This report provides background information on Forest Service (FS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) revenue-based payments and a brief overview of a related payment program--the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program. Because the revenue-based, Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000 (SRS), and PILT payments interact…

The California Department of Education (CDE) released statewide chronic absence data in December 2017 via DataQuest, an interactive data portal. To better understand chronic absence at the school level, Attendance Works collaborated with the Center for Regional Change at UC Davis and Children Now to analyze the data available from DataQuest and…

In this article, I discuss the promise of geospatial techniques for education policy research and how increased attention to the historical context of spatial data can enhance that work. While scholarship utilizing geographic information systems has added considerable breadth to our understanding of education policy, recent geospatial studies in…

"Terra Cognita" surveys the current landscape of archival research and the experiences of emerging scholars seeking to navigate it. Drawing on data from the Council on Library and Information Resources' (CLIR's) Mellon Fellowships for Dissertation Research in Original Sources, the report takes an in-depth look at how the conditions and…

Hispanic high school graduates have lower college completion rates than academically similar white students. As Hispanic students have been theorized to be more constrained in the college search and selection process, one potential policy lever is to increase the set of colleges to which these students apply and attend. In this paper, we…

English Learner (EL) students in California's schools are numerous and diverse, and they lag behind their native-English-speaking peers. Closing the achievement gap for EL students has been a long-standing goal for California educators, and there are some signs of success. Now that EL funding and curriculum issues are receiving a fresh level of…

According to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, states are required "...to ensure that poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers..." Although the NCLB law and State Education Agencies (SEAs) currently offer very clear definitions of…

While studies have examined the relationship between financial aid and college access, few have evaluated the relationship between financial aid and academic success. Factors that are associated with financial need, such as being low income, are also associated with a lack of academic success, making it difficult to isolate the effect of…

The economic, educational and social environments of the students served by a community college are important factors in college performance accountability, policy analysis, program evaluation, and strategic planning. For example, previous research shows that income per county is a significant predictor of transfer rates for community colleges.…

This paper uses data from the U.S. decennial censuses and March Supplements to the Current Population Survey of 1995-99 to examine the historic patterns of immigrant settlement within the United States, recent shifts in these patterns, and the extent to which changes are due to the international versus internal migration, focusing particularly on…

This advance report highlights the findings of surveys taken in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia as part of the National Crime Panel, a new instrument for measuring levels of crime both nationwide and in selected large cities. Conducted for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the…

The usefulness of the 1980 Census for planning in postsecondary education, and specifically in California, was assessed. Attention is directed to the use of past census data by higher education planners as well as the development of the 1980 Census. The geographic subunits covered by the 1980 Census that may be of use to postsecondary education…

This report aims to improve the quality of the policy-making process by using a broad distribution of research findings on the consequences of immigration to California. All major immigrant groups to California are included. Using the information collected, this report discusses economic and fiscal issues associated with immigration, character and…

A brief historical review of the American Indian in California from prehistoric to modern times indicates the hardships and economic disadvantages which the Indians have suffered in the acculturation process. Discussion of the treaties which were negotiated and the Federal legislation which was passed indicates an attempt on the part of modern day…