Benchmark larger than in England; (4) In England, the lowest 25 per cent of performers report that their parents show interest in school related issues about once or twice a week. In two thirds of the comparison countries, pupils report that their parents were significantly more interested in their school related issues; and (5) In England, the lowest 25 per cent of performers report that on average they spend less than one hour per day reading outside of school. In over two thirds of the comparison countries this group of pupils reports spending significantly more time reading outside of school. Data tables are appended.

A common complaint from business and industry is that employees entering the workforce are not "job ready." They often lack the practical skills, maturity, and workplace experience to perform well in their roles, leaving employers to fill the gap by providing training either at their own expense or with public funding. In contrast, a new employee with previous experience as a volunteer in an emergency services organisation comes into the workplace with an understanding of teamwork, a demonstrated sense of community and responsibility, and an appreciation of the role of organisational culture, thus accelerating their emergence as an asset to their employer. This case study of the South Australia Country Fire Service (SA CFS) examined key factors in the resourcing and efficacy of training for volunteers. It was undertaken as a joint initiative of Government Skills Australia (GSA), the SA CFS and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). The SA CFS delivers nationally endorsed and non-endorsed training to their volunteers, all funded from the annual operational budget it receives from the South Australian Government. It maintains a training centre at Brukunga in the Adelaide Hills and several regional training resources across the state. The SA CFS is a registered training organisation. The research sought views through qualitative and quantitative sources, interviewing brigades, employers and key industry stakeholders--242 volunteers responded to the quantitative survey. The core hypothesis for this research was that SA CFS volunteers who trained under the Australian Qualifications Framework's (AQF) Public Safety Training Package are taking skills and knowledge gained in roles as firefighters, trainers and incident managers into their paid employment. Formal transferrable skills revealed in the case study included safety and first aid, truck driving, equipment use (e.g. using a chainsaw), training and assessment. Such skills have valuable alignment with jobs in Agriculture; Food and Forestry; Mining; Public Administration and Safety; and Health Care and Social Assistance industry areas. Other generic skills acquired informally are in management, leadership, communication and logistics. The SA CFS training model is not funded to recognise these latter skills. The data gathered also show that the SA CFS provides pathways for young people through its programs for cadets; the inclusion of SA CFS volunteering in the South Australian Certificate of Education for Years 11 and 12; and the provision of nationally accredited units in operational training. This is important given the need to recruit and retain new, younger volunteers in the emergency service sector. The findings indicate that volunteers are more strongly aware of the benefits of SA CFS training to the workplace than their employers. Their skills acquisition and transfer have multifaceted, multi-directional benefits: volunteers who are drawn from a broad range of industries bring professional skills to the brigade and transfer knowledge among the volunteer cohort; they also take skills imparted during their volunteer experience back to the workplace and to their communities. Greater recognition of this process is warranted, especially in order to elucidate the overall gains for both employers and the community from the activities of the SA CFS as a learning organisation. Appended are: (1) Survey Questions; and (2) Employer Telephone Interview Survey Script.

We analyze the effect of Colombia's ambitious "Free Housing" program on children's educational outcomes. The program was generous, giving free housing to beneficiaries in desirable areas. We evaluate the program by leveraging housing lotteries and linking applicants to their children. We find that public housing increases high school graduation by seven percentage points -- a seventeen percent increase relative to the control mean -- and boosts exit exam scores and college-going. Using a survey to explore mechanisms, lottery winners report better environmental conditions and shorter commute times. Their children also attend better schools and live in neighborhoods with less crime. [Additional funding for this project was provided by the Departamento Nacional de Planeacion (Contract 672-2019).]

