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2018-10-09
American Institutes for Research;
American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted this study as part of the Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative's initial cycle of research. The team at AIR worked alongside fellow scholars, educators, and policymakers to investigate the impact of specific student-centered practices and then translate their findings for cross-sector audiences.
The research questions investigated in this study are:
What practices do teachers employ to provide feedback to students on their performance that assist with the development of student agency?
What contextual factors do teachers view as facilitators of or challenges to implementing these practices?
How well do student survey questions measure student agency?
Were the measurement properties of the agency scales consistent over time and across student subgroups?
Are there significant subgroup differences in measures of student agency?
How does student agency change during the school year?
Do changes in student agency during the school year differ between subgroups of students?
How do teachers use data to inform their practices?
This report represents their work over the past two years as they designed, tested, and revised teacher practices as part of a networked improvement community and examined how student agency impacted academic outcomes.
2018-10-05
American Institutes for Research;
Study Overview
Personalized learning is often equated with individual learning using technology. Yet for many students, learning on their own may not effectively meet their needs. The aim of this study was to explore racial differences in experiences and benefits associated with collaboration. We collected data from a variety of sources for students, teachers, and classrooms within four racially diverse high schools that emphasized both personalization and collaboration. Our sample included 892 students, 138 teachers, and 30 classrooms. Our qualitative analyses identified emergent themes from focus groups and interviews, and our quantitative analyses examined associations among opportunities for collaboration, classroom experiences, and outcomes, testing whether these associations differed forBlack students versus White students. We found that, for all students, reports of high-quality collaboration were strongly associated with positive classroom experiences and mind-set/ dispositional outcomes such as motivation, engagement, and self-efficacy. Moreover, high-quality collaboration was strongly associated with students' perceptions of personalization—and personalization, in turn, was strongly associated with outcomes. At the same time, focus group discussions revealed that Black students perceived less relevance in collaborative activities, more frequent experiences of exclusion and marginalization, and lower support from teachers during collaborative group work than did non-Black peers. Findings from this study suggest that collaborative experiences could be among the factors that contribute to positive changes in the academic trajectories of Black students, particularly when these opportunities reflect high-quality features. Thus, schools and educators aiming to address equity through personalization should consider increasing opportunities for high-quality collaboration.
2018-10-02
GrantCraft;
Funders are increasingly looking to engage the communities they serve in the grantmaking process, but there are few resources about how to do so. In this guide, we explore how funders can engage in participatory grantmaking and cede decision-making power about funding decisions to the very communities they aim to serve. Deciding Together: Shifting Power and Resources Through Participatory Grantmaking illustrates why and how funders around the world are engaging in this practice that is shifting traditional power dynamics in philanthropy. Created with input from a number of participatory grantmakers, the guide shares challenges, lessons learned, and best practices for engaging in inclusive grantmaking.
2018-10-02
William T. Grant Foundation;
While there are numerous barriers to career advancement for scholars of color, the Foundation believes that many of these can be mitigated through strong mentoring relationships that address issues of difference. But the power of effective mentoring will only be realized when the institutions in which these relationships exist begin to change. The guide, which was developed in collaboration with the Forum for Youth Investment is derived from interviews with grantees and consultants who participated in the Foundation's mentoring program for junior researchers of color.
2018-09-21
Education Development Center;
Student-centered learning encompasses four overlapping and complementary principles (JFF, 2014): competency-based progression, personalization, flexibility in where and when learning takes place, and facilitation of key skills and dispositions such as agency and ownership. To date, few studies have attempted to quantitatively characterize implementation of student-centered learning in order to investigate the relationship between variability in implementation and student outcomes—particularly outcomes among high-need student subgroups (Steele, Lewis, Santibañez, et al., 2014). Education Development Center (EDC) partnered with 10 districts in rural Maine that were in the process of implementing the state's requirement that students graduate with a proficiency-based diploma, to study students' exposure to student-centered, proficiency-based education and the relationship between exposure and student academic performance and engagement. Using Latent Profile Analysis, a statistical technique used to uncover hidden subgroups (i.e., latent profiles) based on the similarity with which a group of individuals responds to a set of survey questions, we found that three distinct proficiency-based education (PBE) exposure profiles existed, in similar proportions across all the participating schools and within every school. Analyses of district level administrative data showed that having an IEP was associated with higher exposure to PBE practices but that other student characteristics, including free and reduced-price lunch status and gender were not associated with more exposure to PBE practices. We also observed a positive relationship between exposure to PBE practices and increased levels of student engagement, and a negative association between exposure to PBE practices and SAT scores. Finally, qualitative analyses revealed that implementation to date has largely focused on identifying graduation standards and implementing new proficiency-based grading practices, with traditional classroom practices still fairly commonplace.
