Quality in early childhood education (ECE) is central to equitable child development and preparation for formal schooling and has been widely studied by researchers and of interest to policy makers. As the federal pre-k program, Head Start is a key ECE context to understand quality and its implications for equity. One central measure of classroom…

Student loan default, defined as federal loan borrowers' failure to make any payments for at least 270 days, is an issue of increasing importance to community colleges and their students. This report takes a unique look at student loan default at nine community colleges across the nation, and how those colleges are working to help students avoid…

Although there exists a large body of research concerning the relationship between expenditure and student achievement, a lack of research exists analyzing this relationship as it pertains specifically to students with disabilities. Given the increasing fiscal and academic pressures districts face to allocate resources efficiently, the purpose of…

The Race to the Top (RTTT) program, announced by the Obama Administration in 2009, represented the largest competitive grant in the history of U.S. education. Despite the amount of money available and the dire condition of most state budgets in that year, however, some states chose not to apply for funding and the remainder submitted applications…

"Kids Count in Colorado!" is an annual publication of the Colorado Children's Campaign, which provides the best available state- and county-level data to measure and track the education, health and general well-being of the state's children. "Kids Count in Colorado!" informs policy debates and community discussions, serving as…

Model demonstration projects have developed and implemented a wide range of services to facilitate the transition of youth with handicapping conditions from school to work or to postsecondary educational settings. Factors pivotal to the continuation of such projects after federal funding ceased were studied. Data on 58 sample projects were…

An inventory is made of external factors potentially affecting schools, colleges, and departments of education (SCDEs) grouped into nine factor clusters: (1) income and expenditure; (2) personnel supply and demand; (3) competition from emerging alternative programs; (4) governance; (5) new and altered instructional programs; (6) status and…

Associations between school district poverty and achievement and Chapter 1 programs are studied. The allocation formula in the legislation states that funding is to be distributed in direct proportion to poverty and regional cost. Dependent variables include Chapter 1 funding, the number of district participants in compensatory education…

The failure of students to repay federally insured loans has led to an increased emphasis on default prevention and threatens institutions with high default rates with exclusion from federal student aid programs. Prior studies of default prevention using theoretical constructs based on economics, sociology, and psychology have yielded mixed…

An empirical approach is taken to the problem of predicting effects of student financial aid programs on postsecondary enrollment rates and patterns. A model of students' enrollment decisions is developed and used to estimate the likely effects of alternative award policies for the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) program. The analysis…