We investigate if there is a causal link between education and health knowledge using data from the 1984/85 and 1991/92 waves of the UK Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS). Uniquely, the survey asks respondents what they think are the main causes of ten common health conditions, and we compare these answers to those given by medical professionals to form an index of health knowledge. For causal identification we use increases in the UK minimum school leaving age in 1947 (from 14 to 15)and 1972 (from 15 to 16) to provide exogenous variation in education. These reforms predominantly induced adolescents who would have left school to stay for one additionally mandated year. OLS estimates suggest that education significantly increases health knowledge, with a one-year increase in schooling increasing the health knowledge index by 15% of a standard deviation. In contrast, estimates from instrumental-variable models show that increased schooling due to the education reforms did not significantly affect health knowledge. This main result is robust to numerous specification tests and alternative formulations of the health knowledge index. Further research is required to determine whether there is also no causal link between higher levels of education--such as post-school qualifications--and health knowledge. An appendix entitled, "Sensitivity of results to alternative definitions of health knowledge index," is included. [This paper was produced as part of the Centre's Education Programme. The Centre for Economic Performance is financed by the Economic and Social Research Council.]

Although English Learners (ELs) constitute one of the fastest growing subpopulations in U.S. schools, little is known about the postschool outcomes of ELs who are also students with disabilities (ELSWD). This descriptive study examines a nationally representative sample of ELSWD through a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS2). Descriptive statistical analyses were used to identify ELSWDs' sociodemographic characteristics, education and transition program characteristics, and postschool outcomes, as compared to their non-EL peers with disabilities included in the NLTS2. Results confirmed disproportionate identification by race/ethnicity for Latinos and European American as ELSWD. Findings also illustrated alignment between transition planning and courses taken, yet postschool employment was significantly lower for ELSWD. Implications for research include the need to develop methods that address ELSWD disproportionality in high school and transition outcome variables unique to this population. Implications for practice include the need to develop teacher preparation programs that apprise secondary special educators of ELSWD characteristics and their transition-related preferences, strengths, and needs.

This report focuses on pathways to postsecondary education (PSE), including high school completion, for pregnant and parenting teens. Although birth rates among teens have declined in the United States over the last 20 years, one in seven adolescent females (14.4 percent) is expected to give birth before age 20 with females of color (24 percent of Hispanics and 21 percent of African Americans) more than twice as likely to have a child when compared with white females (10 percent) (OAH 2014). For too many of these adolescents, parenthood marks the end of their high school careers and aspirations for attending college. This is unfortunate because completing high school and earning a postsecondary degree or credential are critical for the economic well-being of both teen parents and their children. Very little is known about pathways to PSE for pregnant and parenting teens. Although some studies have focused on programs to prevent subsequent pregnancies among teen parents (Klerman 2004), research is lacking on effective approaches for preparing these students for college. This report represents a first step towards filling that gap. Drawing on a literature and program review, analysis of a small online survey conducted with Health Teen Network (HTN), and consultations with experts in the field, "Pathways to Postsecondary Education," examines barriers and promising approaches to support educational success for pregnant and parenting teens. Among the findings are: (1) More than two out of three young single mothers aged 18 to 24 are poor, and almost half of their children are poor; (2) Only about half of teen mothers receive a high school diploma by the age of 22, compared with about nine in ten women who do not have a child during their teen years; and (3) A survey supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found that a third of the young women surveyed reported that becoming a parent played a major role in their decision to leave school. This report features eight programs that provide a range of academic and other supports and services to support pathways to PSE, including high school completion, among pregnant and parenting teens: (1) Florence Crittenton High School (FCHS) in Denver, Colorado; (2) Cal-SAFE in California; (3) New Heights in Washington, DC; (4) The Care Center in Holyoke, Massachusetts; (5) Keys to Degrees at Endicott College in Massachusetts; (6) Student Parent HELP Center (SPHC) at the University of Minnesota; (7) Generation Hope, a program started by a former teen mother in Washington, DC; and (8) The Jeremiah Program, a residential program in the twin cities of Minnesota. A list of experts consulted is appended. [This report is a product of IWPR's Student Parent Success Initiative.]

Charter schools have generated support from politicians in both major American political parties, while stimulating intense debate among interest groups. We investigate whether and how public attitudes come to mirror interest group polarization or politician consensus in order to understand what drives public attitudes as policy debates mature and citizens learn information that drives advocates to opposite sides. Using survey experiments, we assess how views change in response to policy cues. Mirroring debates among advocates, we assess whether the role of private companies and non-union teachers polarize opinion. We find that the public responds to cues linked to unions and polarizes based on liberal and conservative ideology as well as attitudes toward unions. This helps to explain how ideological polarization can grow even in the absence of strong partisan sorting among top political leaders. The report includes a bibliography.

