This fact sheet provides an overview of the nation's gang problem and summarizes findings from the 2012 survey. Of the 2,538 survey recipients, 2,199 (87 percent) responded to the survey. In 2012, there were an estimated 30,700 gangs (an increase from 29,900 in 2011) and 850,000 gang members (an increase from 782,500 in 2011) throughout 3,100…

Root cause analysis is a powerful method schools use to analyze data to solve problems; it aims to identify and correct the root causes of problems or events, rather than simply addressing their symptoms. Veteran practitioner, Roni Silverstein, presented the value of this process and practical ways to use it in your school or district. This…

At any given time, tens of thousands of children and youth in the U.S. are in the foster care system. Many have been abused, neglected, or abandoned, and they face a challenging journey of uncertainty, often not knowing where they will live next, where they will go to school, or whether they will have contact with friends and relatives. Child…

Coh-Metrix is among the broadest and most sophisticated automated textual assessment tools available today. Automated Evaluation of Text and Discourse with Coh-Metrix describes this computational tool, as well as the wide range of language and discourse measures it provides. Section I of the book focuses on the theoretical perspectives that led to…

This case study reflects on the main method of data collection, the "Biographical Narrative Interview Method," I applied in my doctoral research, which critically analysed the influence of social class on graduate employment trajectories. It will evaluate the specific mechanics of the method and forms or approaches within the…

Since 1997, the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) has been a major source of information on the Head Start program and the preschool children ages 3 to 5 who attend the program. As part of its management of Head Start, the federal government divides Head Start programs into 12 regions. Regions XI and XII are not based on…

Investing in community college workforce training is a central part of the Biden administration's agenda for improving the lives of American families. Now more than ever, as the nation's economy enters a post-pandemic period of significant organizational and technological change, community colleges are well-situated to help millions of low-income…

Although school failure and school improvement are complex challenges that look different in different contexts, patterns and trends associated with schools in distress are emerging. This brief describes the characteristics of schools when they show signs of early distress from the perspectives of school leaders and governing board members. The…

In the eighteen months between the COVID-19 pandemic's initial impact on higher education and the start of the 2021-22 academic year, many events shaping and crystalizing ideological perspectives transpired across the nation and around the world. For the millions of college students returning to campus, as well as for faculty and staff, the…

As part of the ACS Examinations Institute (ACS-EI) national norming process, student performance data sets are collected from professors at colleges and universities from around the United States. Because the data sets are collected on a volunteer basis, the ACS-EI often receives data sets with only students' total scores and without the students'…

Effectively measuring short-term impact, particularly a change in knowledge resulting from Extension programming, can prove to be challenging. Clicker-based technology, when used properly, is one alternative that may allow educators to better evaluate this aspect of the logic model. While the potential interface between clicker technology and…

Despite bipartisan support in Washington, DC, which dates back to the mid-1990s, the "what works" approach has yet to gain broad support among policymakers and practitioners. One way to build such support is to increase the usefulness of program impact evaluations for these groups. We describe three ways to make impact evaluations more…

This article explores the relationship between commensuration and affect in various contexts of education policy. Commensuration is the process through which disparate qualities are transformed into a common metric and is central to the production of performance data. The rise of governance through numbers in education has resulted in a…

This paper explores how factors operating at the state and community levels are associated with the prevalence of late school enrolment in Nigeria. We investigate the following three research themes. First, whether late entry varies across states and across communities and how much of this variation can be explained by the composition of…

The university's website is a useful tool in disseminating information to current and future college students and is supportive of the university's administrative activities. However, as the university's website began including more and more information and the design of it has become gradually more complex, it has become hard to find desired…