This quantitative ex post facto study is a modified replication of research conducted in 1991 by Dr. Michael Ough designed to understand the relationship between selected variables and the outcome of school bond elections held in Nebraska between September 1, 2011, and August 31, 2021. The dependent variable for the study was if a Nebraska public…

Indian Hills Community College had the numbers behind them upon passing a bond measure in November 2021. More than 12,000 voters in 17 Iowa counties gave their approval for a $28 million referendum designated to fund a brand new campus and additional major improvements. The bond, which needed 60% support to pass, cleared that hurdle with more than…

School desegregation efforts often spark fierce political backlash. This dissent is typically ascribed to families' dissatisfaction with the changes in schooling assignments required to achieve desegregation aims. In this paper we use the empirical context of the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) to estimate the effect of diversity-driven…

This study investigated Generation Z's (Gen Z) voting intentions regarding CRISPR-related regulation, utilizing the theory of planned behavior as the framework. Understanding the perceptions of CRISPR technology in this demographic is vital as Gen Z increasingly influences consumer behavior and policy decisions. A survey was conducted with…

Wisconsin voters approved a record number of referenda in 2024 to increase property taxes to fund their local schools, and nearly set a record for the most referenda to fund municipalities or counties. However, the approval rate for school ballot questions continued a downward trend. These trends raise questions about both the adequacy of current…

Dialogue, listening, and compromise are essential elements of living in a democracy. In a highly partisan time, is it possible to reestablish common ground when it comes to how best to educate our children in and for democracy? Authors Brendan Sheran, Ashley Carey, Jack Schneider, Rebecca Woodland, and Kathryn McDermott, who are affiliated with…

The Institute for Citizens & Scholars brings together diverse people, across traditional divides, to build a constitutional democracy that works for all. In 2019, Citizens & Scholars released the whitepaper "From Civic Education to a Civic Learning Ecosystem: A Landscape Analysis and Case for Collaboration," which noted a…

This study sought to examine how Latina/o college graduates engage civically. Through a four-step quantitative design, we found that Latina/o college graduates vote, volunteer, advocate, donate money, serve as cultural and political resources, and run for elected office. We also identified five typologies, or classes, of civically engaged Latina/o…

Votes of no confidence have increasingly been used, particularly by internal campus constituents, to indicate severe discontent with and distrust of higher education presidents. No national benchmarking institution or educational agency collects data on votes of no confidence or sets standards for what is considered a normal number of votes of no…

Although an open classroom climate for discussion has been demonstrated to benefit students' civic outcomes, individual differences in its effectiveness have not been fully investigated. In this study, we hypothesized that the positive effects of an open classroom climate for discussion would be moderated by positive teacher-student relationships.…

In a pre-service mathematics methods class I taught, in which we mathematized political districting (first horizontally, then vertically), student questions led to engaging mathematics, in particular, the development of a new number sequence.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the benefits of monitoring and enhancing engagement to impact the overall effectiveness and future success by using the combination of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale along with a daily employee vote to trigger an appropriate "ad hoc" huddle that can be proactive in addressing any engagement…

The purpose of this research was to determine what a school district in Texas does to have consistent bond approval passages. The qualitative research consisted of three interviews that included six questions to district senior staff participants who closely work on school bonds. Research showed that the district relies on guided and established…

This paper reports a validation study based on descriptive multidimensional item response theory (DMIRT), implemented in the R package "D3mirt" by using the ERS-C, an extended version of the Relevance subscale from the Moral Foundations Questionnaire including two new items for collectivism (17 items in total). Two latent models are…

Background: It has repeatedly been reported that, when making decisions under uncertainty, groups outperform individuals. Real groups are often replaced by simulated groups: Instead of performing an actual group discussion, individual responses are aggregated by a numerical computation. While studies have typically used unweighted majority voting…