Search

For more than a year, the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) conducted research in New Mexico, including interviews, site visits, document review, and new analyses of data provided by the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED). The purpose of the study was to provide New Mexico leaders a research perspective on the challenges facing education and identify evidence-based ways that state policy can address them. This report is part of a series for helping New Mexico leaders focus on both short-term and long-term improvement as the state recovers from the COVID-19 setbacks. The central finding is that key to system improvement is recognizing that students who face barriers to school success--including poverty and systemic racism--are not exceptions in New Mexico; rather, they are the norm. Accordingly, the state must design a system that centers these students and builds the state and local capacity to meet their diverse needs. This report provides a summary of "Improving Education the New Mexico Way: An Evidence-Based Approach" (ED610898) which provides a road map to help New Mexico leaders focus on long-term improvement as the state recovers from the COVID-19 setbacks. For the near term, the authors identify what can be done without a large infusion of new funds. State policymakers, together with leaders from education, business, nonprofts, and tribal governments, can begin with these near-term steps as they work to create a coherent post-COVID-19 approach to deep and lasting improvement in New Mexico schools. [For "Building a System of College and Career Pathways in New Mexico," see ED610896. For "Community Schools the New Mexico Way," see ED610897.]

For more than a year, the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) conducted research in New Mexico, including interviews, site visits, document review, and new analyses of data provided by the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED). The purpose of the study was to provide New Mexico leaders a research perspective on the challenges facing education and identify evidence-based ways that state policy can address them. The central finding is that key to system improvement is recognizing that students who face barriers to school success--including poverty and systemic racism--are not exceptions in New Mexico; rather, they are the norm. Accordingly, the state must design a system that places these students at the center and builds the state and local capacity to meet their diverse needs. Prior to COVID-19, the state had taken promising steps toward such a system. Together, the Office of the Governor, the New Mexico Legislature, advocates, and educators began moving toward a stronger system. The pandemic now threatens this progress, and the most vulnerable children are experiencing the direst effects. This main report is part of a series for helping New Mexico leaders focus on both short-term and long-term improvement as the state recovers from the COVID-19 setbacks. It focuses on system changes at the state level that can enable and support local improvement across New Mexico's diverse communities and schools. For the near term, the authors identify what can be done without a large infusion of new funds. State policymakers, together with leaders from education, business, non-profits, and tribal governments can begin with these near-term steps as they work to create a coherent, post-COVID-19 approach to deep and lasting improvement in New Mexico schools. [For "Improving Education the New Mexico Way: Summary Report," see ED610899. For "Building a System of College and Career Pathways in New Mexico," see ED610896. For "Community Schools the New Mexico Way," see ED610897.]

Teacher shortages that most severely affect schools serving the least advantaged children have been part of the California education landscape for the last half decade. This brief describes how key teacher supply and demand factors vary across the state, and it provides potential policy solutions to mitigate ongoing shortages. The brief also offers insight into how the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to impact teacher supply, demand, shortages, and diversity. This brief is drawn from the report "Sharpening the Divide: How California's Teacher Shortages Expand Inequality" and is accompanied by an online interactive map of district- and county-level teacher supply and demand factors, which can be found online at https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/interactive-map-understanding-teacher-shortages-california. [For the full report, see ED610882.]

Let $a_{i1}x_1+\cdots+a_{ik}x_k=0$, $i\in[m]$ be a balanced homogeneous system of linear equations with coefficients $a_{ij}$ from a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. We say that a solution $x=(x_1,\ldots, x_k)$ with $x_1,\ldots, x_k\in \mathbb{F}_q^n$ is `generic' if every homogeneous balanced linear equation satisfied by $x$ is a linear combination of the given equations. We show that if the given system is `tame', subsets $S\subseteq \mathbb{F}_q^n$ without generic solutions must have exponentially small density. Here, the system is called tame if for every implied system the number of equations is less than half the number of used variables. Using a subspace sampling argument this also gives a `supersaturation result': there is a constant $c$ such that for $\epsilon>0$ sufficiently small, every subset $S\subseteq \mathbb{F}_q^n$ of size at least $q^{(1-\epsilon) n}$ contains $\Omega(q^{(k-m-\epsilon c)n})$ solutions as $n\to\infty$. For $q<4$ the tameness condition can be left out. Our main tool is a modification of the slice rank method to leverage the existence of many solutions in order to obtain high rank solutions., Comment: Changes to v2: few typos fixed