Teachers require knowledge of the unique skills that each child brings to the classroom in order to effectively target instruction towards students' learning needs. Despite substantial investments in programs aimed at enhancing teacher knowledge of individual students' skills (KISS), we know surprisingly little about how KISS is distributed or how teachers develop KISS, let alone the role that KISS plays in instruction and learning. In this study, I employ nationally-representative data to create KISS measures for kindergarten and first grade teachers. I use these measures to examine the distribution of KISS across schools, within schools, and within classrooms, as well as to investigate potential KISS development mechanisms and instructional uses. To estimate the effect of KISS on student learning, I use a set of student and subject fixed effects models that control for the non-random sorting of students into classrooms, average differences in how well teachers know particular children, and baseline achievement. I find that a standard deviation increase in KISS positively impacts kindergartners' and first graders' achievement by about 0.08-0.09 standard deviations. This result is highly robust to a number of different modeling choices and alternative explanations.

This report summarizes findings from one component of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education's (CPRE) evaluation of the General Electric Foundation's (GEF) "Developing Futures"™ in Education program in Stamford Public Schools (SPS). The purpose was to closely analyze district capacity to support system-wide instructional improvement. Specifically, this phase focused on a single, overarching question: to what extent has the district central office adopted and institutionalized the core principles of "Developing Futures"™? To answer this question, this evaluation assesses the Stamford Public School District's progress in scaling up and institutionalizing seven core elements of "Developing Futures"™: (1) Internal constituency engagement: The district engages stakeholders at all levels of the system, and establishes common vision and buy-in for improvement efforts; (2) External constituency engagement: The district engages partner organizations and institutions, parents and the community; and effectively communicates about reform efforts; (3) Curriculum and instruction: The district communicates and supports a system­-wide vision for instructional improvement; (4) Professional development for instruction: The district delivers high-­quality professional development on curriculum, instruction, standards, and assessment; (5) Professional development for leadership: The district delivers high-quality professional development on leadership or management; (6) Management capacity: The district collects and uses data, attracts and develops talent, and evaluates staff performance; and (7) Evaluation: The district monitors and evaluates reform efforts. These seven reform elements were identified through a review of GEF program materials and documentation, and through a close analyses of each districts' reform trajectory over the life of the grant. Based on a thorough review of the research and evaluation literature, a set of indicators was constructed to allow the research team to determine the extent to which there was evidence of effective practice in each of these seven areas. Each area was decomposed into a set of more specific, observable characteristics. Research instruments were designed to elicit evidence of these characteristics in descriptions of central office processes, functions, or overall capacity. Ratings were then assigned to each characteristic based on the prevalence of available evidence using a three-point scale. This report provides ratings for SPS for each indicator and its component characteristics, along with qualitative and survey evidence illustrating and supporting the ratings. Overall, SPS implemented strategies to address each of the indicators discussed in this report: Internal Constituency Engagement, External Constituency Engagement, Curriculum & Instruction, Professional Development-Instructional, Professional Development-Leadership, Management Capacity, and Evaluation. Progress in each of these indicators varied, with the district meeting with greater success in some areas than in others.

This report summarizes findings from one component of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education's (CPRE) evaluation of the General Electric Foundation's (GEF) "Developing Futures"™ in Education program in Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS). As described in the CPRE proposal and research design, the purpose was to closely analyze district capacity to support system-­wide instructional improvement. Specifically, this phase focused on a single, overarching question: to what extent has the district central office adopted and institutionalized the core principles of "Developing Futures"™? To answer this question, this evaluation assesses the Jefferson County Public School District's progress in scaling up and institutionalizing seven core elements of "Developing Futures"™. They are: (1) Internal constituency engagement; (2) External constituency engagement; (3) Curriculum and instruction; (4) Professional development for instruction; (5) Professional development for leadership; (6) Management capacity; (7) Evaluation. Based on a thorough review of the research and evaluation literature, a set of indicators was constructed to allow the research team to determine the extent to which there was evidence of effective practice in each of these seven areas. Results indicate that JCPS has made significant progress in curriculum standardization instructional vision setting and formative assessment.

