Putting dollars before scholars? Evidence from for-profit charter schools in Florida

This paper compares for- and non-profit management of charter schools in Florida using a unique dataset combining enrollment and student proficiency data with the annual independent financial audits filed by all charter schools. Comparisons reveal that independent for- and non-profit charter schools locate in similar markets and serve similar student bodies, whereas for-profits belonging to a network locate in lower income, denser, and more Hispanic areas. Bearing out the concerns of parents and policymakers, regression estimates indicate that, among independent charters, for-profits spend less per pupil on instruction and achieve lower student proficiency gains. By contrast, among charter schools belonging to a network, for-profits spend approximately 11% less per pupil, but expenses on student instruction are not being cut. The estimates, which control for differences across schools in student composition and other characteristics, imply that an equivalent level of per pupil expenses purchases about 0.03σ higher student proficiency at network for-profit charter schools.     

Parent Involvement,Influence, and Satisfaction in Magnet Schools: Do Reasons for Choice Matter?

This paper explores the relationships between parents' reasons for choosing a magnet school and their levels of satisfaction, involvement, and influence with the school. Data are reported from over a thousand magnet school parents in two urban districts. The results suggest three general findings: (1) As reported in previous research, magnet school parents choose schools for a wide array of reasons and are highly satisfied with their chosen school; (2) parents' reasons for choice are important predictors of their levels of satisfaction, influence, and involvement with the school; and (3) parents who choose for values reasons, as compared to other reasons, are more likely to be involved in and satisfied with their school of choice and report that parents have influence over school decisions.     

Do children spend too much time in schools? Evidence from a longer school year in Indonesia

I examine the effects of a longer school year in Indonesia on grade repetition, educational attainment, employability, and earnings. I exploit an arbitrary rule that assigned students to a longer school year in Indonesia in 1978–1979, which fits a fuzzy regression discontinuity design. I find the longer school year decreases the probability of grade repetition and increases educational attainment; it also increases the probability of working in formal sectors and wages later in life. These results suggest the length of school years in Indonesia is not too long.     

Do college admissions counselors discriminate? Evidence from a correspondence-based field experiment

I design and implement a correspondence based field experiment to test for race and gender discrimination among college admissions counselors in the student information gathering stage. The experiment uses names to identify student race and gender, and student grade, SAT score, and writing differences to reflect varying levels of applicant quality. I find that counselors do not respond differently by race in most cases, but there are measurable differences in response/non-response and in the type of correspondence sent that favor female students. I also find that the quality of the student induces large differences in the type of response.     

Do you get what you pay for with school-based health programs? Evidence from a child nutrition experiment in rural China

This study uses a randomized controlled trial of a school-based anemia reduction program in rural China to examine how increased school emphasis on health promotion affects academic performance. Although education and health promotion are complementary functions of schools, they do compete for finite school resources. We compare the effects of a traditional program that provided only information about anemia and subsidies to an otherwise identical program that included performance incentives for school principals based on school-level anemia prevalence. By the end of the trial, exam scores among students who were anemic at baseline improved under both versions of the program, but scores among students in the incentive group who were healthy at baseline fell relative to healthy students in the control group. Results suggest that performance incentives to improve student health increase the impact of school-based programs on student health outcomes, but may also lead to reallocation of school resources.     

Are teachers ready for CLIL? Evidence from a European study

This article presents the outcomes of a European study on the main training needs which pre- and in-service teachers, teacher trainers, and coordinators consider they have in order to adapt to a bilingual education model. The macro-study has designed, validated and administered four sets of questionnaires to 706 informants across the whole of Europe, which have allowed a detailed diagnosis of language teachers’ training needs in terms of linguistic and intercultural competence, theoretical and methodological aspects based on the new options associated to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), teaching materials and resources, and ongoing professional development. After framing the topic against the backdrop of prior investigations, the article expounds on the research design of the study and outlines its main findings in relation to the afore-mentioned fields of interest. A detailed diagnosis of where we currently stand in this process of preparation for CLIL models in Europe is provided and within- and across-cohort comparison is carried out in terms of a series of intervening variables. The ultimate aim is to base decisions regarding language degrees and teacher training courses on empirically grounded guidelines in order to guarantee a success-prone implementation of CLIL in our continent, country and region.     

