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From 2010 onwards, most US states have aligned their education standards by adopting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for math and English Language Arts. The CCSS did not target other subjects such as science and social studies. We estimate spillovers of the CCSS on student achievement in non-targeted subjects in models with state and year fixed effects. Using student achievement data from the NAEP, we show that the CCSS had a negative effect on student achievement in non-targeted subjects. This negative effect is largest for underprivileged students, exacerbating racial and socioeconomic student achievement gaps. Using teacher surveys, we show that the CCSS caused a reduction in instructional focus on nontargeted subjects. [Financial support was provided by DAAD and the Leibniz Competition.]

Family and social networks are widely believed to influence important life decisions but identifying their causal effects is notoriously difficult. Using admissions thresholds that directly affect older but not younger siblings' college options, we present evidence from the United States, Chile, Sweden and Croatia that older siblings' college and major choices can significantly influence their younger siblings' college and major choices. On the extensive margin, an older sibling's enrollment in a better college increases a younger sibling's probability of enrolling in college at all, especially for families with low predicted probabilities of enrollment. On the intensive margin, an older sibling's choice of college or major increases the probability that a younger sibling applies to and enrolls in that same college or major. Spillovers in major choice are stronger when older siblings enroll and succeed in more selective and higher-earning majors. The observed spillovers are not well-explained by price, income, proximity or legacy effects, but are most consistent with older siblings transmitting otherwise unavailable information about the college experience and its potential returns. The importance of such personally salient information may partly explain persistent differences in college-going rates by geography, income, and other determinants of social networks.

Private schools have a long and important tradition in U.S. education and have been the focus of a great deal of political controversy in recent years. There is deep division among Americans over the desirability of using public funds to finance vouchers for private education--an issue that has become the leading educational goal of the Trump Administration. Surveys of the public show that substantial majorities of Americans do not favor voucher policies, yet these efforts have long been supported by significant shares of the public, the religious groups that operate nonpublic schools, and leaders of one of our national parties. This deep division is reflected in the extraordinary differences among the states in their adoption of voucher policies over the past two decades. Examining these differences, along with data on national and regional trends in private education, provides a useful framework for considering the relationship between private school enrollment and the impact of voucher policies. This working paper explores how the size and share of private education has changed in the U.S. over two decades, from 1995 to 2015-16 (the most recent federal data), along with how the students are divided among different kinds of private schools: secular, Catholic, and non-Catholic religious schools. It also examines the racial composition of these schools, providing key data for evaluating the civil rights dimension of private schooling and voucher policies. The civil rights questions concern how well private schools serve students of color, what kinds of schools these students attend, how segregated they are, and whether students of color are getting a major share of the growth of private schools in the areas they are growing, especially in the South. Key findings of the report include: (1) Student enrollment in private schools peaked in 2001 and has moderately declined over the past fifteen years. In 2015, private schools served 9 percent of the nation's students and accounted for 28 percent of the nation's schools; (2) Private schools seem to compete with charter schools. Since its appearance a decade ago, the growth of charter schools is noticeable. In 2015, private schools serve 4.9 million students while charter schools enroll 2.7 million students; (3) The 2015 racial composition of private school enrollment was 68.6% white, 9.3% black, 10.4% Hispanic, 6.9% Asian. The student body of public schools differed substantially from private schools, comprising 48.7% white, 15.2% black, 26.3% Hispanic, and 5.4% Asian students; (4) Private school enrollment rates among white students have not changed over time--one in eight white students in the nation attend private schools. Meanwhile, private school attendance rates among non-white students have slightly declined. As of 2015, 5.6 percent of blacks, 3.8 percent of Hispanics, and 11.3 percent of Asians in the nation are enrolled in private schools; (5) Students from low-income families are underrepresented in private schools, accounting for 9% of the private school student body. The secular sector in particular has the smallest percentage of poor students: 5.4%. In public schools, poor students make up more than 50% of student enrollment; (6) White students are overrepresented in private schools, making up 69 percent of private school enrollment; they comprise 51 percent of total enrollment of school-aged population in the country. African American and Hispanic students are severely underrepresented in private schools. The latter comprise over 25 percent of students in the public sector but only 10 percent of students in private schools; (7) The South has seen an 11% increase in the number of private schools--non-Catholic religious schools in particular--over the past two decades unlike other regions in which private schools have declined over years; (8) The number of Catholic private schools and Catholic school enrollment have decreased over the past two decades in the Northeast and Midwest in particular. Enrollment in nonCatholic religious private schools and secular private schools has grown during the same period. The growth of non-Catholic religious schools stands out in the Northeast and the South in particular; (9) The South has the largest number of schools for both private and public sectors, which account for one third of the country's schools. Given the number of schools for both private and public systems, private schools are most overrepresented in the Northeast; (10) Black and Hispanic private school students on average experience more diversity compared to their peers in public schools. White students are the most isolated group in terms of intergroup contact, and white students in the non-Catholic religious sector across regions have the most limited intergroup experiences, typically attending schools with large white majorities; and (11) The secular sector has seen the largest increase in diversity over time compared to Catholic and non-Catholic religious schools, although the level of diversity does not reach the same level of public schools.