2018-09-13
Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS);
Our study finds that scholarships for higher education are highly impactful, at the individual, community, and country levels.
For an individual, receiving a scholarship makes attending university possible. It means greater earning power, greater confidence and motivation, and a greater desire to influence other lives through leadership.
At the community level, we observe that most scholarship recipients want to give back and do so by volunteering. They want to change society for the better by pursuing careers in education, the government, and the social sector.
The aggregate effect for the country is human capital development, which drives economic growth. Scholarships also help offset increasing tuition costs across Asia and mitigate income inequality by making it possible for low-income students to attend university.
A single scholarship enhances 26 lives on average, including the scholar, her family, the students she mentors and leads, and the community members she volunteers for.
We also present a toolkit for enhancing the effectiveness of scholarship programs. The toolkit showcases both the "why" and "how" of setting clear goals, improving communication and engagement with scholars, and enhancing their employability and career success. These strategies can magnify the impact of scholarships for students, donors, and governments.
2018-08-28
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO);
This paper is part of an ongoing collaboration between the World Bank and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization to raise awareness about the importance of water management in fragile systems and to propose strategic responses. It is important to better understand these dynamics to ensure that water does not add to fragility, but rather promotes stability, and contributes to resilience in the region. This paper calls for redoubling efforts towards sustainable and efficient management of water resources, reliable and affordable delivery of water services to all and protection from water-related catastrophes.
2018-08-23
Columbia University Center for Public Research and Leadership;
This paper synthesizes the existing research on improvement networks in education and on how such networks can facilitate meaningful improvements in teaching and learning and ultimately in student outcomes. The paper's findings are drawn primarily from a critical literature review of empirical studies on education improvement networks, as well as from interviews with experts in the fields of professional networks and learning. By focusing on the networks most aligned to the NSI model, the paper is designed to provide a knowledge base for a formative evaluationof the NSI strategy, which BMGF has engaged the Columbia University Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) to conduct over the next two years.
2018-08-09
FSG;
Taking personalized learning to scale in a school or district requires the difficult work of changing the way human beings do their work. Navigating the complicated relationships between students, teachers, parents, administrators, the public, and the local and state agencies is challenging enough on any given day, but aligning them all behind a new vision of how students can learn, and keeping them aligned long enough to implement that vision, is a challenge of an altogether different order. To understand and share how this journey plays out, we documented the implementation journeys of three different institutions, including their successes and challenges, their unexpected setbacks, and their sudden epiphanies.
2018-08-07
Oxfam;
Earning an income is a struggle for the residents of Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan, and women's economic participation is extremely low. Oxfam initiated the Lel-Haya (For Life) project in Za'atari to build the capacities of Syrian refugee women, both in vocational training and soft skills. A small number of women involved in the project were subsequently employed by a garment factory in northern Jordan. This briefing note highlights these women's experiences, the challenges they have faced and how they have overcome them.
2018-08-01
Oxfam;
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education are increasing in profile as countries grapple with serious challenges of educational access and quality—and as donors such as the World Bank turn to this approach as they advise countries on potential solutions to these barriers. Evidence is still limited on the impacts of this policy approach, however, and the academic literature that looks at equity and inclusion raises profound concerns.
This study seeks to understand the impact of the PPP initiative in Punjab province, Pakistan, on key dimensions of equity, education quality, and democratic and social accountability. It was conducted over a period of two months, through field visits in a sample of 31 schools across five districts of the province (in both rural and urban/slum areas) and all four programs run by the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF).
The study provides an in-depth view of how the sample schools are operating and are incentivized within the framework of the PEF programs, raising serious concerns about equity, quality, and accountability that need to be considered more broadly in the push to expand PPPs.
2018-07-23
Migration Policy Institute;
This fact sheet examines predicted DACA expirations, as well as offers estimates for the educational and workforce characteristics of the nearly 690,000 current DACA holders. Among the national and state-level estimates offered: school enrollment and educational attainment, labor force participation, and top industries and occupations of employment.