Do schools discriminate against homosexual parents? Evidence from a randomized correspondence experiment

The recognition of homosexual rights is a controversial issue in many countries. Spain was the third country in the world (after the Netherlands and Belgium) to introduce a law recognizing homosexual marriage and the adoption of children by homosexual couples. In this paper, we examine for the first time whether schools are more hesitant about giving feedback to homosexual parents during children's pre-registration period in Catalonia (Spain). To do so, we designed a correspondence experiment to be conducted in schools. We created three types of fictitious couples—one heterosexual, one gay, and one lesbian—and sent emails to schools in which the couples’ sexual orientation was explicit. Our results show that gay couples had a significantly lower (22 percentage points) call-back probability than heterosexual couples. No statistically significant differences in call-back probability were found between the lesbian and heterosexual couples.     

Do tuition fees affect enrollment behavior? Evidence from a ‘natural experiment’ in Germany

This paper uses the introduction of tuition fees in seven of the sixteen German states in 2007 as a natural experiment to identify the effects of tuition prices on enrollment probabilities. Based on information on enrollment decisions of the entire population of high-school graduates between 2002 and 2008, I find a negative effect of tuition fees on enrollment behavior. The effect is larger than in existing studies for European countries, but of a similar magnitude as effects identified with U.S. data. A potential spill-over effect of the policy intervention to the comparison group is accounted for by using the estimation results to calibrate a structural model of the enrollment decision.     

Can Transfer Guides Improve the Uptake of Major Prerequisites? Evidence from Ohio’s Transfer and Articulation Policy Reform

Research in Higher Education - This study investigates the use of transfer guides to help students identify transferrable prerequisite credits for academic majors. Employing administrative data of...     

Do increases in national-level preschool enrollment increase student achievement? Evidence from international assessments

The main purpose of the study is to analyze whether globally observed trends towards preschool expansion have impacted student achievement in primary and secondary school. We use data from multiple study cycles of two international large-scale assessments that have a longitudinal component at the country level—PIRLS and PISA—and combine these data with a country-level measure of preschool enrollment rates as the main explanatory variable. Employing a multilevel regression with fixed effects for countries and years, we find that changes in preschool enrollment are unrelated to changes in average student achievement. Even after controlling for covariates on the individual and country levels, we do not find any support for the policy expectation that expanding preschool enrollment per se leads to better student achievement on country level.     

Do Financial Education Interventions for Women from Poor Households Impact Their Financial Behaviors? Experimental Evidence from India

Policymakers have invested significant resources in financial education to improve financial literacy of the poor, reduce bad financial decision-making, and increase take-up of financial services and products. Yet, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of such interventions, especially in developing countries. This paper provides evidence from a clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT) where a relatively light financial education program (one day of training) was offered to a large sample of women (n = 1,281) from poor households in informal community settings. The educational intervention was a significant departure from the more costly traditional classroom-style adult education interventions. It was based on simple “rules of thumb” and used a goal-oriented and action-focused approach, targeted at changing behaviors. We find evidence of modest, positive treatment effects for some outcomes including an increase in personal savings, achieved at a relatively low cost of training per participant.     

Do tuition fees affect the mobility of university applicants? Evidence from a natural experiment

Several German states recently introduced tuition fees for university education. We investigate whether these tuition fees influence the mobility of university applicants. Based on administrative data of applicants for medical schools in Germany, we estimate the effect of tuition fees on the probability of applying for a university in the home state. We find a small but significant reaction: The probability of applying for a university in the home state falls by 2 percentage points (baseline: 69%) for high-school graduates who come from a state with tuition fees. Moreover, we find that students with better high-school grades react more strongly to tuition fees. This might have important effects on the composition of students across states.     

