State funding for higher education: Fiscal year 2007

The fifth annual SHEEO State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) study of state support
for higher education was issued today. There is an article summarizing the reports findings in today's Inside Higher Education; it includes a table comparing public higher ed institutions in all states. Nevada has higher than the national average for per student appropriations but appears to net considerably less of the tuition.

School district revenues and expenditures

The most recent data released by NCES is for fiscal year 2006. Specifics on what the report covers are summarized below. While Nevada was near the median in terms of both revenues and expenditures, there was over a 200% difference in expenditures per student for schools with the lowest vs. the highest revenues. The report is fairly brief with the bulk of information presented in tables.

"The School District Finance Survey for School Year 2005-06 (fiscal year 2006), part of the Common Core of Data (CCD), presents data submitted annually to NCES by state education agencies (SEAs) in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. All financial transactions associated with assets, expenditures, revenues, and indebtedness are accounted for, including revenues from federal, state, and local sources and expenditures in categories such as instruction and instruction-related activities, student support services, administration, operation, capital outlay, and debt services... this report focuses on school districts that operate public schools and charter school districts.

The survey found that regular school districts had median total revenues per pupil of $10,173 in FY 06. The federal range ratio was 1.9, which indicates that the magnitude of the difference between total revenues per pupil at the 5th ($7,349) and 95th ($21,048) percentiles of districts was approximately 190 percent. Independent charter school districts had median total revenues per pupil of $8,357 in FY 06, with a federal range ratio of 1.9. For regular school districts, median current expenditures per pupil were $8,587 in FY 06. Median expenditures per pupil on instruction and instruction-related activities in regular school districts were $5,528. For independent charter school districts, median current expenditures per pupil were $7,499 in FY 06. Median expenditures per pupil on instruction and instruction-related activities in independent charter school districts were $4,123."

Two new REL reports released

New from REL West -
"Characteristics of California school districts in improvement"
This descriptive analysis provides a statistical profile of California's Title I school districts in program improvement. As an independent analysis of these districts in the aggregate, it is intended to inform the context for district improvement as California rolls out and refines its district intervention strategies.
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?id=152

New from REL Central -
"Preparing teachers to teach in rural schools"
The Central Region states have greater percentages of rural students and schools than the U.S. average. This report describes how nine teacher preparation programs in the region prepare their graduates for teaching positions in rural settings.
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?id=10

Effects of Preschool Curriculum Programs on School Readiness

The National Center for Education Research within the Institute of Education Sciences today released the report on the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research (PCER) initiative, an efficacy evaluation of several preschool curricula. The report, Effects of Preschool Curriculum Programs on School Readiness, provides individual results for each curriculum evaluated. Under the PCER initiative, twelve research teams were funded to implement and conduct research on 14 preschool curricula in a variety of settings serving predominantly low-income children under an experimental design. Evaluation data were collected from all research sites in fall and spring of the preschool year and spring of the kindergarten year using a common set of measures. The goal of the PCER initiative was to identify the impact of each preschool curriculum on five student-level outcomes (reading, phonological awareness, language, mathematics, and behavior) and six classroom-level outcomes (classroom quality, teacher-child interaction, and four types of instruction). This final report presents findings for the impact of each curriculum on student-level and classroom-level outcomes.

2008 Schott report on graduation rates of black males

Today's Inside Higher Education notes, "A new analysis shows just how poorly many states are doing at graduating black males from high school. The Schott Foundation for Public Education last week released an “education inequity index,” comparing black male and white male graduation rates for high school — and the figures may be chilling for colleges hoping to boost black male enrollments. Nationally only 47 percent of black male students are graduating from high school with their cohorts, and in 10 states, the gap in black male and white male graduation rates is at least 30 points, let by Wisconsin, where the black male rate is 36 percent and the white male rate is 87 percent. Michigan, Illinois and Nebraska also have gaps of more than 40 percentage points. The states with the narrowest gaps (or none) tend to be states where there are relatively few black students, Vermont and Maine for example."

Nevada ranks 16th highest in the inequity index and has lower than national averages for graduation rates of both black (40%) and white (55% ) males.

