AERA SIGRU Annual Meeting 2005
- Using State Data to Allocate Teacher Resources, Zena H. Rudo, Diane Pan, Celeste Alexander
In this era of standards-based reform, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners must better understand how educational inputs, such as salaries and other compensation, class size, and the supply of qualified teachers, can most effectively support student learning. This paper will present findings on how existing state databases can be used to answer questions about instructional resources and student performance. Individual examinations of state education databases in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Texas were conducted and useful measures of instructional spending and teacher characteristics were found to answer a range of important policy questions. However, the application of these data to research projects also presented challenges. More detailed findings and implications for education decision making will be discussed.
- State-Level Education Reform: Putting All the Pieces Together, Robert Yin, Darnella Davis
This paper draws from a recent study of statewide reform in mathematics and science education that examined the National Science Foundations Statewide Systemic Initiatives (NSF-SSI). The study covered seven states and one territory (eight "states") where reform was known to have been extensive and had spanned at least 10 years. The eight "states" were: Connecticut, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, and Puerto Rico.
- Implementation of the NCLB Act's Scientific-Based Research Components: A Model to Guide State Action, Shereeza F. Mohammed, John Pisapia
The recent shift towards favoring the scientific paradigm and evidence-based practic in the U.S. has resulted in the comprehensive use of the term Scientific Based Research in the NCLB Act, and the need to introduce programs and methods proven by scientific evidence to raise universal student achievement in a cost effective manner has taken on greater significance. How will each of the fifty states plan the implementation of the SBR requirements and meet the student proficiency goal in the upcoming decade? The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between a state's capacity to implement, its contextual environment, the implementation strategy it favors and the comprehensiveness of its planned policy implementation by examining the scientific based research (SBR) components of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The following six research questions guided the study.