Academic achievement in higher education is an important current policy issue because institutions are under public pressure to justify state subsidies and rising tuitions with demonstrable gains in student learning. This article uses data from three flagship public universities to examine the effects of financial aid on first-through fourth-year…

Cooperatives are systems organized along key principles to balance the distribution of wealth across organizational members. The cooperative movement has an extensive history and has contributed to the design and operation of a large variety of endeavors that seek to maximize returns to a maximum number of stakeholders. While cooperatives are…

In May 2009, three senior financial leaders in higher education--Laurie G. Antolovic, Albert G. Horvath, and Margaret F. Plympton--participated in a panel session, moderated by Philip J. Goldstein, at the EDUCAUSE Enterprise Information and Technology Conference. The three also shared their thoughts in an audio interview conducted by Gerry Bayne,…

Colleges are facing a growing deferred-maintenance problem, which at many public institutions adds up to repair bills in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Sometimes state legislatures have not supported those colleges at levels needed to maintain campus infrastructure. But at the same time, colleges continue to expand their campuses even as…

When people talk about the future of public universities, they are usually talking about the flagship state universities. Flagship state universities have greatly increased expenditures in the past decade. The goal of the flagship institutions has been to compete with the best private universities, based on the assumptions that state funds will be…

The nearly $54-billion that Congress is directing to the states for education as part of the stimulus bill President Obama signed last week may stave off the worst budget cuts proposed for public colleges. But the money is unlikely to save institutions from the state budget ax entirely. And some states slated to get the most aid from that pot of…

The 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education was designed to provide up-to-date information and to identify trends in the areas of teacher background and experience, curriculum and instruction, and the availability and use of instructional resources. A total of 7,752 science and mathematics teachers in schools across the United…

Equitable science education opportunities are shaped by factors originating inside and outside schools. Resources for science instruction--for example, laboratory equipment and course offerings--have historically been allocated unequally across schools serving different student communities. This paper addresses the equity of instructional resource…

The principal purpose of the report for the "Florida School District Adult and Technical Centers" is to provide timely, accurate, and comparative information about the Florida School District Adult and Technical Centers System. This report is intended for use by people who are interested in data relevant to education in the School…

Education reform has been on a new path over the last 15 years; a path that leads to more accountability, more choice for students and parents, highly qualified teachers, as well as, best practices in instruction. In an effort to move along the path of reform and as a result of previous reform, the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA reviewed the field…

This "Academic Year Report 2012-13" provides a snapshot of funding, facilities, staffing, and enrollments in community and technical colleges in Washington state for the past academic year. The report also describes key measures of student outcomes and addresses the most frequently asked questions related to expenditures, personnel and…

This document presents 2010 data from the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program of the U.S. Census Bureau. The SAIPE program produces poverty estimates for the total population and median household income estimates annually for all counties and states. SAIPE data also produces single-year poverty estimates for the school-age…

Almost 40 percent of all public school students in the District of Columbia (D.C. or District) were enrolled in charter schools in the 2010-11 school year. The D.C. School Reform Act established the Public Charter School Board (PCSB) for the purpose of authorizing and overseeing charter schools. Congress required GAO (US Government Accountability…

Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) is poised to take action today that will lead to serving all students more effectively. Although the challenges are significant, including deep budget cuts, the district made the strategic choice to look thoroughly at how resources are currently allocated and now has a foundation for making decisions that will…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate two recent examples of the New Zealand Ministry of Education's approach to reducing the persistent disparities in achievement between students of different social and ethnic groups. The first example is cluster-based school improvement, and the second is the development of national standards for…