ESEA Seen Affecting Training of Educators
A new report examines how the No Child Left Behind Act has influenced the delivery and financing of professional-development programs for educators.
The report, “The Delivery, Financing, and Assessment of Professional Development in Education: Pre-Service Preparation and In-Service Training,” is available from The Finance Project. (Requires Adobe’s Acrobat Reader.)
Released by the Finance Project—a Washington-based Internet information clearinghouse for policymakers and researchers on issues related to children, families, and communities—the report covers the federal, state, district, and school roles in professional-development programs for teachers. It also addresses professional development for administrators.
—Kevin Bushweller
Quality Controls
Schools can improve the education they offer their students if educators use lessons learned from quality-assurance programs carried out by businesses and the medical profession, concludes a new report.
The report, “Organizational Improvement and Accountability: Lessons for Education and Other Sectors,” is available from the Rand Corporation (Requires Adobe’s Acrobat Reader.)
To reach those conclusions, education analysts from the Santa Monica, Calif.-based RAND Corp. studied some well-known quality-assurance methods. They include the Toyota production system, the Malcolm Baldrige business-excellence awards, and clinical-practice guidelines that are common in the health industry. RAND prepared the report for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
—Kevin Bushweller
Youth Entrepreneurship
Youth-entrepreneurship programs may be an effective tool for helping students from poor urban communities stay on the right academic track, suggests a study by researchers at Harvard University.
The report, “Expanded Exploration Into the Psychology of Entrepreneurship,” is scheduled to be available online by Feb. 1 from The National Foundation For Teaching Entrepreneurship.
The research, conducted on behalf of the New York City-based National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, found that students who participated in such programs began to read more on their own, became more interested in attending college, and raised their aspirations for jobs that require a college education. The study involved 312 students from the Boston public school system.
—Kevin Bushweller
School Counseling
The report, “Below the Accountability Radar Screen: What Does State Policy Say About School Counseling?,” is available from the Education Policy Analysis Archives.
A recent study examines how state education policy influences efforts to improve school counseling.
The study examines five states—California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, and Ohio—and their capacity to fully implement and stabilize initiatives related to school counseling.
—Kevin Bushweller
Foster Children
The report, “Children in Foster Homes: How Are They Faring?,” is available online from Child Trends. (Requires Adobe’s Acrobat Reader.)
Nearly a quarter of children under age 15 in foster care have chronic health problems, and roughly a third have a disability, according to a research brief.
However, the report—released by the Washington-based Child Trends—also had positive findings. For instance, nearly all foster children had health insurance.
The research brief uses data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being and the National Survey of America’s Families.
—Kevin Bushweller
