Colorado has led the nation in supporting the success of all Coloradans, enacting bold policies, and continuing to build a Colorado for all. These efforts have all been informed by robust stakeholder engagement paired with data analysis. Various initiatives over the years have improved the state's ability to use data to inform these goals. With…

In 2019, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) began exploratory data collection for the School Pension Survey (SPS). The SPS is a new data collection of elementary/secondary school teacher pension data collected at the school district level. The SPS was developed primarily in response to public demand for data on teacher and other…

This dissertation will address the questions: In what ways can MBR theory be applied to design training that will improve the capacity of Citizen scientists to collect and analyze high quality scientific data?; To what degree does this training impact their ability to formulate complex understandings of environmental problems in their Citizen? The…

This paper analyzes data from Native American students' attainment in a first-semester Spanish language course at an indigenous-serving institution before, during, and after the pandemic. The gap between Native American and non-Native American students increased during the first post-pandemic semester to the point that just one out of 11 Native…

The link between health and learning is clear: healthy, active and well-nourished children are more likely to attend school, arrive ready to learn and stay engaged in class. Yet far too many students spend their days in schools that do not offer them adequate clean air and water, nutritious food, physical activity and the support of a school…

Emerging practices in both K-12 and higher education hold great promise in the establishment of equity frameworks. The use of finely disaggregated data, the effort to track additional student groups, and related work, all help to establish policies and tools to monitor the impact of reform efforts to address inequities. State programs and…

This report presents school-level finance data on expenditures by function from the School-Level Finance Survey (SLFS). The SLFS is an extension of two existing collections being conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in collaboration with the Census Bureau: the School District Finance Survey (F-33) and the state-level…

Using data from 11 institutions, the authors investigate enrollments in intermediate microeconomics to determine characteristics of successful and unsuccessful students and follow the retake behavior of unsuccessful students. Successful students are significantly different from unsuccessful ones, and unsuccessful students differ by type…

For any labor market to function properly, clear information is needed to guide decision making; its absence invariably leads to less than optimal decisions and inefficiencies. While the broader labor market is riddled with imperfect information, the teacher labor market is particularly vulnerable--largely for the lack of the most basic…

How does the presence of information, or lack thereof, affect consumer behaviors and firm outcomes in the context of digital economy? My dissertation examines this broad question in three different empirical contexts. In the first chapter, I study how providing brand information influences the performance of job ads on an online job search…

To evaluate interim progress toward the State-identified Measurable Result (SIMR), states require access to high-quality data from local education agencies (LEAs) and early intervention service providers. In a review of 2017 Phase III State Systemic Improvement Plans (SSIP), 43 Part C states noted limitations or concerns related to data and…

The Colorado Growth Model (CGM) was developed jointly by the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), the Technical Advisory Panel for Longitudinal Growth (TAP), and the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (NCIEA). Its development was required by state statute (SB09-163) and assigned to the Technical Advisory Panel. The…

The recommendations in this brief create a framework for using data effectively to make instructional decisions. The availability of student-level data for educators has pushed forward the movement to strengthen the role of data to guide instruction and improve student learning. While improvements in technology and assessments, as well as recent…

Developed by the Region 12 Comprehensive Center in partnership with the Colorado Department of Education, this document supports Colorado teams in exploring the geographic information system (GIS) map, facilitating conversations on the data presented in the map, and developing recommendations to strengthen Colorado's educator workforce pipeline.…

State policymakers recognize the economic imperative to ensure that education and training are connected to good jobs. Employers are seeking -- and are often struggling -- to hire appropriately skilled workers. For job seekers, the path to a good job with education beyond a high school diploma is certainly clearer than one without postsecondary…