Search Results

This survey focuses on public education in the United States. Respondents were asked if they thought improvement of the educational system was the most important thing that the United States must do to meet strong economic challenges from the European nations and Japan, how they rated the quality of the public education and teachers, and if the problems of education were bigger than those of the federal budget deficit, drugs, hunger and malnutrition, the environment, and foreign economic competition. In addition, respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of various means to improve the quality of education, if federal, state, or local government should provide the most money for public schools, if failure to improve educational system would turn the United States into a second-rate power, and if the Bush administration was doing enough to improve the educational system. Background information on respondents includes education, age, sex, income, race, and state/region of residence.

This poll, conducted December 12, 2002, is part of a continuing series of monthly polls that solicit opinions on the presidency and on other political and social issues. Respondents were asked their opinions of President George W. Bush and his handling of the economy, Iraq and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, education reform, Social Security, prescription drug coverage, health insurance, the environment, Homeland security, taxes, and the war against terrorism. Respondents were also asked to give their views on President Bush's priorities for the country, the individuals who influenced his policymaking, and the amount of blame or credit that should be attributed to President Bush for the economy. Respondents' opinions were elicited on taking military action against Iraq, whether the reasons given by President Bush were sufficient to justify military action, whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, the level of threat Iraq posed to the United States, and whether the government was doing enough to battle terrorism and protect civil liberties. In addition, respondents were queried about the Catholic Church and its handling of recent abuse allegations brought against clergy, and the overall political and economic outlook for the country and the world in 2003. Background information on respondents includes age, sex, ethnicity, education, political orientation, religious orientation, level of religious participation, household income, and whether the respondent lived in an urban, suburban, or rural area.

This poll, fielded January 24-25, 1998, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicit public opinion on the presidency and on a range of other political and social issues. Respondents were asked to give their opinions of President Bill Clinton and his handling of the presidency, foreign policy, moral values, and the economy, as well as their views of the United States Congress, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, First Lady Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Those queried were asked whether President Clinton had followed through in the following goals of his administration: improving the economy, providing health insurance for everyone, reforming the welfare system, reducing crime, improving race relations, and improving education. Other questions probed for respondents' opinions on former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones's sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton, the pending trial from that claim, the alleged affair between Clinton and then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky, the national importance of that allegation, and the media coverage of these scandals. Additional topics covered whether Clinton had exhibited a pattern of sexual affairs while in public office, whether he was guilty of obstructing justice, how these allegations compared to Watergate, and whether Kenneth Starr was conducting an impartial investigation. Background information on respondents includes age, race, education, religion, ethnicity, family income, political party, political orientation, voter registration and participation history, marital status, employment status, financial status, and age of children in household.

The Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) was established in 2014 through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to document current practices in developmental education and to rigorously assess the effects of innovative programs. CAPR is led by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University, and social policy research organization MDRC. CAPR's research includes a nationally representative survey of two- and four-year colleges. The survey is designed to help researchers and others better understand the approaches used by colleges and states to assess students' college readiness, deliver developmental instruction, and provide non-classroom-based student supports for students assessed as needing developmental education. The survey identifies emerging reform strategies, the extent to which colleges are scaling different practices, and the factors driving the adoption of these practices.

China's dramatic economic and educational changes over the past 20 years have stimulated concerns about the education of children in rural areas. Recent empirical studies give evidence of growing disparities in educational opportunities between urban and rural areas and socio-economic and geographic inequities in basic-level educational participation within rural areas. These studies also point to a persisting gender gap in enrollment and to the disproportionate impact of poverty on girls' educational participation (Hannum 1998b; Zhang 1998). This study focused on the influence of poverty on the schooling of 11 to 14 year-old children in rural Gansu, an interior province in Northwest China characterized by high rates of rural poverty and a substantial dropout problem. Substantively, this study was innovative in adopting an integrated approach: it focused on the community, family, and school contexts in which children are educated. Methodologically, the study combined information on children's academic performance and school characteristics, with a household-based sample that allowed examination of the academic experiences of children who have left the education system as well as those who have persisted in it. Finally, the project was the baseline wave for the first large-scale, longitudinal study devoted to education and social inequality conducted in rural China. Results of this study contribute to an understanding of basic social stratification processes and provide insights for developing intervention strategies to improve educational access and effectiveness in rural China. Wave 1 of this study (2000) has been archived and is available for download at ICPSR-DSDR. For information about Waves 2-4 (2004, 2007, 2009), please see the Gansu Survey of Children and Families Web site.