"For over five years, The Schott Foundation for Public Education has tracked the performance of Black males in public education systems across the nation. Past efforts by Schott were designed to raise the nation’s consciousness about the critical education issues affecting Black males; low graduation rates, high rates of placement in special education, and the disproportionate use of suspensions and expulsions, to name a few.

The 2008 edition, Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, details the drastic range of outcomes for Black males, especially the tragic results in many of the nation’s biggest cities. Given Half a Chance also deliberately highlights the resource disparities that exist in schools attended by Black males and their White, non-Hispanic counterparts. The 2008 Schott report documents that states and most districts with large Black enrollments educate their White, non-Hispanic children, but do not similarly educate the majority of their Black male students...

• More than half of Black males did not receive diplomas with their cohort in 2005/2006.

These trends... are evidence of a school-age population that is substantively denied an opportunity to learn, and of a nation at risk." (from the Executive Summary at http://www.blackboysreport.org/node/106)

Give Margaret Spellings an A+ for Guts

No kidding! Would you be willing to take on Stephen Colbert? You just have to give her extra credit for that :-) Although he did try to give her a bad time about the need for a federal mandate on spanking and the potential value of leaving some children behind, she held her own in standing up for NCLB--check out this short video clip . (Disclaimer: I do not intend through this post to advocate for Spellings, the Bush administration or NCLB.)

Career & Technical Education Trends, 1995-2005

Since a substantial number of students come to our campuses from (or in conjunction with) the community college system, I thought this recently released (July 2008) report, or at least the Executive Summary, might be of interest.
"The National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences has released the report "Career and Technical Education in the United States: 1990-2005," the fourth volume to describe trends in career and technical education (CTE, formerly known as vocational education). The compendium looks over time at CTE offerings, who participates in CTE, what types of CTE students take, who teaches CTE, and the labor market and further education outcomes attained [emphasis added] by CTE participants..."

Regional Education Laboratories Program Report on AZ Schools

There's a new report out on the characteristics of Arizona's lowest performing schools--part of a school improvement effort. The research is done under the auspices of the REL West, of which Nevada is a part: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/

Preserve YOUR copy rights!

Read this post on the Duke U. Scholarly Communications blog: http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/
APA (American Psychological Association) is trying to charge authors for putting their NIH-funded work into into PubMed--as mandated by law. This is a good reminder that the creators of the content--you the faculty--are the only ones who can rein in such attempts by the publishers. If you need more information on how to negotiate maintenance of copyright for articles you want to publish, see the tips at the SPARC website.

Upcoming online seminars on applying for research funding

"The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) will host a series of webinars related to research funding opportunities at the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Research (NCER)." Everything from "Grant Writing Workshop for Young Investigators" to information on training grants and targeted funding is being offered in the next few weeks by IES. See the schedule here: http://ies.ed.gov/funding/webinars/

Preparing to serve ELL students: IES REL report

Preparing to Serve English Language Learner Students: School Districts with Emerging English Language Learner Communities: "This report aims to help school districts deal with the challenges of newly enrolling or rapidly increasing English language learner students by offering background information and sharing the experiences of districts that have addressed similar challenges in providing services and infrastructure to support the success of English language learner students."

What Works Clearinghouse: 2 new Quick Reviews

The Advantage of Abstract Examples in Learning Math: "This study examined whether college students are better able to apply knowledge of simple mathematical concepts when they are taught the concepts using abstract symbols or concrete examples... College students taught the mathematical concepts using abstract symbols were better able to apply this knowledge to a new example than college students taught using concrete examples."

The Effects of Teach for America in High School: "This study examined whether having a Teach For America (TFA) teacher instead of a non-TFA teacher affects the academic performance of high school students...TFA improved student performance on standardized end-of-course tests in math and science—by about one-tenth of a standard deviation. This is equivalent to moving a student from the 50th to the 54th percentile."