Do early care and education services improve language development for maltreated children? Evidence from a national child welfare sample

Young children under 6 years old are over-represented in the U.S. child welfare system (CWS). Due to their exposure to early deprivation and trauma, they are also highly vulnerable to developmental problems, including language delays. High quality early care and education (ECE) programs (e.g. preschool, Head Start) can improve children's development and so policymakers have begun calling for increased enrollment of CWS-supervised children in these programs. However, it is not a given that ECE will benefit all children who experience maltreatment. Some types of maltreatment may result in trauma-related learning and behavior challenges or developmental deficits that cause children to respond to ECE settings differently. The current study uses data from a nationally representative survey of children in the U.S. child welfare system, the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II, to assess whether young CWS-supervised children (N = 1,652) who were enrolled in ECE had better language development outcomes 18 months later than those not enrolled in ECE. We also explore whether the type of maltreatment that brought children to the CWS’ attention moderates the relationship between ECE and children's language development. After controlling for children's initial scores on the Preschool Language Scale (PLS-3), type(s) of maltreatment experienced, and child and caregiver demographics, we found that ECE participation predicted better PLS-3 scores at follow-up, with a positive interaction between ECE participation and supervisory neglect. ECE seems to be beneficial for CWS-involved children's early language development, especially for children referred to the CWS because they lack appropriate parent supervision at home.     

Change and innovation in higher education: a role for corporate strategy?

Conclusions In conclusion there are a number of points to be emphasised. Firstly, there are no definite answers to the problems of change and innovation in the management field. Admittedly there are plenty of ideas and models about strategic planning; but the trend over the last ten years or so has been away from the use of analytic techniques towards trying to manage the culture and values of the organisation directly. At the moment there is another reaction developing against this focus on culture (Barney, 1986; Thackray, 1986), but it is not yet clear what is being proposed in its place.So those in higher education should be suspicious of the management pundits who claim that they have the answer - especially if it simply involves copying management structures and systems that are believed to be commonplace in industry. Furthermore many of these systems are actually fraught with difficulty when used in industry. For example, many companies find they have to rethink their appraisal systems every four or five years, because the failure of the previous system usually becomes obvious to all about three years after its installation. In that area the current trend is towards self and peer assessment - which could conceivably be appropriate in higher education too.But there are still a number of ideas that may be gleaned from the management world, and these may eventually provide models of management and strategic change which are appropriate to higher education. Some of these ideas have been mentioned in this article. For example, there is a need to pay closer attention to the environment, especially the political one. Institutions need to think carefully about their distinctive strengths, and how they can fit best into their environments. The idea of universities as service organisations may have considerable power, and it may be as well to think of some of those services as having limited life.It is important to recognise the crucial role of those people at the lower levels of the organisation. Their contribution is not only in helping to determine the best direction to take; but their commitment to any direction is essential if it is to be implemented. Good strategies can't be rushed: it takes time for ideas to evolve. Hence the process of thinking through appropriate strategies probably needs to be fairly continuous; it certainly should not be merely an annual, or quinquennial, activity.Finally it is the values of staff and students that can be the greatest source of, and barrier to, change and innovation. Senior managers get easily excited at the possibilities of being able to manage the values of their organisations. But this is much more difficult than the popular text books would have us believe, and very dangerous. The danger is that if one simply attacks the existing values of an organisation - say those of scholarship, colleagueship and individual freedom - one runs the risk of destroying individuals' sense of purpose, and thus creating a highly demoralised organisation. If values are to be shifted, say towards a greater commercial orientation - then they must be done in a way which allows for retention of the original values in parallel. It is a kind of bridging idea that is needed. This will take time, and not a little creativity.     

Do Corequisite Math Courses Improve Academic Outcomes in Technical Colleges?: Evidence from Chile

Research in Higher Education - For countries concerned about equity and access to higher education, providing support services for academically underprepared students is critical to increasing...     

Do in-state tuition benefits affect the enrollment of non-citizens? Evidence from universities in Texas

In 2001, the Texas state legislature passed House Bill 1403. With the passage of the law, Texas became the first state to offer in-state tuition rates at public universities for non-citizens (including illegal immigrants) who attended high school in the state for three years. As a result of the policy change, the cost of attending college at public universities in Texas fell dramatically for non-citizens. Using administrative data from five universities in Texas, we employ a quasi-experimental design to identify the effects of the policy change on the probability of enrollment at each of the universities. The results demonstrate a large and significant positive effect of lowering tuition on the enrollment of non-citizens at the University of Texas at Pan American and the University of Texas at San Antonio.     