Building on the inaugural survey conducted three years prior, the 2015 CASE Community College Alumni Relations survey collected additional insightful data on staffing, structure, communications, engagement, and fundraising. This white paper features key data on alumni relations programs at community colleges across the United States. The paper compares results from 2015 and 2012 across such areas as the structure, operations and budget for alumni relations, alumni data collection and management, alumni communications and engagement strategy, as well as fundraising activities with alumni. The latest snapshot from community colleges across the United States shows that alumni relations has made progress. Survey questions are appended. [For the prior White Paper, "Benchmarking Alumni Relations in Community Colleges: Findings from a 2012 CASE Survey. CASE White Paper," ED571308.]

Using a unique dataset of 44 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), this paper examines critical patterns of enrollment, engagement, persistence, and completion among students in online higher education. By leveraging fixed-effects specifications based on over 2.1 million student observations across more than 2,900 lectures, we analyze engagement, persistence, and completion rates at the student, lecture, and course levels. We find compelling and consistent temporal patterns: across all courses, participation declines rapidly in the first week but subsequently flattens out in later weeks of the course. However, this decay is not entirely uniform. We also find that several student and lecture-specific traits are associated with student persistence and engagement. For example, the sequencing of a lecture within a batch of released videos as well as its title wording are related to student watching. We also see consistent patterns in how student characteristics are associated with persistence and completion. Students are more likely to complete the course if they complete a pre-course survey or follow a quantitative track (as opposed to qualitative or auditing track) when available. These findings suggest potential course design changes that are likely to increase engagement, persistence, and completion in this important, new educational setting.

This occasional paper serves as a supplement to one of four annual monographs from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study, written by the study's investigators and published by the study's sponsor, the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The full 2009 survey results are reported in "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2009: Volume I, Secondary School Students". That monograph contains a description of MTF's design and purposes, as well as extended reporting on substance use of all kinds and a number of related factors such as attitudes and beliefs about drugs, age of initiation, non-continuation of drug use, relevant conditions in the social environment, history of daily marijuana use, and use of drugs for the treatment of ADHD. Appendix D of Volume I contains tabular data on trends in drug use for various demographic subgroups for each of the many drugs under study. The present occasional paper presents those subgroup trends in "graphic" form, because graphic presentations are much easier to comprehend. The graphic presentations have not been included in "Volume I" due both to their length and the cost of printing them in color. Trend data are presented for 12th-grade respondents beginning with 1975, the first year in which a nationally representative sample of high school seniors was surveyed. Trend data for 8th and 10th grades are presented beginning with 1991, when those grade levels were added to the study design. The numerical information upon which these graphics are based is contained in the relevant appendix D tables of Volume I. Detailed definitions of the demographic categories are given in appendix B of that volume. For the reader's convenience, both appendix B and appendix D have also been included in this occasional paper. (Contains 258 figures and 1 footnote.)

