We use non-experimental data from a large panel of schools and districts in Indiana to evaluate the impacts of math curricula on student achievement. Using matching methods, we obtain causal estimates of curriculum effects at just a fraction of what it would cost to produce experimental estimates. Furthermore, external validity concerns that are particularly cogent in experimental curricular evaluations suggest that our non-experimental estimates may be preferred. In the short term, we find large differences in effectiveness across some math curricula. However, as with many other educational inputs, the effects of math curricula do not persist over time. Across curriculum adoption cycles, publishers that produce less effective curricula in one cycle do not lose market share in the next cycle. One explanation for this result is the dearth of information available to administrators about curricular effectiveness.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Indiana
MacSwan finds that the CEP report has significant weaknesses in its research methods which undermine its findings. Further, he indicates that given the limitations in the data, it is inappropriate to draw conclusions from the data summarized in the report.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
A survey of Milwaukee Kindergarten teachers finds nearly all (97%) report they can generally tell early in the school year which children attended preschool and which did not. Teachers also feel that those who attended preschool typically perform much better in Kindergarten and at least somewhat better after that. The survey of 77 teachers of five-year-old Kindergarten (K5) in the Milwaukee public school district (MPS) also finds that most teachers (93%) feel children with preschool or four-year-old Kindergarten (K4) backgrounds are somewhat to much better prepared to enter K5 than their peers. In addition, the majority (83%) feel spending time in preschool or K4 is very important prior to entering K5. These findings hold true for teachers in schools with higher-than-average enrollments of low-income children, as well as teachers in schools with fewer low-income children.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Wisconsin-Milwaukee County-Milwaukee
This report, which is a comprehensive examination of enrollment patterns in charter schools operated by Education Management organizations (EMOs), finds that charter schools run by EMOs are segregated by race, family income, disabilities and English language learner status as compared with their local public schools districts.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
Arts and Culture, Children and Youth, Education and Literacy
This is the second of three annual performance reports from the Performing Arts Workshop to the U.S. Department of Education about Project ARISE (Arts Residency Interventions in Special Education). The report includes performance measure data for the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grants program. The ARISE Project offers public schools weekly artist residencies lasting between 25 and 30 weeks in theater arts and creative movement for third to fifth grade students. Classrooms participating in ARISE are identified as Special Day Classes or general education classes with special education inclusion (or mainstreamed) students. The ARISE residencies emphasize critical-thinking while engaging in the creative process. In the 2008-09 school year, the Workshop provided ARISE residencies to 22 classrooms from five schools within the San Francisco Unified School District
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Western)-California-San Francisco County-San Francisco
Community and Economic Development, Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
This brief provides original research demonstrating the growing gap between the workforce literacy skills of the working-age population and the needs of businesses in Philadelphia. In-depth information is available on: the definitions for prose, document, and quantitative literacy; literacy levels by demographics; comparisons between literacy levels in Philadelphia and the surrounding region; qualitative employer surveys; and projections of future literacy levels.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Northeastern)-Pennsylvania-Philadelphia County-Philadelphia
Community and Economic Development, Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
In today's economy, strong basic skills and success in the workforce are intertwined. Employers across all industries demand a new kind of worker, and businesses can go virtually anywhere to find the right employees. In order to compete in today's global economy, Philadelphia must commit to becoming a city with a world-class, highly literate workforce. This policy brief, written in response to the publication Help Wanted: Knowledge Workers Needed, proposes strategies for uniting the full community to advance adult workforce literacy levels. Many of the strategies described in this policy brief are also applicable to areas throughout the country facing this same challenge.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Northeastern)-Pennsylvania-Philadelphia County-Philadelphia
Children and Youth;Education and Literacy;Immigration
Immigrant parents face significant barriers as they try to engage with their children's early educational experiences, including greatly restricted access for many due to limited English proficiency and functional literacy. Parental engagement is critical for young children's early cognitive and socioemotional development, and for their participation in programs that are designed to support early learning. Reducing the barriers to parent engagement in early childhood education and care (ECEC) programs would encourage school success, and help many young children of immigrants close the gaps in kindergarten readiness with their native peers.
Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the size and share of the U.S. young-child population with at least one immigrant parent, posing challenges to policymakers and front-line programs in the early childhood arena. These demographic changes are converging with efforts in many states to expand early childhood services and improve their quality. With one in four young children in the United States living in an immigrant family, efforts to build trust and establish meaningful two-way communication with these families is an urgent priority if system expansion efforts are to realize their purpose.
Many programs face difficulties engaging with immigrant and refugee parents who often require support building U.S. cultural and systems knowledge and in overcoming English language and literacy barriers. These difficulties have been exacerbated in recent years as adult basic education and English instruction programs, which early childhood programs such as Head Start had previously relied on to support parents in need of these skills, have been significantly reduced.
Against this backdrop, this report identifies the unique needs of newcomer parents across the range of expectations for parent skill, engagement, and leadership sought by ECEC programs, and strategies undertaken to address these needs. The study is based on field research in six states, expert interviews, a literature review, and a sociodemographic analysis.
December 1969
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