Dipolar magnon-magnon coupling has long been predicted in nano-patterned artificial spin systems. However, observation of such phenomena and related collective spin-wave signatures have until recently proved elusive or limited to low-power edge-modes which are difficult to measure experimentally. Here we describe the requisite conditions for dipolar mode-hybridisation, how it may be controlled, why it was not observed earlier and how strong coupling may occur between nanomagnet bulk-modes. We experimentally investigate four nano-patterned artificial spin system geometries: `chevron' arrays, `square', `staircase' and `brickwork' artificial spin ices. We observe significant dynamic dipolar-coupling in all systems with relative coupling strengths and avoided-crossing gaps supported by micromagnetic-simulation results. We demonstrate reconfigurable mode-hybridisation regimes in each system via microstate control, and in doing so elucidate the underlying dynamics governing dynamic dipolar-coupling with implications across reconfigurable magnonics. We demonstrate that confinement of the bulk-modes via edge effects play a critical role in dipolar hybridised-modes, and treating nanoislands as a coherently precessing macro-spins or standing spin-waves are insufficient to capture experimentally-observed coupling phenomena. Finally, we present a parameter-space search detailing how coupling strength may be tuned via nanofabrication-dimensions and material properties., Comment: Main: 9 pages, 5 figures. Supplement: 8 pages, 6 figures

In 2015, the PHENIX collaboration has measured single-spin asymmetries for charged pions in transversely polarized proton-proton collisions at the center of mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV. The pions were detected at central rapidities of $|\eta|<0.35$. The single-spin asymmetries are consistent with zero for each charge individually, as well as consistent with the previously published neutral-pion asymmetries in the same rapidity range. However, they show a slight indication of charge-dependent differences which may suggest a flavor dependence in the underlying mechanisms that create these asymmetries., Comment: 311 authors from 68 institutions, 8 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. 2015 data. v2 is version accepted for publication in Physical Review D. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.html

Let $p$ be a fixed odd prime and let $K$ be an imaginary quadratic field in which $p$ splits. Let $A$ be an abelian variety defined over $K$ with supersingular reduction at both primes above $p$ in $K$. Under certain assumptions, we give a growth estimate for the Mordell--Weil rank of $A$ over finite extensions inside the $\mathbb{Z}_p^2$-extension of $K$. In the last section, written by Chris Williams, he includes some speculative remarks on the $p$-adic $L$-functions for $\mathrm{GSp}(4)$ corresponding to the multi-signed Selmer groups constructed in this paper.

Consider a system of $m$ balanced linear equations in $k$ variables with coefficients in $\mathbb{F}_q$. If $k \geq 2m + 1$, then a routine application of the slice rank method shows that there are constants $\beta,\gamma \geq 1$ with $\gamma < q$ such that, for every subset $S \subseteq \mathbb{F}_q^n$ of size at least $\beta \cdot \gamma^n$, the system has a solution $(x_1,\ldots,x_k) \in S^k$ with $x_1,\ldots,x_k$ not all equal. Building on a series of papers by Mimura and Tokushige and on a paper by Sauermann, this paper investigates the problem of finding a solution of higher non-degeneracy; that is, a solution where $x_1,\ldots,x_k$ are pairwise distinct, or even a solution where $x_1,\ldots,x_k$ do not satisfy any balanced linear equation that is not a linear combination of the equations in the system. In this paper, we focus on linear systems with repeated columns. For a large class of systems of this type, we prove that there are constants $\beta,\gamma \geq 1$ with $\gamma < q$ such that every subset $S \subseteq \mathbb{F}_q^n$ of size at least $\beta \cdot \gamma^n$ contains a solution that is non-degenerate (in one of the two senses described above). This class is disjoint from the class covered by Sauermann's result, and captures the systems studied by Mimura and Tokushige into a single proof. Moreover, a special case of our results shows that, if $S \subseteq \mathbb{F}_p^n$ is a subset such that $S - S$ does not contain a non-trivial $k$-term arithmetic progression (with $p$ prime and $3 \leq k \leq p$), then $S$ must have exponentially small density., Comment: LaTeX, 26 pages, no figures. Changes since v1: added a few clarifications and other improvements to the exposition

