The most recent data from the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) present good news; 79% of Australia's Early Childhood Education and Care services are now meeting the National Quality Standard (NQS). Yet one in five services remain below standard. Understanding the context and characteristics of these services, and…

We draw on our experiences with mentoring two students to develop a framework for undergraduate research projects with Twitter data. Leveraging backward design principles, we share our learning objectives and rubric for summative assessments. To illustrate the value of Twitter as a data source, we detail methods for collecting and analyzing…

This technical brief is part of an ongoing series the Center for Learner Equity (CLE) launched in 2015 that examines the enrollment and experiences of students with disabilities in different school settings. Using the 2017-2018 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) data released earlier this year, this brief focuses on the number and percentages of…

This technical brief is part of an ongoing series the Center for Learner Equity (CLE) launched in 2015 that examines the enrollment and experiences of students with disabilities in different school settings. Using the 2017-2018 CRDC data released earlier this year, this brief focuses on school discipline and the engagement of law enforcement in…

Program evaluation is important for assessing the implementation and outcomes of local, state, and federal programs. The Program Evaluation Toolkit provides tools and resources to support individuals responsible for evaluating and monitoring local, state, or federal programs. The toolkit comprises eight modules that cover critical steps in program…

Policymakers have expressed increased interest in program-level higher education accountability measures as a supplement to, or in place of, institution-level metrics. But it is unclear what these measures should look like. In this report, we assess the ways program-level data could be developed to facilitate federal accountability. Evidence shows…

This book prepares and guides individuals who are about to embark (or already have embarked) on a health/medical PhD journey, with a specific focus on Public Health. Based on the author's experience as a recently graduated Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) student, readers benefit from the knowledge imparted and lessons learned, including an analysis of…

A commonly used metric for measuring college costs, drawn from data in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), is expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE) student. This article discusses an error in this per FTE calculation when using IPEDS data, especially with regard to community colleges. The problem is that expenditures…

Ithaka S+R's Research Support Services program's most recent project, "Supporting Big Data Research," focused specifically on the rapidly emerging use of big data in research across disciplines and fields. As part of this study, they partnered with librarians from more than 20 colleges and universities, who then conducted over 200…

The purpose of this non-experimental, quantitative, comparative study was to compare academic outcomes (final GPA, retention, graduation rates) and student engagement measures of students who enroll in an honors program at a Tennessee community college versus those who were honors-eligible but did not participate in an honors program. Findings…

Discipline referrals and suspensions are used as a last resort to address inappropriate student behavior in schools. The problem investigated in this study was the inconsistent trend in the number of discipline referrals and suspensions during implementation of three different discipline policies (zero tolerance, progressive discipline, and…

Students who take an online course, such as a MOOC, use the course's discussion forum to ask questions or reach out to instructors when encountering an issue. However, reading and responding to students' questions is difficult to scale because of the time needed to consider each message. As a result, critical issues may be left unresolved, and…

This completely updated edition of "The Almanac of American Education" helps users understand and compare the quality of education at the national, state, and county levels. Compiled from official U.S. government sources, this book contains historical and current data, insightful analysis, and useful graphs that provide compelling…

Group design research studies can provide evidence to draw conclusions about "what works," "for whom," and "under what conditions" in special education. The quality indicators introduced by Gersten and colleagues (2005) have contributed to increased rigor in group design research, which has provided substantial…

The purpose of this action research study was to investigate the actual motivation for application to graduate school for first-generation and international students from historically marginalized communities (HMCS). The specific goal was to augment data on college advisory work, recruiting, and marketing, and look at the wants and needs of…