Do reading practices make a difference? Evidence from PIRLS data for Hong Kong and Taiwan primary school Grade 4 students

This study examined the influence of classroom pedagogic reading practices and out-of-school practices in explaining why the reading attainment of Hong Kong Grade 4 students was superior to that of their counterparts in Taiwan in the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study. Analyses of scores from 9301 students (4712 from Hong Kong and 4589 from Taiwan) revealed that independent reading in school made a distinctive contribution to the reading performance of Hong Kong and Taiwan students after controlling for the effects of students’ and parents’ reading attitudes, the availability of supportive home educational resources and student engagement in a range of reading practices. Out-of-school informational reading was found to be negatively associated with students’ reading attainment for both Hong Kong and Taiwan students. There was evidence that reading aloud in class in Taiwan classrooms significantly contributed to the Taiwan students’ poor reading performance.     

Do Learning Communities Effect Academic Outcomes? Evidence From an Experiment in a Community College

Abstract

Many postsecondary institutions utilize learning communities to increase social engagement and attachment to the college community. In recent years, these communities have proliferated as part of a trend fueled by low retention and persistence rates, increasing reluctance of 4-year institutions to provide remedial education, and pressure on colleges to be accountable for their outcomes. This article reports the findings of a randomized experiment of a learning communities program that operated in an urban community college. The 1-semester learning community, which focused largely on remedial English, had modest effects on full-time enrollment, the number of courses attempted and passed, remedial English pass rates, and credits earned during the semester in which it operated. Impacts diminished in postprogram semesters.     

A Role for Epistemic Insight in Attitude and Belief Change? Lessons from a Cross-curricular Course on Evolution and Creation

This paper presents findings from a quasi-experimental study evaluating future teachers’ attitudes and beliefs in response to a cross-curricular university course on evolution and creation bridging biological and Christian theological perspectives. Based on previous findings, we hypothesized that a course providing learning opportunities for epistemic insight within this multidisciplinary arena might have effects on attitudes and beliefs relevant to the field. Hence, the main research question was the following: To what extent do student teachers’ attitudes and beliefs change by attending a cross-curricular course on evolution and creation intended to develop student teachers’ epistemic insight into the nature of science and into the relationship between science and theology? The answer from this quasi-experimental evaluation study (pre–post-design; test group n =?26, control group n =?24) is as follows: It depends upon the variable investigated! Pre–post-analysis using a repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the cross-curricular course integrating epistemic insight induced changes in creationist beliefs, in students’ perception of conflict, and in acceptance of evolution. In contrast, there was no effect on attitudes toward evolutionary theory, on attitudes toward the Biblical accounts of creation, or on scientistic beliefs. However, when student responses were analyzed individually, case-based evidence for belief change in students with scientistic positions emerged. Among the reasons for those different effects, we discuss conceptual differences between attitude and acceptance, features of the student teacher sample, and the particular content of the course explicitly addressing creationism but not scientism. In conclusion, the paper corroborates the role of epistemic insight in the multidisciplinary field of evolution and creation and provides initial evidence that epistemic insight possesses a particular potential concerning positions at both ends of the spectrum.     

Do education and income affect support for democracy in Muslim countries? Evidence from the Pew Global Attitudes Project

Using micro-level public opinion data from the Pew Global Attitudes Project 2005, this study investigates the effect of educational attainment and income on support for democracy in five predominantly Muslim countries: Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Turkey. Holding all else constant and compared to not finishing primary education, this study finds that secondary education and higher education encourage support for democracy in Jordan, Lebanon and Pakistan. The results therefore suggest that support for democracy is a social benefit of education in Jordan, Lebanon, and Pakistan. Regarding income, the results indicate that relative to the poor, those belonging to middle-income groups are more supportive of democracy in Lebanon and Turkey. Curiously, there is no statistical relationship between belonging to the richest groups and supporting democracy.