Today's college and career-ready standards emphasize developing students' ability to interpret and analyze complex texts and to assert and defend claims relating to those texts in extended pieces of writing. By providing secondary English language arts teachers with professional development and instructional materials, the UC Irvine Writing…

The Minnesota Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (MSTED) is testing the effectiveness of subsidized employment for individuals enrolled in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), Minnesota's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, who were unable to find employment after participating in the state's existing…

Financial incentives are being used increasingly to encourage a wide array of health behaviors because of their well-established efficacy. However, little is known about how to translate incentive-based strategies to public health practice geared toward improving population-level health, and a dearth of research exists on how individuals respond…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the practice of using student technology teams (STTs) offered at a high school within a 1:1 district. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative case study (Merriam, 1998, 2009) documents how an STT program functioned in 2015-2016 academic year. Findings: Findings show the STT provided a rich…

Traditionally seen as a way for institutions to help students alleviate some of the financial demands placed on them, on-campus student employment has several additional benefits institutions can leverage to assist students along their collegiate journey. If designed and operationalized effectively, institutions can use their on-campus student…

Pay for performance is not a new idea, and reformers should not ignore the dismal record of merit pay over the past century. Initially adopted with a flourish of expectations during several waves of popularity in the past, every plan eventually fell into disuse. These plans proved to be unexpectedly costly and cumbersome to run. They often…

This article describes the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education, at Teachers College, Columbia University. Launched last year by a pair of economists, the center specializes in calculating and comparing the long- and short-term costs--and probable payoffs--of different educational strategies that promise to improve students' lives. Studies…

Using a retrospective, quasiexperimental design, this study evaluates Minnesota's Challenge Incarceration Program (CIP), examining whether it has lowered recidivism and saved money. In addition to utilizing a lengthy follow-up period and multiple measures of recidivism and participation, a multistage sampling design was employed to create a…

Addressed to the Minnesota State Legislature, this report on Minnesota's Early Childhood Health and Developmental Screening Program discusses issues related to program goals and program implementation, overviews the program, and reports and summarizes statewide program results for 1985-86. Issues discussed concern responsibility for the program,…

To evaluate the non-economic returns to investment of resources in education, a study was conducted to determine the effect of farm management instruction on attitudes toward education and farming, relationships existing between attitudes and farm income, and whether students' attitudes became more like their instructor's with increasing years of…

Some states use subsidies, grants, and other public monies to rejuvenate lagging rural economies, but without sound economic analysis to guide these efforts money may go to projects that do not achieve economic development goals. Minnesota's Iron Range programs illustrate what happens when economic analysis is sacrificed in political tugs-of-war.…

Current practices of most state vocational rehabilitation programs concerning the use and reporting of benefit-cost results are reviewed, and problematic issues are identified. Empirical data from Minnesota illustrate alternative ways of reporting evaluation results relating to efficiency. The recommended accounting framework provides relevant and…

This policy research summary outlines the paradigms and processes used in recent research and evaluation studies conducted on supported employment and rehabilitation programs in Minnesota. First, the paper reviews evaluation strategies and models for assessing the individual and societal efficacy of supported employment. It identifies key…

Twenty-three transition programs for high school students with disabilities in Minnesota are profiled. These programs were selected because they applied a set of 10 quality standards developed to improve the transition process and adult outcomes for students, as well as to increase the cost effectiveness and efficiency of transition services and…

The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) began in 1994 as a major welfare initiative that differed from the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) by featuring the following elements: financial incentives to work; participation requirements for long-term welfare recipients; and simplification of welfare rules and procedures. In…