New report issued on the impact of the Spellings Commission

The National Assoc. of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) has issued an analysis of what's happened in the two years since the Spellings Commission (A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education) issued its report on higher education. According to Inside Higher Ed (July 15), "It dispassionately presents and balances the often conflicting viewpoints of participants in the commission’s work and aftermath..." Inside Higher Ed has put together this bibliography of news coverage on the Commission's report: http://insidehighered.com/news/focus/commission

The NACUBO report itself offers this: “[T]he impact of the Commission and the effectiveness of the initiative overall can be seen most clearly in: 1) the attention it afforded to the issues and themes addressed in the Report and follow-up activities; 2) the dialogue that has been stimulated by these efforts; and 3) the numerous voluntary improvement projects and programs that have been energized and inspired during this period...However, the effort has had considerably less impact and success in fostering the kind of mutual respect, constructive collaboration, and engaged partnering that seems necessary to unite the higher education community, Congress, and the Department in the joint pursuit of a common agenda.” Read the full report here:
Assessing the impact of the Spellings Commission : the message, the messenger, and the
dynamics of change in higher education. Brent D. Ruben, Laurie Lewis, Louise Sandmeyer ;
with Travis Russ, Stacy Smulowitz, Kate Immordino.

America's Children: Key Indicators of Well-Being, 2008

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics has released America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2008. The annual report profiles the status of the nation's children and youth, presenting up-to-date federal statistics in one convenient reference. The National Center for Education Statistics in the Institute of Education Sciences is one of the 22 federal agencies that participate in the Forum and contribute to the report. In addition to information on education, the report also includes indicators on child poverty, health care, housing, and at-risk behavior.

You can view, download, and print the report at http://www.childstats.gov/

NCSER grant applications: Letters of intent due August 4

The National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) within the Institute of Education Sciences is accepting applications for its research grant programs. The ten research topics are:

* Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education
* Reading, Writing, and Language Development
* Mathematics and Science Education
* Social and Behavioral Outcomes to Support Learning
* Transition Outcomes for Special Education Secondary Students
* Cognition and Student Learning in Special Education
* Teacher Quality
* Related Services
* Systemic Interventions and Policies for Special Education
* Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The Request for Applications is currently available on the NCSER website http://ies.ed.gov/ncser/funding/. The application package will be available through www.grants.gov by August 4, 2008. Letters of intent are due August 4, 2008. Applications must be submitted electronically by October 2, 2008 at 4:30 p.m., Washington, D.C. time. For more information, please contact Kristen Lauer (Kristen.Lauer@ed.gov; 202-219-0377).

Stanford School of Ed mandates open access for scholarly publishing

I actually heard this information from a faculty member at Stanford who was a panelist on open access publishing at the national library conference a couple weeks ago. This blurb made it into Inside Higher Education today (July 10).

"Stanford University’s School of Education has decided to require all faculty members to make their scholarly articles available online and free. The open access movement has been gaining ground of late, and the Stanford move is the first such policy by an education school."

A more complete account is in the July 9 Stanford News Service.

Are you really ready for the TEACH grants?

This article in the July 1 Inside Higher Ed cautions that the application for and acceptance of TEACH grants be accompanied by clear information about the obligations of grantees that must be met in order to avoid these monies turning into loans that accrue interest--especially since the Congressional Budget office estimates that 80% of these grants will convert to loans. Useful discussion about the situations where these grants are likely to be most beneficial is included. There is a link to the TEACH grant page itself, a link to implementation suggestions and a link to a powerpoint presentation outlining actions that education institutions can take to get ready for the program.

NCTQ issues report on elementary math prep for teachers

The National Council on Teacher Quality has issued a new report which reports the results of their study of elementary math teacher education programs. According to the July 3 Inside Higher Ed, "A report released Friday by the National Council on Teacher Quality looked at 77 elementary education programs from all states but Alaska, examining the math courses elementary teacher candidates had to take. The report looked at three factors: “relevance,” the extent to which courses were relevant to what candidates would be teaching in the field; “breadth,” the degree to which “essential” topics are covered; and “depth,” if enough time was given to these topics.

Only 10 of the 77 programs scored adequately on all three criteria, according to the report,"No Common Denominator: The Preparation of Elementary Teachers in Mathematics by America's Education Schools."

Several appendices in the report offer rubrics for evaluating elementary mathematics textbooks, sample math course syllabi and sample practice teaching assignments.