Computers and Technology, Education and Literacy
Reading is foundational to learning and the information acquisition upon which people make decisions. For centuries, the capacity to read has been a benchmark of literacy and involvement in community life. In the 21st Century, across all types of U.S. communities, reading is a common activity that is pursued in myriad ways.
As technology and the digital world expand and offer new types of reading opportunities, residents of urban, suburban, and rural communities at times experience reading and e-reading differently. In the most meaningful ways, these differences are associated with the demographic composition of differentkinds of communities -- the age of the population, their overall level of educational attainment, and the general level of household income.
Several surveys by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project reveal interesting variations among communities in the way their residents read and use reading-related technology and institutions.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
Education and Literacy;International Development
Effective, evidence-based policies on post-primary education are of vital importance as many developing countries start to the see a bulge in secondary and postsecondary enrollment, the product of the achievement of near-universal access to primary school. Finding ways to deliver and promote access to high-quality post-primary education, and to ensure that education is relevant to labor market needs, is one of the great challenges of our times. This must be accomplished in countries where governments face severe budget constraints and many, of not most, parents are too poor to cover the costs out of pocket.
International reports such as "A Global Compact on Learning", by the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, emphasize providing opportunities for post-primary education as a first-tier policy challenge. In addition, there has been considerably less progress in gender parity at the secondary level. Meeting these challenges will require a combination of using existing resources more effectively -- which requires both understanding which inputs are key and which are not -- and a range of innovations that may fundamentally alter the current methods of instruction.
To that end, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) has launched a Post-Primary Education Initiative intended to promote policy-relevant research on secondary and post-secondary education in developing countries, which together will be referred to as post-primary education. This paper is a first step in that process. It reviews the evidence to date on post-primary education and highlight the gaps in the literature, with a focus on identifying policies that should be given the highest priority for future research
Different countries define primary and secondary schooling differently, and in many countries students attend middle schools, upper primary schools, or junior secondary schools before attending secondary school. For the purpose of this review, "post-primary education" includes everything from upper primary, middle, or junior secondary school through tertiary education, as defined by the local context in different countries, including vocational school and other alternative tracks for this age group. In practice, this means that in the research reviewed, the majority of children are in 5th grade (i.e. 10-11 years old) and older.
The review is organized as follows. Section II provides some background on postprimary education in the developing world. Section III explains how papers were selected for this review. Section IV presents a conceptual framework for thinking about postprimary education (PPE), including a brief discussion of measuring outcomes. Section V reviews the evidence pertaining to the demand for schooling (the impact of policies that attempt to increase the willingness of households to send their children to school), and Section VI reviews the evidence on the supply of schooling (the impact of policies that change school and teacher characteristics, and more generally how schools are organized). A final section summarizes the findings, highlighting several research gaps that should receive high priority in future research.
August 1970
Geographic Focus:
In recent years, 'continuous improvement' has become a popular catchphrase in the field of education. However, while continuous improvement has become commonplace and well-documented in other industries, such as healthcare and manufacturing, little is known about how this work has manifested itself in education.
This white paper attempts to map the landscape of this terrain by identifying and describing organizations engaged in continuous improvement, and by highlighting commonalities and differences among them. The findings classify three types of organizations engaged in continuous improvement: those focused on instructional improvement at the classroom level; those concentrating on system-wide improvement; and those addressing collective impact. Each type is described in turn and illustrated by an organizational case study. Through the analysis, six common themes that characterize all three types of organizations (e.g., leadership and strategy, communication and engagement, organizational infrastructure, methodology, data collection and analysis, and building capacity) are enumerated.
This white paper makes four concluding observations. First, the three case studies provide evidence of organizations conducting continuous improvement work in the field of education, albeit at different levels and in different ways. Second, entry points to continuous improvement work are not mutually exclusive, but are nested and, hence, mutually informative and comparative. Third, continuous improvement is not synonymous with improving all organizational processes simultaneously; rather, research and learning cycles are iterative and gradual in nature. Fourth, despite being both iterative and gradual, it is imperative that improvement work is planned and undertaken in a rigorous, thoughtful, and transparent fashion.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Southern)-Maryland-Montgomery County, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Wisconsin-Waukesha County-Menomonee Falls, North America-United States (Midwestern)-Ohio-Hamilton County-Cincinnati
Children and Youth, Crime and Safety, Education and Literacy
The primary mission of North Carolina schools is to provide students an excellent education. To fully achieve this mission, schools must not only be safe, but also developmentally appropriate, fair, and just.
Unfortunately, many so-called "school safety" proposals in the wake of the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut have been shortsighted measures inspired by political expediency but unsupported by data. We aim to provide a more thoughtful approach informed by decades of research and centered on the mission of public schools.
This issue brief responds to the newly established N.C. Center for Safer Schools, which has requested public input on "local concerns and challenges related to school safety" and has made available the opportunity to submit written comments.
