Request for Applications for the Statewide Longitudinal Data System Grant Program

The purpose of this program is to provide grants to state education agencies to enable such agencies to design, develop, and implement statewide longitudinal data systems to efficiently and accurately manage, analyze, disaggregate, and use individual student data, consistent with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The long term goal of this program is to increase the number and capacity of comprehensive statewide longitudinal data systems, thereby permitting states to generate accurate and timely data to meet reporting requirements; support evidence-based education decision-making; and increase the efficiency and organization of transferring educational data among schools, districts, and states to improve student achievement. These grants will support the development of statewide longitudinal systems that link individual student data, promote interoperability across institutions and states, and protect student privacy consistent with applicable privacy protection laws. The submission deadline for the Statewide Longitudinal Data System Grants is September 25, 2008.

More information about the program can be found at
http://ies.ed.gov/funding/

New NCES Report on the 100 Largest School Districts: 2005-06

Nevada has 2 of the 100 largest school districts based on 2005-06 data: Clark County ranks # 6 and Washoe County ranks #58.

This report describes the characteristics of the 100 largest public elementary and secondary school districts in the United States and its jurisdictions. These districts are defined as the 100 largest according to the size of their student population. The information in this report was provided by state education agency officials to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for inclusion in the Common Core of Data (CCD). The report uses data from the 2005–06 school year and includes student membership and staff in public schools and school districts in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the Bureau of Indian Education, the Department
of Defense dependents schools (overseas and domestic), and the four outlying areas (American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). This report also includes graduate counts, high school dropout rates, and graduation rates for the 2004–05 school year and revenues and expenditures for fiscal year (FY) 2005.
Highlights of the report include the following:

• The 100 largest public school districts, representing less than 1 percent (0.6 percent) of all school districts in the United States and jurisdictions, were responsible for the education of 23 percent of all public school students.
• The 100 largest public school districts employed 22 percent of the United States and jurisdictions’ public school full-time-equivalent (FTE) teachers and contained 17 percent of all public schools and 20 percent of public high school completers.
• The 100 largest public school districts had larger average school enrollments compared to the average for all school districts (695 vs. 518) as well as a higher median pupil/teacher ratio (15.9 vs. 15.4).
• The percentage of students in the 100 largest public school districts who were other than White, non-Hispanic was 71 percent, compared to 44 percent of students in all school districts.
• In FY 2005, current expenditures per pupil in the 100 largest public school districts ranged from lows of $5,104 in the Puerto Rico Department of Education and $5,503 in the Alpine District, Utah to a high of $18,878 in the District of Columbia Public Schools and $17,988 in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Three states—California, Florida, and Texas—accounted for 45 percent of the 100 largest public school districts.

The report is available for viewing and download here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2008339

National Indian Education Study - Parts I & II

You can read about the findings from their look at 4th and 8th graders in two major reports. Report I deals with reading and math performance, while Report II presents information about the educational, home, and community experiences of American Indian and Alaska Native students in the United States. Executive summaries and full reports are downloadable here: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/nies/

Condition of Education 2008 - now available

The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released "The Condition of Education 2008," a congressionally mandated report that provides an annual portrait of education in the United States. The 43 indicators included in this year's report cover all aspects of education, from early childhood through postsecondary education and from student achievement to school environment and resources. Among the report's findings:

* This year, public school enrollment is expected to approach about 50 million students. Total public school enrollment is projected to set new records each year from 2008 to 2017, at which time it is expected to reach 54.1 million.

* Minority students make up 43 percent of the public school enrollment overall and 48 percent in the South and 55 percent in the West.

* In 2005–06, about a third of Black students and a third of Hispanic students attended high-poverty schools compared with 4 percent of White students.

* Average reading scores of 4th- and 8th-graders were higher in 2007 than in 1992.

* Average mathematics scores increased 27 points for 4th-graders and 19 points for 8th-graders between 1990 and 2007.

* Among public high school students in the class of 2005, about three-fourths graduated on time.

* Since 1970, women's undergraduate enrollment has increased over three times as fast as men's. Currently, women make up 57 percent of undergraduate enrollment.

* In 2006, young adults with a bachelor's degree earned about $11,000 more than those with an associate’s degree, about $16,000 more than those who had completed high school, and more than twice as much than those who did not earn a high school diploma.

The full text of "The Condition of Education 2008," along with related data tables and indicators from previous years, can be viewed at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe

New IES report: Guidelines for educational research

Here's the abstract from a new set of guidelines (Technical Methods Report: Guidelines for Multiple Testing in Impact Evaluations) on dealing with educational research that attempts to address multiple hypotheses ( by Peter Z. Schochet).

This report presents guidelines for addressing the multiple comparisons problem in impact evaluations in the education area. The problem occurs due to the large number of hypothesis tests that are typically conducted across outcomes and subgroups in these studies, which can lead to spurious statistically significant impact findings. The guidelines, which balance type I and type II errors, involve specifying confirmatory and exploratory analyses in the study protocols, structuring the data by delineating outcome domains, conducting t-tests on composite domain
outcomes, and applying multiplicity correction procedures to composites across domains. Guidelines are discussed for subgroup analyses, designs with multiple treatment groups, power analyses, and reporting impact findings. The report also provides background for applying the guidelines, including a detailed discussion of the multiplicity problem, statistical solutions that are found in the literature, and weighting options for forming composite domain outcomes.

You can find the full report here: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20084018.asp

New IES Report: Changes in the Characteristics, Services, and Performance of Preschoolers with Disabilities from 2003-04 to 2004-05

The National Center for Special Education Research within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the second major report from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study (PEELS)... PEELS involves a nationally representative sample of children, 3 to 5 years of age when they entered the study, with diverse disabilities who are receiving preschool special education services in a variety of settings. Topics covered in the report include declassification (children leaving special education), reclassification (movement from one primary disability group to another), changes over time in the special education and related services provided to preschoolers with disabilities, and changes in children's performance on a series of direct and indirect assessments in the areas of emerging literacy, early math skills, social be!
havior, and motor skills from 2003-04 to 2004-05.
You can view, download, and print the report at
http://ies.ed.gov/ncser/pubs/index.asp#20083011

New IES Report: Evaluation of Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs

The evaluation reports on the impacts on student achievement of two academic programs, one for reading and one for mathematics in grades 2-5. Compared to students attending regular after-school program activities, the students selected for the after-school math program received, on average, an additional 49 hours of instruction; students selected for the reading program received 48 hours of additional instruction, on average. The evaluation found a statistically significant difference in student math achievement favoring students in the math after-school program compared with those in the regular after-school activities. There was no statistically significant difference in reading achievement between students in the reading after-school program and those in the regular after-school activities.
Go to http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20084021.asp to view, print, and download the report.