06.05.07

The Condition of Education 2007

Posted in Education at 3:35 pm by AAL

The Condition of Education 2007
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

The Condition of Education 2007 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data and by presenting 48 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis on high school coursetaking. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2007 print edition includes 48 indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education.

See also: Findings from the Condition of Education 2007: High School Coursetaking

This report contains a special analysis that is republished from the Condition of Education 2007 in a booklet form. This analysis presents key findings from the high school transcript studies on high school coursetaking.

Annual Superfund Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2006

Posted in Budget, Environment at 3:34 pm by AAL

Annual Superfund Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2006 (PDF; 176 KB)
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Inspector General

In response to a congressional request, we looked at EPA’s Superfund resources and found that EPA needs to better account for those resources, particularly in light of decreased funding. We found several obstacles that prevented EPA from efficiently and effectively managing Superfund program performance and adequately accounting for resources. These obstacles included the way EPA accounts for program resources, manages by function, and relies on an outdated workload model. Total cost efficiencies resulting from this report to date are $639 million.

Mental Health Screens for Corrections

Posted in Justice, Mental Health at 3:33 pm by AAL

Mental Health Screens for Corrections
24 pages; PDF.
By Julian Ford and Robert L. Trestman; and Fred Osher, Jack E. Scott, Henry J. Steadman, and Pamela Clark Robbins

This National Institute of Justice report provides information on two projects designed to create and validate mental health screening instruments that corrections staff can use during intake. Included in the report are questionnaires that accurately identify inmates who require mental health interventions.

Source: NIJ

Squeeze Play: How Parents and the Public Look at Higher Education Today

Posted in Education at 3:32 pm by AAL

Squeeze Play: How Parents and the Public Look at Higher Education Today (PDF; 451 KB)
Source: Public Agenda and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
From press release:

Americans believe that higher education is key to a successful future, and the vast majority also say that costs should not prevent qualified students from attending college, according to a national survey on college quality, affordability, and access.

But the survey — conducted by Public Agenda and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education — also reveals widespread concern that the opportunity to go to college may not be available to all qualified students. In addition, nearly two-thirds of parents of high school students — 64 percent — do not believe that rapidly escalating costs are leading to more learning on campus (33 percent strongly; 31 percent somewhat). Moreover, more than four in 10 (44 percent) believe that waste and mismanagement are a major factor in growing college costs, and over half say that colleges and universities could spend less money yet still maintain quality.

Public Agenda and the National Center have tracked public attitudes toward higher education since 1993. Their new report — ”Squeeze Play: How Parents and the Public Look at Higher Education Today” — reveals that a record level of Americans, 50 percent, now say that a college education is necessary for success in the workplace, compared with 31 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, more than half of Americans (58 percent) say that college prices are rising faster than other expenses, and 62 percent agree that many qualified and motivated students do not have the opportunity for a college education, compared with 45 percent in 1998.

06.04.07

Demography is not Destiny: Increasing the Graduation Rates of Low-Income College Students at Large Public Universities

Posted in Education, Social Science at 3:31 pm by AAL

Demography is not Destiny: Increasing the Graduation Rates of Low-Income College Students at Large Public Universities (PDF; 2.63 MB)
Source: The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education

What accounts for the differences in retention and graduation rates among large public colleges and universities that serve high numbers of low-income students? To answer this question, the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education conducted a study to examine the institutional characteristics, practices, and policies that might account for such differences. This study, funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education, continues previous research conducted by the Pell Institute that analyzed retention policies and practices at smaller public and private four-year institutions with high percentages of low-income students. In the first study, we identified 20 four-year institutions with large proportions of Pell Grant recipients – 10 with higher than average graduation rates and 10 with lower than average graduation rates. Despite design limitations, the first study yielded important findings about what colleges and universities can do to improve student persistence.

