Paying for College Success: An Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration

Education and Literacy

Paying for College Success: An Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration

This policy brief describes a demonstration launched by MDRC in four states in 2008 to evaluate whether performance-based scholarships -- paid contingent on attaining academic benchmarks -- are an effective way to improve persistence and academic success among low-income college students. The demonstration builds on positive results from an earlier MDRC study in Louisiana.

August 1970

Geographic Focus:

Paying for College Success: An Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration

Education and Literacy

Paying for College Success: An Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration

This policy brief describes a demonstration launched by MDRC in four states in 2008 to evaluate whether performance-based scholarships -- paid contingent on attaining academic benchmarks -- are an effective way to improve persistence and academic success among low-income college students. The demonstration builds on positive results from an earlier MDRC study in Louisiana.

August 1970

Geographic Focus:

Building Student Success From the Ground Up: A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College

Education and Literacy

Building Student Success From the Ground Up: A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College

Achieving the Dream teaches community colleges to use student data to improve programming and student success. Since participating, Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina has become a data-driven, success-oriented institution and has seen promising trends in student achievement. This study offers lessons for other colleges undertaking similar institutional reform.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Southern) / North Carolina

Building Student Success From the Ground Up: A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College

Education and Literacy

Building Student Success From the Ground Up: A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College

Achieving the Dream teaches community colleges to use student data to improve programming and student success. Since participating, Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina has become a data-driven, success-oriented institution and has seen promising trends in student achievement. This study offers lessons for other colleges undertaking similar institutional reform.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Southern) / North Carolina

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers: The Role of Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Programs in Massachusetts

Education and Literacy

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers: The Role of Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Programs in Massachusetts

Over the past decade, alternative teacher preparation programs have proliferated across the nation -- and in Massachusetts -- in response to projected teacher shortages and in an effort to better prepare teachers for the challenges of today's classrooms. While the vast majority of Massachusetts teachers are trained through traditional teacher preparation programs, both the number of alternative route programs and the number of teachers completing them has grown significantly.

National research comparing alternative and traditional routes to teaching offers little empirical evidence to guide policy changes. Yet there has been a shift in teacher preparation programs toward: longer and more intense field-based experiences; closing the gap between theory and practice; partnerships between preparation programs and local school districts; and accountability in teacher preparation. It is within this context that the Rennie Center embarked upon a project to examine the role of alternative routes to teaching in Massachusetts. As part of this project, the Rennie Center convened a diverse working group, which examined the characteristics of alternative teacher preparation programs in the Commonwealth, including the type of candidates they attract, and examined issues associated with the expansion and sustainability of these programs. This report is the culmination of the Rennie Center's year-long project.

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers: The Role of Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Programs in Massachusetts highlights gaps in knowledge and areas for improvement, and lays the groundwork necessary for a deeper look at issues associated with drawing exceptional candidates into the teaching profession; filling vacant positions; measuring teacher quality; and holding teacher preparation programs accountable.

The final section of the report puts forth considerations for policymakers, K-12 school and district leaders, and institutions of higher education. The report encourages the state to facilitate and encourage communication and collaboration between those that train teachers and those that hire them, and provide teacher preparation programs with access to the state data system so they may more easily evaluate their programs. The report also encourages K-12 district leaders and deans of college and university departments of education to create lend-lease programs that would allow expert teachers to work as adjunct professors in schools of education without forfeiting their role as K-12 teachers as a way to bring both the clinical and contextualized knowledge of schools and districts into teacher training.

The report was the subject of discussion at a public event on November 19, 2009.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Northeastern) / Massachusetts

Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Community and Economic Development;Computers and Technology;Education and Literacy

Harnessing Openness to Improve Research, Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Colleges and universities should embrace the concept of increased openness in the use and sharing of information to improve higher education. That is the core recommendation of this report. The report was produced by CED's Digital Connections Council (DCC), a group of information technology experts that advises CED's business leaders on cutting-edge technologies.

August 1970

Geographic Focus:

Communicating Education Metrics

Education and Literacy, Nonprofits and Philanthropy

Communicating Education Metrics

Communicating social metrics efficiently can be a challenging but essential component of effective program or advocacy strategy. Our research highlights eight types of communication tools, which demonstrate options to convey complex data to a wide range of users. While most of these tools highlight education-related metrics, each can be adapted and used in other fields as well.

August 1970

Geographic Focus:

Melrose School Site Planning: A Neighborhood Analysis for OUSD

Education and Literacy

Melrose School Site Planning: A Neighborhood Analysis for OUSD

Melrose School Site Planning: A Neighborhood Analysis for OUSD is a example of using various data sources to aid in school site planning and consolidation. It provides a brief summary of neighborhood demographics, likely future student populations from birth rates in the area, issues of crime and foreclosure on safety and neighborhood stability.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Western)-California-Alameda County-Oakland

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