The PHENIX collaboration presents a systematic study of $\pi^0$ production from $p$$+$$p$, $p$$+$Al, $p$$+$Au, $d$$+$Au, and $^{3}$He$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. Measurements were performed with different centrality selections as well as the total inelastic, 0%--100%, selection for all collision systems. For 0%--100% collisions, the nuclear modification factors, $R_{xA}$, are consistent with unity for $p_T$ above 8 GeV/$c$, but exhibit an enhancement in peripheral collisions and a suppression in central collisions. The enhancement and suppression characteristics are similar for all systems for the same centrality class. It is shown that for high-$p_T$-$\pi^0$ production, the nucleons in the $d$ and $^3$He interact mostly independently with the Au nucleus and that the counter intuitive centrality dependence is likely due to a physical correlation between multiplicity and the presence of a hard scattering process. These observations disfavor models where parton energy loss has a significant contribution to nuclear modifications in small systems. Nuclear modifications at lower $p_T$ resemble the Cronin effect -- an increase followed by a peak in central or inelastic collisions and a plateau in peripheral collisions. The peak height has a characteristic ordering by system size as $p$$+$Au $>$ $d$$+$Au $>$ $^{3}$He$+$Au $>$ $p$$+$Al. For collisions with Au ions, current calculations based on initial state cold nuclear matter effects result in the opposite order, suggesting the presence of other contributions to nuclear modifications, in particular at lower $p_T$., Comment: 554 authors from 81 institutions, 21 pages, 13 figures, and 3 tables. Data from 2008, 2014, and 2015. v2 is version accepted for publication in Physical Review C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.html

This brief summarizes successful strategies for creating a strong and stable teaching force. These strategies are drawn from "positive outlier" districts in California that have excelled at helping African American, Latino/a, and White students achieve at high levels on assessments of academic standards in English language arts and mathematics. Case studies of seven of these districts indicate several effective strategies for recruiting, developing, and retaining high-quality teachers. These strategies include a clear philosophy and effective process for teacher hiring, a well-developed teacher pipeline, a strategic long-term commitment to professional growth, and a focus on teacher retention. [This brief is based on the full report, "Closing the Opportunity Gap: How Positive Outlier Districts in California Are Pursuing Equitable Access to Deeper Learning. Positive Outliers Series" (ED610874).]

This brief summarizes the practices of successful, instructionally engaged leaders and the ways districts develop these leaders. These practices are drawn from "positive outlier" districts in California that have excelled at helping African American, Latino/a, and White students achieve at high levels on assessments of academic standards in English language arts and mathematics. Case studies of seven of these districts indicate that districts can develop leaders by identifying leadership talent from among teachers and then cultivating their talent to enable some to move into principalships and central office positions. Successful practices of these leaders included engagement in collaborative professional learning through observation of instruction, participation in professional learning communities, and use of student data to guide school and district decisions. [This brief is based on the full report, "Closing the Opportunity Gap: How Positive Outlier Districts in California Are Pursuing Equitable Access to Deeper Learning. Positive Outliers Series" (ED610874).]