In 2011, CASE founded the Center for Community College Advancement to provide training and resources to help community colleges build and sustain effective fundraising, alumni relations and communications and marketing programs. This white paper summarizes the results of a groundbreaking survey on alumni relations programs at community colleges across the United States and Canada. The purpose of the survey was to help community college staff members benchmark their experiences and programs in alumni relations with their peers. The survey was conducted by the CASE research office in conjunction with CASE's Center for Community College Advancement. Survey questions are appended. [For the follow up White Paper, "Benchmarking Alumni Relations in Community Colleges: Findings from a 2015 CASE Survey. CASE White Paper," see ED571307.]

Differences in teacher quality are commonly cited as a key determinant of the huge international student performance gaps. However, convincing evidence on this relationship is still lacking, in part because it is unclear how to measure teacher quality consistently across countries. We use unique international assessment data to investigate the role of teacher cognitive skills as one main dimension of teacher quality in explaining student outcomes. Our main identification strategy exploits exogenous variation in teacher cognitive skills attributable to international differences in relative wages of nonteacher public sector employees. Using student-level test score data, we find that teacher cognitive skills are an important determinant of international differences in student performance. Results are supported by fixed-effects estimation that uses within-country between-subject variation in teacher skills.

This report describes how an innovative curriculum promoted the civic development of high school students along with parents by stimulating news media attention and discussion in families. Evidence is based on a three-year evaluation of Kids Voting USA, an interactive, election-based curriculum. Political communication in the home increased the probability of voting for students when they reached voting age during the 2004 election. Thus, the interplay of influences from school and family magnified curriculum effects in the short term and sustained them in the long term. This bridging of the classroom with the living room suggests how Kids Voting offers a model for reforming civic education in the United States. Data are derived from a series of natural field experiments, beginning with interviews of 491 student-parent pairs in 2002. The authors evaluate the curriculum as it was taught in the fall of that year in El Paso County, Colorado, with Colorado Springs as the largest city; Maricopa, County, Arizona, which includes the Phoenix region; and Broward/Palm Beach counties, Florida, the epicenter for the ballot-recount saga of 2000. Students who were juniors or seniors in 2002 were interviewed in the fall/winter of 2002, 2003, and 2004. They were all of voting age by the fall of 2004, allowing the authors to determine whether participation in the curriculum in 2002 affected turnout in the presidential election two years later. The authors also interviewed one parent from each family each year. The voting records in the four counties were examined to provide a definitive assessment of whether the curriculum increased the likelihood of voting. Finally, the panel survey data was supplemented with qualitative insights obtained from focus group interviews. An appendix provides: (1) Electoral Contexts; (2) Data Collection Procedures; (3) Item Wording & Coding for All Measures; and (4) three supplemental tables. (Contains 7 tables and 7 figures.) [This Working Paper was produced by CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement). For CIRCLE Working Paper 48, see ED494024.]

This paper explores the nation's changing child population based on data from the 2010 census. While the number of U.S. children increased only slightly, the demographic shifts within the population were considerable. Some areas of the country (Nevada and Texas) and some demographic groups (including children of mixed race) grew significantly, while the number of children in other areas (Vermont and New York) and in other groups (such as non-Hispanic whites) declined. Appended are: (1) State Changes in Child Population 1990, 2000, and 2010; and (2) Distribution of Children (under age 18) by Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010. (Contains 16 tables, 3 figures, 1 chart and 30 endnotes.)

School voucher and education tax credit programs have proliferated in the United States over the past two decades. Advocates have argued that they will enable families to become active consumers in a free and competitive education marketplace, but some fear that these programs may in fact bring with them a heavy regulatory burden that could stifle market forces. Until now, there has been no systematic, empirical investigation of that concern. The present paper aims to shed light on the issue by quantifying the regulations imposed on private schools both within and outside school choice programs, and then analyzing them with descriptive statistics and regression analyses. The results are tested for robustness to alternative ways of quantifying private school regulation, and to alternative regression models, and the question of causality is addressed. The study concludes that vouchers, but not tax credits, impose a substantial and statistically significant additional regulatory burden on participating private schools. Appendices include: (1) Quantifying Private School Regulation; (2) Multilevel Regression Results; (3) Robust OLS Regression Results; and (4) Robustness Testing. (Contains 3 figures, 15 tables and 34 endnotes.)