This report summarizes findings from one component of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education's (CPRE) evaluation of the General Electric Foundation's (GEF) "Developing Futures" ™ in Education program in Erie Public Schools (EPS). As described in the CPRE proposal and research design, the purpose was to closely analyze district capacity to support system-wide instructional improvement. Specifically, this phase focused on a single, overarching question: to what extent has the district central office adopted and institutionalized the core principles of "Developing Futures"™? To answer this question, this evaluation assesses the Erie Public School District's progress in scaling up and institutionalizing seven core elements of "Developing Futures" ™. They include: (1) Internal constituency engagement. The district engages stakeholders at all levels of the system, and establishes common vision and buy-­in for improvement efforts. (2) External constituency engagement. The district engages partner organizations and institutions, parents and the community; and effectively communicates about reform efforts. (3) Curriculum and instruction. The district communicates and supports a system-­wide vision for instructional improvement. (4) Professional development for instruction. The district delivers high-quality professional development on curriculum, instruction, standards or assessment. (5) Professional development for leadership. The district delivers high-­quality professional development on leadership or management. (6) Management capacity. The district collects and uses data, attracts and develops talent, and evaluates staff performance. (7) Evaluation. The district monitors and evaluates reform efforts. These seven reform elements were identified through a review of GEF program materials and documentation, and through a close analyses of each districts' reform trajectory over the life of the grant. Based on a thorough review of the research and evaluation literature, a set of indicators was constructed to allow the research team to determine the extent to which there was evidence of effective practice in each of these seven areas.

This report summarizes findings from one component of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education's (CPRE) evaluation of the General Electric Foundation's (GEF) "Developing Futures"™ in Education program in Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS). The purpose was to closely analyze district capacity to support system-wide instructional improvement. Specifically, this phase focused on a single, overarching question: to what extent has the district central office adopted and institutionalized the core principles of "Developing Futures"™? To answer this question, this evaluation assesses the Cincinnati Public School District's progress in scaling up and institutionalizing seven core elements of "Developing Futures"™: (1) Internal constituency engagement; (2) External constituency engagement; (3) Curriculum and instruction; (4) Professional development for instruction; (5) Professional development for leadership; (6) Management capacity; and (7) Evaluation. These seven reform elements were identified through a review of GEF program materials and documentation, and through a close analyses of each districts' reform trajectory over the life of the grant. Based on a thorough review of the research and evaluation literature, a set of indicators was constructed to allow the research team to determine the extent to which there was evidence of effective practice in each of these seven areas. Each area was decomposed into a set of more specific, observable characteristics. Research instruments were designed to elicit evidence of these characteristics in descriptions of central office processes, functions, or overall capacity. Ratings were then assigned to each characteristic based on the prevalence of available evidence using a three-point scale: (1) Strong implementation; (2) Moderate implementation; and (3) Weak implementation. This report provides ratings for CPS for each indicator and its component characteristics, along with qualitative and survey evidence illustrating and supporting the ratings. Overall, CPS has made significant progress in building system-­wide capacity for instructional improvement by facilitating collaboration, involving all stakeholders in planning and decision-­making, clarifying instructional expectations, and building a robust professional development system. The evidence suggests that instructional practice remains inconsistent in some cases, and that shifting standards and summative assessments pose a challenge for alignment and coherence.