Performance assessments are part of a robust assessment system in which students show what they know by writing an essay, curating a portfolio of work, or conducting original research. Ultimately, performance assessments can allow students to demonstrate college and career readiness through a culminating assessment--such as a graduate capstone or senior portfolio defense. The report on which this brief is based documents the work of three districts involved in the California Performance Assessment Collaborative: Los Angeles (ED610904), Oakland (ED610903), and Pasadena (ED610902) Unified School Districts. Through interviews, focus groups, and observations, we identify the key conditions needed to support the implementation of culminating performance assessments at the district, school, and classroom levels. We also examine students' and educators' perceptions of outcomes related to participation in performance assessment initiatives. Finally, we summarize lessons from the districts' experiences with performance assessments and present associated recommendations to district leaders and state policymakers. [For the full report, see ED610900.]

Performance assessments encompass a wide variety of activities, all of which require students to show what they know, rather than selecting answers from predetermined options on a multiple-choice test. For the graduate capstone, Oakland Unified School District (Oakland Unified) seniors conduct original research, write a paper based on the findings, and reflect upon their learning process. Students then present their research and analysis to a panel of judges and an audience of peers and community members. Oakland Unified built its graduate capstone work on an existing, though loosely defined, district graduation requirement called the senior project. The graduate capstone approach is grounded in research on how performance assessments can reliably assess student learning and also help students and educators strive for meaningful learning goals. The Oakland Unified case study draws on data from a range of sources, including documents, district administrative data, interviews with a range of personnel at the district and school levels, focus groups with teachers and students, observations of student performance assessments, and observations of professional learning opportunities for teachers. The study provides an in-depth description of how Oakland Unified has worked to advance districtwide implementation of the graduate capstone. The authors identified five emerging implications of Oakland Unified's performance assessment practices for student learning and teacher practice: (1) Districts can establish a strong and shared vision for why performance assessments matter; (2) Teachers and schools need supports to implement the vision; (3) Gradually cultivating buy-in can generate strong support for this work among early adopters; (4) Districts can allow sufficient flexibility for schools to make the work their own; and (5) Participating in performance assessments can shift teacher practice when effective supports are in place. This report is part of a series of three case studies examining the key district-, school-, and classroom-level conditions necessary to support high-quality performance assessment practices. All three districts (Los Angeles [ED610904], Oakland, and Pasadena [ED610902]) actively participate in the California Performance Assessment Collaborative (CPAC), a community of educators, researchers, and technical assistance providers who are working to study and advance the use of performance assessments throughout the state. A cross-case study that accompanies this report provides insights across all three case study districts, as well as recommendations for district policymakers interested in implementing well-designed performance assessments within their own context. [For the cross-case study, see ED610900.]

Across the country, educators need ways to assess student learning that can also support students' higher-order thinking skills, help improve teachers' instructional practices, and ultimately allow students to demonstrate college and career readiness through a culminating assessment--such as a graduate capstone or senior portfolio defense. In California, some of these educators participate in the California Performance Assessment Collaborative (CPAC), a network that supports the implementation of high-quality performance assessments. A substantial body of evidence shows performance assessments are a strategy to improve educational outcomes, but relatively little research examines the key conditions needed to support the implementation of high-quality performance assessments at the district, school, and classroom levels. The current study builds upon the work of CPAC to address this issue by documenting performance assessment initiatives in three districts: (1) Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles Unified) (ED610904); (2) Oakland Unified School District (Oakland Unified) (ED610903); and (3) Pasadena Unified School District (Pasadena Unified) (ED610902). While these districts each have a unique approach, all are committed to assessing student learning in a meaningful way that is aligned to the outcomes they hope all students will achieve by graduation. A series of district-level case studies accompanies this cross-cutting report. In this study, the authors investigated how districts and schools can build systems and structures for developing and implementing performance assessment initiatives across multiple sites. The analysis took into account educator interviews, teacher and student focus groups, observations of student presentations, and district administrative data and documents. The report shows that district performance assessment initiatives can contribute to improving teachers' instructional practices and students' learning outcomes, provided that strong supports are in place for participating students and teachers. [For the research brief, see ED610901.]