Growing Up With the News: Most Parents Encourage their Kids to Follow the News

Posted in Social Science at 3:30 pm by AAL

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

In an era where the news is often dominated by war, tragedy and scandal, America’s parents are more likely to encourage their children to follow the news than they are to shield them from it. Among parents with school-aged children (kindergarten through 12th grade), six-in-ten (61%) say they often or sometimes encourage their children to follow the news. Fewer parents (47%) often or sometimes try to shield their kids from the news, while nearly four-in-ten (38%) say they never do so.

Even so, most school-aged children are not regular news consumers. According to their parents, only 6% of today’s kids follow news about national and international issues very closely and 23% follow the news fairly closely. The vast majority don’t follow the news too closely or at all.

+ Full Report (PDF; 35 KB)
+ Topline Questionnaire (PDF; 10 KB)

Are Those Who Bring Work Home Really Working Longer Hours? Implications for BLS Productivity Measures

Posted in Labor at 3:29 pm by AAL

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

An ongoing debate surrounding BLS productivity data is that official labor productivity measures may be overstating productivity growth because of an increase in unmeasured hours worked outside the traditional workplace. This paper uses both the ATUS and May CPS Work Schedules and Work at Home Supplements to determine whether the number of hours worked by nonfarm business employees are underestimated and increasing over time due to unmeasured hours worked at home. We find that 8 – 9 percent of nonfarm business employees bring some work home from the workplace. In addition, those who bring work home report working longer hours than those who work exclusively in a workplace, resulting in a 0.8 – 1.1 percent understatement of measured hours worked. However, we find no conclusive evidence that productivity trends were biased over the 1997-2005 period due to work brought home from the workplace.

+ Full Paper (PDF; 644 KB)

06.03.07

Women and Books 2007

Posted in Social Science at 3:27 pm by AAL

Source: Content Connections
From press release:

The average American woman who belongs to a social network spends about $500 a year on books. That should make her a fairly important customer, someone the book publishing industry watches carefully and knows well. Unfortunately, little is known about her book-related preferences, attitudes, and behaviors. And even though publishers and booksellers have access to excellent data that show “what’s selling”, precious little information exists on “why” books sell, especially to women.

The Women and Books 2007 study attempts to take some of the guesswork and the gamble out of book publishing. The study provides a snapshot of the “average woman” purchaser of non-fiction books. A summary of the report findings, which included over 100 factors cross tabulated with age, income, education, location of home, and family/work situation, focuses on issues ranging from how many books women purchase for their personal libraries each year to what things influence their actual purchase decisions.

+ Full Report (PDF: 3.5 MB)
Free registration required.

Left Behind: The Skewed Representation of Religion in Major News Media

Posted in Social Science at 3:26 pm by AAL

Source: Media Matters
From press release:

Media Matters for America today released “Left Behind: The Skewed Representation of Religion in Major News Media,” a special report documenting the disparity between media coverage of conservative and progressive religious leaders. Since the 2004 elections, there has been a dramatic increase in the coverage of religion in newspapers and television across the country. This increase has overwhelmingly focused on conservative religious figures as the definitive voice of religion at the expense of the vast majority of religious Americans.

+ Full Report (online version)
+ Full Report (PDF; 198 KB)

A Voice from the Middle Poll

Posted in Education at 3:24 pm by AAL

Source: National Association of Secondary School Principals

Nine out of 10 middle school students (92%) say that it is likely that they will attend college, but nearly 7 of 10 (68%) indicate that they have little or no information about how to choose high school classes that will prepare them for college, according to a nationwide survey of middle level students released by NASSP and Phi Delta Kappa International (PDK).
…
This survey of seventh and eighth graders reveals these startling findings:

  • 93 percent of students say there is “no chance” that they will drop out of high school and not graduate.
  • 83 percent of students know little or nothing about the classes they need to take to graduate from high school.
  • Only 32 percent say that they have “quite a bit” or “a great deal” of information about the classes they need to prepare for college.

+ Executive Summary (PDF; 1.1 MB)
+ Complete Report (PDF; 613 KB)

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