Large-scale surveys such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competences (PIAAC) use advanced statistical models to estimate scores of latent traits from multiple observed responses. The comparison of such estimated scores across different groups of respondents is valid to the extent that the same set of estimated parameters holds in each group surveyed. This issue of invariance of parameter estimates is addressed in model fit indices which gauge the likelihood that one set of parameters can be used across all groups. Therefore, the problem of scale invariance across groups of respondents can typically be framed as the question of how well a single model fits the responses of all groups. However, the procedures used to evaluate the fit of these models pose a series of theoretical and practical problems. The most commonly applied procedures to establish invariance of cognitive and non-cognitive scales across countries in large-scale surveys are developed within the framework of confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory. The criteria that are commonly applied to evaluate the fit of such models, such as the decrement of the Comparative Fit Index in confirmatory factor analysis, work normally well in the comparison of a small number of countries or groups, but can perform poorly in large-scale surveys featuring a large number of countries. More specifically, the common criteria often result in the non-rejection of metric invariance; however, the step from metric invariance (i.e. identical factor loadings across countries) to scalar invariance (i.e. identical intercepts, in addition to identical factor loadings) appears to set overly restrictive standards for scalar invariance (i.e. identical intercepts). This report sets out to identify and apply novel procedures to evaluate model fit across a large number of groups, or novel scaling models that are more likely to pass common model fit criteria. Using both real and simulated data, the following procedures are described and applied: multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, followed by alignment analysis of the same data set; Bayesian approximate measurement invariance; Bayesian measurement invariance testing in Item-Response Theory (IRT) models; and multigroup and multilevel latent class analysis. These approaches have the potential to resolve recurrent fit problems in invariance testing. Though promising, more work with these new approaches is needed to establish their suitability in large-scale surveys. The last chapter reports the conclusions from a conference in which these approaches were discussed, along with traditional approaches, in order to provide recommendations for how to address invariance issues in OECD education surveys.

This study uses the PIAAC data to examine the relationships between education system characteristics (e.g. early tracking and vocational education orientation) and distributions of adult numeracy skills. It also investigates the effects of postponing the tracking age and easing university access for students on a vocational track on the average skills and different percentiles of the skills distribution. Correlational analysis suggests that education systems with more students enrolled in vocational tracks have on average higher levels of numeracy skills and more compressed skills distributions between the 50th and 90th percentiles. Further analysis suggests that postponing the tracking age among 14 European countries does not have a significant effect on the average skills of the population. However, it increases skills for individuals at the 10th, 20th, and 30th percentiles of the skill distribution. Expanding university access is associated with an increase in numeracy skills, particularly for individuals at the bottom three deciles of the distribution.

This paper examines sorting into interracial friendships at selective universities. We show significant friendship segregation, particularly for blacks. Indeed, black friendships are no more diverse in college than in high school despite the colleges blacks attend having substantially smaller black populations. We show that part of the reason for the segregation patterns is large differences in academic background coupled with students being more likely to form friendships with those of similar academic backgrounds. Within a school, stronger academic backgrounds make interracial friendships with blacks less likely and friendships with Asians more likely. These results suggest that affirmative action admission policies at selective universities which drive a wedge between the academic characteristics of different racial groups may result in increased within school segregation.

This working paper is part of the Studies in Early Transitions series emerging from "Young Lives", a 15-year longitudinal study of childhood poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. It explores recent trends for children growing up in Andhra Pradesh, one of India's most populous states, based on Young Lives survey data collected for a sample of 1950 young children born in 2001 plus in-depth qualitative research. The paper discusses how poverty levels and location are strongly predictive of whether children attend government or private pre-school. It highlights policy challenges stemming from weak governance of the pre-school sector, notably how the relatively-unregulated and rapidly-growing private sector offers to initiate children into formal learning, in English, from a much earlier age than normally considered to be developmentally appropriate. And it identifies how government provision could be improved and strengthened. "Young Lives" communities description is appended. (Contains 4 tables, 2 figures and 8 footnotes.) [An earlier version of this paper was published as Working Paper 52 in "Young Lives'" own Working Paper series.]

Across campus, laptops and other mobile devices, such as iPads and smartphones, are appearing in greater numbers in the classroom. In a CTools survey of 1,415 U-M students conducted in Winter 2010, over 50% of respondents reported bringing their laptops to class at least once per week (USE Lab, Digital Media Commons, 2010). Many faculty see this trend as an opportunity for more innovative teaching, and they are exploring ways to leverage this technology to increase student engagement during lecture. However, other faculty worry about potential distractions that mobile devices could introduce into their classrooms. This Occasional Paper presents the results of a CRLT research study that examined student perceptions of how laptops affect attentiveness, engagement, and learning, and the authors suggest guidelines for using laptops and other mobile devices effectively in the classroom. This paper discusses how laptops can be an effective tool for promoting student learning if faculty plan carefully for how and when they will ask students to use their laptops, rather than simply allowing students to bring them to class.