The first section of the brief debunks common myths and provides essential facts that must provide the backdrop for the school safety debate. The second section offers proven methods of striving for safe, developmentally appropriate, fair, and just public schools. It also provides examples of reforms from other cities and states. The third section makes note of resources that we encourage Center staff to study carefully.
This brief rests on several key premises. First, "school safety" includes both physical security of students as well as their emotional and psychological well-being. Many of the proposals following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School have had an overly narrow focus on physical security at the expense of this broader picture of holistic student well-being. Second, public education in this state needs more funding in order for schools to even have a chance of achieving their core mission. North Carolina consistently ranks among the worst states in the country for funding of public education.
Schools need more resources to implement measures that can truly ensure student safety. Third, student well-being depends on a coordinated effort by all the systems that serve youth. For example, school safety will be helped by laws that keep guns off school property and by full funding of the child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems. Finally, this issue brief is not intended to be a comprehensive set of suggestions.
Instead, our focus is on providing the Center important context that we view as missing from the current debate.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Southern)-North Carolina
Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
Rural Pulse™ is a research study that has been commissioned by the Blandin Foundation since 1998 to gain a real-time snapshot of the concerns, perceptions and priorities of rural Minnesota residents. This initiative was last conducted in 2010 and served to identify trends within significant, complex subject areas including the economy, education, employment and quality of life. Past studies have also included canvassing opinions within the Foundation's "home" area as well as among Blandin Community Leadership and Blandin Reservation Community Leadership Program alumni.
The Foundation chose to undertake this effort again in 2013 to accomplish the following objectives: Understand the issues rural residents and leaders prioritize within their communities; Learn if community needs are being adequately addressed;Compare and contrast issue movement in comparison to past Rural Pulse studies; and, new for 2013, Gain an understanding of how the opinions of urban Minnesotans and those of ethnic and cultural differences compare to at-large findings.
This particular documents compares the attitudes of rural Minnesotans versus those who live in Minnesota's urban areas.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Minnesota
Community and Economic Development, Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
How are rural Minnesotans experiencing their communities? What are their priorities? How are they weathering storms? We conduct the Rural Pulse periodically to find out.
The 2013 Rural Pulse is the largest and deepest poll we have ever undertaken. For the first time, we also tapped the opinions of urban residents and looked deeper for racial and cultural perspectives.
The bottom line? Minnesotans across the board remain very optimistic about their futures. We also share a belief that rural communities offer tremendous quality of life and that Minnesota is stronger when rural voices are heard and differences are appreciated. Threatening optimism, however, are very real concerns -- still -- about the economy.
Minnesota communities are not unlike the ecosystem of the state itself -- a network of mutual interdependence in which even the smallest towns play their own vital role. Cities, suburbs and exurbs are linked to the communities, villages and townships of rural Minnesota in complex and profound ways.
Blandin Foundation stands with rural community leaders as they design and claim ambitious, hopeful futures that benefit all residents. Rural Pulse 2013 helps us to see where Minnesota still has some work to do.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Minnesota
Community and Economic Development, Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
Rural Pulse™ is a research study that has been commissioned by the Blandin Foundation since 1998 to gain a real-timesnapshot of the concerns, perceptions and priorities of rural Minnesota residents. This initiative was last conducted in 2010and served to identify trends within significant, complex subject areas such as the economy, education, employment andquality of life.
Past studies have also included canvassing opinions within the Foundation's "home" geographical area as well as among Blandin Community Leadership and Blandin Reservation Community Leadership Program alumni. The Foundation chose to undertake this effort again in 2013 to accomplish the following objectives: Understand the issues rural residents and leaders prioritize within their communities; Learn if community needs are being adequately addressed; Compare and contrast issue movement in comparison to past Rural Pulse studies; and, new for 2013, Gain an understanding of how the opinions of urban Minnesotans and those of ethnic and cultural differences compare to at-large findings. The Blandin Foundation also is providing an urban dimension to this year's study, made possible through support from the Minnesota Community Foundation.
This document is the executive summary of this research study
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Minnesota
Community and Economic Development, Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
Rural Pulse™ is a research study that has been commissioned by the Blandin Foundation since 1998 to gain a real-time snapshot of the concerns, perceptions and priorities of rural Minnesota residents. This initiative was last conducted in 2010 and served to identify trends within significant, complex subject areas including the economy, education, employment and quality of life.
Past studies have also included canvassing opinions within the Foundation's "home" area as well as among Blandin Community Leadership and Blandin Reservation Community Leadership Program alumni. The Foundation chose to undertake this effort again in 2013 to accomplish the following objectives:Understand the issues rural residents and leaders prioritize within their communities; Learn if community needs are being adequately addressed; Compare and contrast issue movement in comparison to past Rural Pulse studies; and, new for 2013, Gain an understanding of how the opinions of urban Minnesotans and those of ethnic and cultural differences compare to at-large findings.
This particular document concerns the difference in attitudes between rural Minnesotans and those in the Foundation's "home area" - defined as the Grand Rapids and Itasca County area, including the communities of Blackduck, Hill City, Northome and Remer.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Minnesota
