The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) program, authorized by Congress in 2011, is designed to improve the quality of early learning and development programs for children from birth through age 5. This discretionary grant program is administered jointly by the U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Health and Human Services…

Academic libraries have traditionally collected reference statistics using hash marks on paper. Although efficient and simple, this method is not an effective way to capture the complexity of reference transactions. Several electronic tools are now available to assist libraries with collecting often elusive reference data--among them homegrown…

This report analyzes college completion metrics for the Appalachian Region, compares outcomes of students attending campuses in the Region with those of students attending campuses outside the Region, and offers insight about major stumbling blocks to college progression and completion for students in Appalachia.

This study examines state- and county-level data on population, age, race and ethnicity, housing occupancy and housing tenure, education, labor force, employment and unemployment, income and poverty, health insurance coverage, disability status, migration patterns, and veteran status from the 2011-2015 American Community Survey (ACS) for the 13…

When offering online classes, it is necessary to ensure that all course material and objectives will be covered and learners will be successful in the course. This becomes especially important when the same class material and objectives are offered in a three-, five-, and fourteen-week format. This paper outlines the difficulty of delivering…

A major challenge currently facing Pennsylvania music educators (and many music educators across the country) is change to the evaluation process of teachers in Non-Tested Grades and Subjects (NTGS). The law directing this change is known as Act 82 and comes from the Pennsylvania legislature, authorized through House Bill 1901. The Pennsylvania…

This study examines state- and county-level data on population, age, race and ethnicity, housing occupancy and housing tenure, education, labor force, employment and unemployment, income and poverty, health insurance coverage, disability status, migration patterns, and veteran status from the 2010-2014 American Community Survey (ACS) for the 13…

Recent police shootings in which multiple officers fired numerous rounds at suspects have led some observers to assert that such situations involve "contagious fire," where an initial officer's shots launch a cascade of gunfire from other officers present. Although there is anecdotal recognition of the contagious fire phenomenon among…

Student perspectives reflect school climate. The study examined perspectives among deaf and hard of hearing students in residential and large day schools regarding bullying, and compared these perspectives with those of a national database of hearing students. The participants were 812 deaf and hard of hearing students in 11 U.S. schools. Data…

Online learning has steadily become a more integral strategy for schools and districts in their efforts to offer students greater access to the courses they need. Where in the past, much of the online learning activity happened at the state level or regional level, more and more schools are exercising greater control over their online and digital…

The purpose of this article is to describe the scope and depth of the historic corporate annual report collections in twelve academic/research libraries in North America. For many decades, a few major academic business libraries have been collecting and preserving corporate Annual Reports (ARS), the reports sent to shareholders documenting the…

Pennsylvania public school districts are largely funded through basic education subsidy for providing educational services for resident students and non-resident students who are placed in residential programs within the school district boundaries. Non-resident placements occur through, but are not limited to, adjudication proceedings, foster home…

This guide provides some basic statistical techniques that may be used in writing grant proposals, analyzing reports, and evaluating programs. Examples focus on rural Pennsylvania. The first section, Understanding Data, discusses definitions, codes, and data limitations. Definitions of Census Bureau geographic, demographic, housing, and…

This publication discusses the difficulties of calculating reliable income estimates for particular groups of people and presents a methodology for overcoming those obstacles. Basically, the procedure involves setting up cumulative distributions of housing values, rental values, and family incomes for each census tract. Average housing values and…

This study is intended as an aid to administrators who want to develop absenteeism policies that produce cost-efficient methods of staffing during teacher absences. Undertaken during the school year 1977-78, this project is the most comprehensive study of its kind in the state of Pennsylvania. Its first purpose--to explore the basic…