When California students returned to school in fall 2019, hundreds of thousands returned to classrooms staffed by substitutes and teachers who were not fully prepared to teach. In recent years, California has experienced widespread shortages of elementary and secondary teachers as districts and schools seek to restore class sizes and course offerings cut during the Great Recession. This report examines the most recent publicly available data from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) and public- and restricted-use student and staffing data from the California Department of Education (CDE) to highlight the status of teacher supply, demand, and shortages, as well as teacher diversity, in California. The report details the significance of these supply and demand factors and demonstrates how these conditions vary throughout the state. In addition, the report summarizes recent state investments in addressing teacher shortages and examines potential policy solutions to mitigate ongoing shortages. While this report is based largely on data that predates the COVID-19 pandemic, it discusses the key factors now emerging as the pandemic affects California's teacher workforce. Based on research on attracting and retaining teachers, the authors have identified eight strategies that state and local agencies in California can implement in order to address ongoing teacher shortages, particularly in high-need fields and schools. These include: (1) Maintaining and expanding high-retention pathways into teaching; (2) Providing service scholarships; (3) Access to mentoring and induction programs; (4) Streamlining requirements for entry into the profession; (5) Strengthening community college and high school pathways; (6) Improving teacher compensation and working conditions; (7) Developing strong school leaders; and (8) Strengthening state educator workforce data systems. [This report was developed as a companion to an online interactive map, "Understanding Teacher Shortages in California: A District- and County-Level Analysis of the Factors Influencing Teacher Supply and Demand," which can be found online at https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/interactive-map-understanding-teacher-shortages-california. For the accompanying research brief, see ED610881.]

Decades of research show that fully certified and experienced teachers matter for student achievement. Yet, providing all students with equitable access to such teachers has long been a struggle in U.S. schools. This report analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Education's two most recent years of the biannual Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)--2014 and 2016. These data shed light on the extent to which inequities in opportunities to learn exist at the state and national levels, and they can inform the appropriate remedies. To examine historically underserved students' access to certified and experienced teachers, this report divides schools within the CRDC into five groups based on the percentage of students of color enrolled. The analysis looks at two groups: schools serving the highest proportion of students of color and schools serving the lowest proportion of students of color. Ultimately, this report analyzes the extent to which schools with high and low enrollment of students of color have certified and experienced teachers. This analysis, which includes national and state information, demonstrates that students of color consistently have less access to certified and experienced teachers than their white peers. Specifically, this report finds: (1) Students in schools with a high proportion of students of color have less access to certified teachers than those in schools with a low proportion of students of color; (2) Students in schools with high enrollment of students of color have less access to certified teachers than their white peers regardless of locale; and (3) Students in schools with high student of color enrollment have less access to experienced teachers. The report concludes with key policy strategies for supporting teachers and increasing student access to certified and experienced teachers.

In 2015 the PHENIX collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider recorded $p$$+$$p$, $p$$+$Al, and $p$$+$Au collision data at center of mass energies of $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV with the proton beam(s) transversely polarized. At very forward rapidities $\eta>6.8$ relative to the polarized proton beam, neutrons were detected either inclusively or in (anti)correlation with detector activity related to hard collisions. The resulting single spin asymmetries, that were previously reported, have now been extracted as a function of the transverse momentum of the neutron as well as its longitudinal momentum fraction $x_F$. The explicit kinematic dependence, combined with the correlation information allows for a closer look at the interplay of different mechanisms suggested to describe these asymmetries, such as hadronic interactions or electromagnetic interactions in ultra-peripheral collisions, UPC. Events that are correlated with a hard collision indeed display a mostly negative asymmetry that increases in magnitude as a function of transverse momentum with only little dependence on $x_F$. In contrast, events that are not likely to have emerged from a hard collision display positive asymmetries for the nuclear collisions with a kinematic dependence that resembles that of a UPC based model. Because the UPC interaction depends strongly on the charge of the nucleus, those effects are very small for $p$$+$$p$ collisions, moderate for $p$$+$Al collisions, and large for $p$$+$Au collisions., Comment: 311 authors from 68 institutions, 12 pages, 8 figures, 2015 data. v2 is version accepted for publication in Physical Review D. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.html