This testimony discusses the findings from our recent work on fragmentation, overlap, and potential duplication in federally funded programs that support teacher quality. We recently issued a report addressing fragmentation, overlap, and potential duplication in federal programs that outlined opportunities to reduce potential duplication across a…

In an age where more people place emphasis on global competition, it only seems right to have students meet achievement in all subjects equally. However, that is not the case with the content area of social studies. In recent years, many people have been alarmed at social studies test scores as measured by student achievement. It is the goal of…

Evidence strongly supports the notion that juvenile offenders, both with and without disabilities, are significantly more likely to experience successful reentry into their home schools and communities if appropriate programs and supports are in place. In spite of this, comprehensive state-level reentry programs for youth are few and far between.…

The implementation of Part C of IDEA has continued to evolve as states have built and modified service delivery systems. The number of children served has increased dramatically with nearly 350,000 children and their families now receiving early intervention services. Meanwhile, challenges to the provision of quality services--such as securing…

The 2001 renewal of the United States' Title I program instituted the Supplemental Educational Services (SES) program, through which students attending schools that fail to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) for 3 consecutive years are offered tutoring in core subjects. Although some SES evaluations have measured provider effects on student…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The study measures the impact of pay-for-performance bonuses as part of a comprehensive compensation system within a large, multisite random assignment study design. The treatment schools were to…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The study measures the impact of pay-for-performance bonuses as part of a comprehensive compensation system within a large, multisite random assignment study design. The treatment schools were to…

This paper exploits a source of variation in the eligibility for federal nutrition programs to identify the program effects on food insecurity. Children are eligible for the WIC [Women, Infants and Children] program until the day before they turn 61 months old. The result is an age discontinuity in program participation at the 61-month cutoff.…

We tested the incremental impact of a job-related set of variables for explaining a utility judgment training effectiveness variable, that is, course completion skill preparedness, beyond background and course-related variables. Our respondents were two different emergency medical service samples, 415 basics and 742 paramedics, from the 2008 US…

Over the last year, no education story has garnered more enthusiastic or sustained positive attention than Race to the Top, the $4.35 billion federal program intended to spur and support groundbreaking state-level reforms. The White House called state responses to the competition "overwhelming." Columnist David Brooks wrote that it was…

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Technical Assistance and Dissemination (TA&D) Program is the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) primary vehicle for providing technical assistance (TA) to individuals and organizations responsible for serving children with disabilities and their families. The evaluation is part…

This article provides an initial look at Race to the Top as it relates to professional development for arts educators. Topics include the philosophy of Race to the Top education reform, data informed professional development, performance pay, and how these changes may affect arts educators.

Since 1999, Nebraska's Early Head Start Infant/Toddler Quality Initiative has supported Early Head Start (EHS) and community child care partnerships to improve the quality and professionalism of infant and toddler care. EHS programs apply to receive funding to establish partnerships with center-based or home-based child care.The initiative has…

Merit pay programs for educators -- sometimes referred to a "pay for performance" -- attempt to tie a teacher's compensation to his/her performance in the classroom. While the idea of merit pay for classroom teachers has been around for several decades, only now is it starting to be implemented in a growing number of districts around the…

This ethnographic case study investigated second year college students who participated in the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program at a technical college in northeastern Pennsylvania. In order to understand how learners stayed motivated in a college setting, I selected participants who were in their second year of the TAA program. A total of…