This report reviews the use of loans for learning in 33 European countries and analyses the schemes in eight selected Member States: France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Finland, Sweden and the UK. The analysis shows that loan schemes vary considerably across Europe in terms of types and levels of learning covered, conditions of access, repayment and governance. Some loans aim to increase participation in learning in general, while others are designed to promote equity. The report attempts to assess the selected loans and discusses their strengths and weaknesses and determinants of performance, while considering if a given scheme operates on a large scale or targets niche groups. The evaluation results provide a basis for identifying good practice principles for designing and implementing loans. Policy recommendations are formulated based on these findings. Annexed are: (1) Methodology; (2) Key terms and definitions; (3) Information on countries/schemes selected for in-depth analysis; (4) Proposed typologies of VET loan schemes; (5) Tables and figures; (6) Tosmana truth tables; (7) Questionnaires; (8) Basic characteristics of non-European loan schemes. (Contains 37 tables, 5 figures, 20 boxes and 33 footnotes.)

The goal of this project was to produce a set of civic measures with sound psychometric properties appropriate for use with young people ages 12-18. Measures selected tap aspects of adolescent civic behaviors, opinions, knowledge, and dispositions. The measures are easy to administer and can be used by educators, staff of community-based organizations, program evaluators, and scholars. The data used to derive the civic measures were gathered from two waves of surveys with 1,924 students ages 12-18 from 88 social studies classes in the Northeastern United States. These data were collected during the 2004 election campaign with the pre-survey occurring 4-6 weeks prior to the election and the post-survey occurring 4-6 weeks after the election. All constructs in the report are based on student self-assessments. It is also important to highlight the future orientation of many of the items in the constructs. Several of the questions ask students to estimate the likelihood that they will engage in various community and political activities after high school. Other items ask students to rate their perceived ability to respond to a hypothetical scenario. The constructs were created by either calculating the mean score of the individual items or by summing the frequency. In this project summary, authors note the psychometric properties of constructs, item stems, response formats and, where appropriate, the sources from which items in scales were derived or adapted. The constructs included in this report were evaluated both for face and measurement validity: constructs were created so as to maximize the meaning of the scale and the statistical reliability. (Contains 2 endnotes and 1 figure.) [This report was produced by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).]

The question of whether inequality in skills explains inequality of earnings across advanced countries was examined through a review of data from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), which examined the prose, document, and quantitative literacy skills of adults in 12 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In all countries, jobless individuals tended to have lower skill levels than workers. The distribution of earnings and the distribution of skills varied widely among advanced countries, with the major English-speaking countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, having much greater inequality in both earnings and skills than continental European Union countries. According to data from the IALS, skill inequality explains only approximately 7% of the cross-country difference in earnings inequality. The dispersion of earnings in the United States was found to be larger in narrowly defined skill groups than was the dispersion of earnings for European workers overall. In the United States, IALS test scores rose substantially with movement up the income scale, with the increase in scores averaging 17 points per income quintile. The bulk of cross-country differences in earnings inequality were found to occur within skill groups rather than between them. (The bibliography contains 20 references. Twelve tables/figures are included.) (MN)

This first in a series of three papers on models for communicating and disseminating career education programs covers national and regional models. Focus is on four levels of dissemination: spread, exchange, choice, and implementation. First, common mechanisms for spread are described, such as newsletters, brochures and materials packets, handbooks/guides, catalogs and sourcebooks, and journal articles. Next, two types of exchange models are described, including examples: (1) service agency-client model and (2) a model involving a person in a linkage role. Then follows a discussion of choice in which a guide to regional and national models for disseminating career education is presented. This guide covers thirty-two organizations and for each includes project name, contact person and address, mode of access, and communication services. Finally, the paper discusses implementation strategies for career education, such as training, technical assistance, conferences and regional meetings, and peer interaction strategies. (EM)