MT21 is a cross-national study of the preparation of middle school mathematics teachers. Countries participating included Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), South Korea (Korea), Bulgaria, Germany, Mexico, and the United States. Data were collected from teachers in their first and last year of preparation by sampling institutions in each country. Future teachers were asked about their backgrounds, course-taking and program activities, knowledge relevant to their teaching (mathematical and pedagogical), and beliefs and perspectives on content and pedagogy. The 1995 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data revealed that countries with higher achievement have teachers who teach substantially different content than that of their less accomplished counterparts (see Schmidt et al., 1996; Schmidt et al., 2001). The 1996 Report of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future argued that what teachers know and do in the classroom matters for pupil learning. It also argued that teacher education might be a viable policy tool to improve the quality of education (National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1996). United States reform efforts are consistent with this line of thought. They have introduced standards to measure teacher quality as it relates to student achievement. This, in turn, led to accountability concerns regarding teacher preparation programs (INTASC, 1995; Murray, 2000; Leithwood, Edge and Jantzi, 1999; NCATE, 2000). The MT21 Project was designed to answer the following question: how shall we prepare our future teachers to teach a more rigorous curriculum to all students? Several assumptions were made going into this work: the concepts and models defining teacher preparation are not fixed across the world. Recognizing and understanding this diversity to develop a cross-national study of teacher preparation poses a complex and challenging problem. It is hoped that the resulting international data would not only serve to provide policy insights but would also bring about change by making visible contrasts with other countries in terms of teacher preparation in the United States.

The Social Weather Stations Surveys were designed to provide a source of data on Philippine economic and social conditions independent from Philippine governmental statistics. These quarterly surveys cover the entire Philippines with four major geographic study areas: National Capital Region (NCR), Balance Luzon (areas outside of NCR but within Luzon), Visayas, and Mindanao. Adults, aged 18 and older, are asked through face-to-face interviews for their views on issues concerning the general topics of economics, governance, politics, diplomacy, and society, as well as issues of current public interest in the Philippines. The survey also gathers information from household heads about the members of the household and household characteristics. The Social Weather Stations Survey for the third quarter of 1995 was conducted from September 18 to October 21, 1995. Questions on economic issues probed for respondents' feelings about and personal encounters with poverty as well as their views on quality of life trends, taxation, fiscal policies, and personal investments. Questions about governance included ratings of political personalities, assessment of the current administration and government institutions, nuclear testing, presidential and senatorial performance, term limits, memories of President Ferdinand Marcos and martial law, and political party interaction. Questions on diplomacy elicited respondents' views on external security and foreign relations, while societal topics covered the state of the family, agrarian reform, education reform, women's rights, abortion, personal safety, air travel experience, use of iodized salt, and computer use. Background information on respondents includes age, sex, political party, marital status, employment status, education, household composition, home ownership, religion, and household spending patterns.

To meet the growing need for high-quality research on whole-school approaches to instructional improvement, researchers at the University of Michigan School of Education, in cooperation with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), conducted a large-scale, mixed method, longitudinal Study of Instructional Improvement to investigate the design, implementation, and effects on student achievement of three of the most widely-adopted whole-school school reform programs in the United States: the Accelerated Schools (ASP), America's Choice (AC), and Success for All (SFA). Each of these school reform programs sought to make "comprehensive" changes in the instructional capacity of schools, and each was being implemented in schools in diverse social environments. Each program, however, also pursued a different design for instructional improvement, and each developed particular strategies for assisting schools in the change process. In order to better understand the process of whole-school reform, Study of Instructional Improvement (SII) developed a program of research to examine how these interventions operated and to investigate their impact on schools' instructional practice and student achievement in reading and mathematics. The research program had 3 components: a longitudinal survey of 115 schools (roughly 30 schools in each of the 3 interventions under study, plus 26 matched control schools), case studies of the 3 interventions under study, and detailed case studies of 9 schools implementing the interventions under study (plus 3 matched control schools). Across all components of the SII study, the research examined alternative designs for instructional improvement, alternative strategies for putting these designs into practice in local schools, and the extent to which alternative designs and support strategies promote substantial changes in instructional capacity and student achievement in reading and mathematics. The most comprehensive component of SII was a large-scale, longitudinal, multisurvey study of schools. The use of survey research methods was intended to track the course of schools' engagement in comprehensive approaches to instructional improvement and to investigate the conditions under which this led to substantive changes in instructional practices and student achievement in reading and mathematics. The study design called for each school to participate in the study for a period of three years, although some schools voluntarily provided a fourth year of teacher, leader, and school-level information (no additional student-level data). In addition, survey researchers conducted interviews, primarily a telephone protocol with a parent or guardian of each cohort student in order to gather information on students' family background and on students' home and community environments. Researchers also gathered data from school leaders and others about the policy environments in which the schools are located. Another component of the research program involved the development of detailed case studies of a small number schools participating in the study. The case studies gathered observational, interview, and documentary evidence to better understand how instructional change processes unfolded in different school settings. Case studies were conducted in 12 schools operating in differently configured state and district policy environments. In each environment, researchers selected schools participating in one of the, interventions under study as well as a "matched" control school. Finally, case study data was used to chart key similarities and differences in the design and operations of the interventions under study, to analyze how different design features affect operating strategies, and to better understand the general problem of how intervention programs can work to devise and "bring to scale" a feasible scheme for improving instruction in local schools.

The Taiwan Education Panel Survey (TEPS) is a national longitudinal project initiated by Academia Sinica and jointly funded by Ministry of Education, the National Science Council, and Academia Sinica. The objective of TEPS is to stimulate more basic research in the fields of education, sociology, economics, and psychology by employing large scale panel data on representative samples of students, and their parents, teachers, and school administrators. In a nutshell, TEPS has five distinguishing features: (1) Theory driven: The focus is on the skills, behavioral, values, and psychological consequences of schooling institutions and family environments of students. Factors that are found in the literature to affect students' learning outcomes are all included. Specifically speaking, an AOE model of learning outcomes, representing learning capabilities (Ability), learning opportunities (Opportunity), and the amount of effort made by the students (Effort), serves as a guiding framework for questionnaire development. Ability and effort are more on students themselves while opportunities covers family, teachers, and school environment, peers, and so forth. (2) Student centered and multidimensional and multi-levels: Central to the project were questionnaire surveys of students. The data collection extends to cover the most influential actors in their learning environment: parents, teachers, and schools. It covered nested multiple levels of data - individual students, classes, and schools, etc. (3) Panel surveys covering multiple programs and multiple cohorts: Students in junior high (G7 to G9), senior high (G10 to G12), vocational (G10 to G12), and junior college (G10 to G14) programs were administered for data collection. All students were followed at least twice. A portion of them were followed four times at G7, G9, G11, and G12. In light of the ongoing transformation of the Taiwanese educational system in 1990s, the project started with two cohorts of approximately 40,000 students, making it possible to employ a quasi-experimental design in future analysis. (4) National representative samples of the students: Students under data collection were representative samples of the 1984/85 and 1988/89 birth cohorts. Weighting is provided according to the probabilistic sampling design. (5) Public goods: Data are made available to the public as soon as the data collection and data cleaning is completed, thereby providing an important resource for both academic and policy research.