This last in a series of three papers on models for communicating and disseminating career education programs highlights models used in four sectors, i.e., business, labor, industry, and government. Focus is on four levels of dissemination: spread, exchange, choice, and implementation. First, the differences in the networks represented by each of the four sectors are covered. Next, the aforementioned levels of dissemination are covered consecutively and include examples of how business, industry, labor, and government are using each level of dissemination to cover career education. Finally, the paper concludes with suggestions regarding the future of disseminating career education. (EM)

This second in a series of three papers on models for communicating and disseminating career education programs highlights selected state models. Focus is on four levels of dissemination: spread, exchange, choice, and implementation. First, several spread mechanisms utilized by states to disseminate career education information are covered. Then follows a presentation of varied examples of state information and resource exchange centers. Next, choice mechanisms utilized by some states are discussed. Finally, the implementation strategies used by several states are described, such as networks, training programs, and peer interaction. This paper includes a table listing thirteen states and for each includes the names and addresses of the project contact person and career education coordinator; and the available dissemination services. (EM)

Sabbatical leaves are viewed as being essential to the ongoing nature of a self-renewing community of scholars. This study was undertaken to provide data on current use of sabbatical leave plans in universities in several countries - Canada; the United States; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales; Australia, and New Zealand - to provide useful information for possible revision of leave plans. Sixty-six universities were surveyed by means of a questionnaire and the results revealed similarities among the four groups of countries regarding the length of service prior to leave (generally 6 years); differences among the four groups, including the use of retraining leaves as a form of sabbatical; salary paid during regular sabbatical leave; and travel expenses. The conclusions drawn from the data are that Canadian leave plans are not nearly as uniform as those in United States universities; Canadian plans have become more formalized and better documented since 1969; salary paid for full-year leaves in Canadian universities has improved since 1969 and is now substantially better than in the United States, but not as good as in Australia and New Zealand; and participation rates in all countries appear to be higher than those reported prior to 1965 by Ingraham. (JMF)

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 35 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. The Organisation for works with countries to develop skills strategies tailored to specific needs and contexts. The Organisation prepared a global skills strategy outline over the period 2011 to 2013. Each national skills strategy country project offers a tailored approach to focus on the unique skills challenges, context and objectives of each country. Each project leverages OECD comparative data and policy analysis, fosters collaboration across ministerial portfolios and levels of government while engaging all relevant stakeholders--employers, trade unions, and civil society organisations. In its paper "Towards an OECD Skills Strategy" (OECD 2013), the OECD sets out the main issues which must be addressed by efficient and effective policies for skills formation and skills use. The majority of material in each of the 13 case summaries presented here has been lifted mostly verbatim from original sources. These sources are stated at the beginning of each case summary. [This document is an added resource for the report "Identifying Work Skills: International Approaches. Discussion Paper" which can be accessed in ERIC at ED579874.]

The role of the social sciences and the humanities in a knowledge-based economy was examined in a comparative study of the income and employment outcomes of secondary-, postsecondary-, and graduate-level study programs in technical fields, the social sciences, and the humanities in 1991-1996. Special attention was paid to the following areas: the economic success of graduates in 1996; rates of return on investment in education in selected fields; employment changes in 1991-96; a case study of the British Columbian labor market; techism and economic development; and the productivity approach and economic development. The study established that computers and information have revolutionized business organization and increased the demand for social science and humanities graduates. Technological advances and the resultant falling cost of information has made the hierarchical organization inefficient and increased the need for workers with the following types of skills and abilities that are cultivated in social sciences and humanities programs: (1) to understand the information generated by computer systems, analyze it, relate it to the world, and act on it; (2) to make critical and independent judgments; and (3) to develop the interpersonal and communication skills needed to deal with clients and work together in self-directing teams. (MN)