The Teacher Quality Grants Texas project is a broad, ongoing evaluative study with the goal of better understanding the professional growth in teachers who have self-selected to participate in focused, long-term professional development in mathematics or science provided by the Teacher Quality Granting Program (TQGP). The TQGP, funded through No Child Left Behind (NCLB), aims to improve the quality of teaching which, in turn, leads to improved student achievement. The 2012-2014 cycle of this study includes administrative and qualitative data, much of which contain observation notes and comments from trained raters observing teachers in their classroom environments. The data include ratings on classroom activities, organization, student attention, type of student cognition, instructional inquiry demonstrated by teacher, and types of assessment. Teachers in the classroom were also rated on instructional, discourse, assessment, and curriculum factors. Additionally, the data contain pre- and post-scores of content tests taken by teachers at the high school level. Administrative data on teachers includes academic degree type, college hours in project topic area, whether teacher had an alternative emergency certificate, grade level(s) taught, teaching assignments related to grant topic area, certification exams passed before and after the grant project, teaching assignment after grant project, reason for leaving grant project, and number of project days and hours by year. Additional qualitative data in this study includes participant reflective writings and interview transcripts. Teachers responded to a series of eight reflective prompts designed to elicit participant growth in subject matter, pedagogy, use of instructional technology, and development within a professional community of practice. A subset of teacher-participants were also interviewed by phone, during the summer following a year of grant participation.

The Teacher Quality Grants Texas project was a broad, evaluative study with the goal of better understanding the professional growth in teachers who self-selected to participate in focused, long-term professional development in mathematics or science provided by the Teacher Quality Granting Program (TQGP). The TQGP, funded through No Child Left Behind (NCLB), aimed to improve the quality of teaching which, in turn, leads to improved student achievement. The 2014-2016 cycle of this study includes administrative and qualitative data, much of which contain observation notes and comments from trained raters observing teachers in their classroom environments. The data also include ratings on classroom activities, organization, student attention, type of student cognition, instructional inquiry demonstrated by teacher, and types of assessment. Teachers in the classroom were also rated on instructional, discourse, assessment, and curriculum factors. Additional, the data contain pre- and post-scores of content tests taken by teachers at the high school level. Administrative data on teachers includes academic degree type, college hours in project topic area, whether teacher had an alternative emergency certificate, grade level(s) taught, teaching assignments related to grant topic area, certification exams passed before and after the grant project, teaching assignment after grant project, reason for leaving grant project, and number of project days and hours by year. Additional qualitative data in this study includes participant reflective writings and interview transcripts. Teachers responded to a series of eight reflective prompts designed to elicit participant growth in subject matter, pedagogy, use of instructional technology, and development within a professional community of practice. A subset of teacher-participants were also interviewed by phone, during the summer following a year of grant participation.

The Washington State Achievers Scholarship program (WSA) started as part of an initiative by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund and support 16 high schools in Washington State as they redesigned their schools in order to increase academic achievement for all of their students. The program was administered through the College Success Foundation, formerly the Washington College Success Foundation. All students at these 16 high schools (Cleveland High School, Clover Park High School, Davis High School, Foster High School, Henry Foss High School, Kent-Meridian High School, Kittitas High School, Lincoln High School, Mabton High School, Mariner High School, Mount Tahoma High School, Stevenson High School, Tonasket High School, Truman High School, West Valley High School, Yelm High School) also known as Achiever schools were eligible to apply for a scholarship through WSA. Each year for ten years (2001-2010), approximately 500 students were selected to receive a scholarship. The requirements were that students be from families with low to modest incomes, qualify for state need-grant assistance, and they must have the desire to attain a 4-year degree. Scholarship students were selected in the spring of their final year of high school and began attending college the following fall. The first cohort began college in the fall of 2001 and the final cohort began in the fall of 2010. Questions were asked pertaining to students' feelings of success throughout their years in college. There were asked about their involvement in the community, their attitudes and goals as scholars or non-recipients, how helpful they found their mentorship experience, as well as the reasons, if applicable, why their enrollment in college was interrupted. For each Cohort (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007) this study contains data for the Baseline, 1st Follow-up, 2nd Follow Up, and Longitudinal surveys where applicable. In addition, Non-Cognitive scores and Non-Enrollee surveys were also made available. Follow-up surveys and Longitudinal surveys were intended to capture the long-term effects of the program on the educational and occupational paths of the recipients. Demographic variables include questions about race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, college enrolled, major field of study, work history, and educational finances.