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Relying primarily on the responses of a proportionally weighted sample of undergraduate students attending eighteen major public research universities (N greater than 300K, responses from greater than 130K, n greater than 40K) that are part of the Student Experience in the Research University Consortium, this paper concludes that students from households at all income levels have been impacted by the increasing expense of higher education. The large majority of students from households at all income levels have changed behaviors to make college more affordable. However, the most remarkable result was that dependent students from households with incomes up to $100,000 experienced college much the same. Thus far, it appears that financial aid has been very successful at mitigating the challenges of limited or inadequate household financial resources--generally households with incomes less than $100,000. In contrast, students from wealthier households, that is households with income greater than $200,000, have a more satisfied, more enriching educational experience and worry about financial debt less. As is generally true, it is better to be wealthy. The perception of value for price paid varied by state and was not directly associated with cost to attend or by selectivity, except that the top-rated public universities were considered to be good values regardless of relative cost. And last, there was no clear evidence of middle-class squeeze in the experience of undergraduate students. There were no behaviors or satisfaction ratings with U-shaped relationships where poor and wealthy students had better experiences than students from households in the middle ranges. The relationships were linear or curvilinear with monotonic increases. Note that the lack of middle-class squeeze was based on currently enrolled students' experiences, not the experiences of their parents, students who did not enroll or enrolled elsewhere, or of recent graduates. One question is whether we will see similar findings over time, and as public universities increase their tuition and financial aid programs. (Contains 7 tables, 10 figures and 9 endnotes.)

In 2001, the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) was created to "stimulate collaboration between selected liberal arts colleges and to act as a catalyst for the effective integration of emerging and newer digital technologies into teaching, learning, scholarship, and information management." In July 2015, NITLE migrated its operations from Southwestern University to the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). In conjunction with this migration, CLIR initiated a rigorous analysis of NITLE's current condition and the needs of its constituents. CLIR's assessment of NITLE comprises three interrelated activities: (1) composing a history of NITLE and setting it in the larger context of organizations devoted to technology in liberal education; (2) conducting interviews with key stakeholders in NITLE's past, present, and potential future; (3) and designing, administering, and analyzing a survey of current and former NITLE members and interested parties. These activities resulted in a rich, textured picture of the organization and the many ways in which it engaged with its members over the years. Based on the analysis performed for this report, the authors believe that a future organization seeking to serve constituents similar to those served by NITLE should: (1) Maintain a liberal arts college focus; (2) Perform market research to determine how a future organization should support members at the local and/or national level; (3) Clearly articulate the organization's mission, primary audience, and value proposition; (4) Ensure that membership fees are in line with members' perceived return on investment; (5) Develop a culture of ongoing assessment; (6) Regularly communicate with members; and (7) Distinguish the organization from others with similar audience or mission. The following are appended: (1) NITLE Competitors 1997-2015: Audiences, Value Propositions, and Business Models; (2) NITLE Assessment Project: Interview Protocol; (3) Survey Questions; and (4) Organizational Acronyms. (References and Selected Bibliography are included.)

This report provides the historical background and interpretive analysis needed to understand controversies surrounding Common Core and its associated tests. In this report, Williamson M. Evers presents a revised and expanded version of his expert report for "Jindal v. United States Department of Education et al.," No. 14-CV- 534 (M.D. La), that includes the following four points: (1) That longstanding federal statutes contain prohibitions on the federal government in general--and the U.S Department of Education in particular--from directing or controlling curriculum; (2) That Common Core in combination with its associated tests are components of curriculum and put the country on the path to a national curriculum; (3) That, notwithstanding the role of the state officials and others in the creation of Common Core and its tests, the federal government and its Department of Education got the states to adhere to the Common Core and its associate tests and are enforcing against the states policies aimed at keeping in place these national standards and national tests (or their federally-approved equivalents); and (4) That, although the Common Core and its tests are defended as needed for school-improvement purposes, there is an alternative approach to school improvement that is consistent with the Constitution and federal statutes.

This document describes a proposed alignment between BIBFRAME (Bibliographic Framework) and a model being explored by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) with extensions proposed by the Schema Bib Extend project, a Worldwide Web Consortium sponsored (W3C-sponsored) community group tasked with enhancing Schema.org to the description of library resources. The key result is that the two efforts are complementary except for some common vocabulary required for the most important entities and relationships. The analysis presented in this document was prompted by the call at the end of the December 2012 BIBFRAME Early Experimenters Meeting for a set of Point or Position papers that work out technical issues and make recommendations for a number of sketchy, difficult, or controversial aspects of the BIBFRAME model. The description is based on a small dataset presented in the entirety in the Appendix. However, the analysis is based on a larger dataset derived from the application of a mapping algorithm from MARC to BIBFRAME on all of WorldCat.org. This document is being released as an OCLC report, but it is intended to be read as a working paper for the BIBFRAME community. The following are appended: (1) Example 1: The OCLC Schema model: Turtle syntax and RDF/XML syntax; and (2) Example 2: BIBFRAME: Turtle syntax and RDF/XML Syntax.

There is often confusion about distinctions between growth models and value-added models. The first half of this paper attempts to dispel some of these confusions by clarifying terminology and illustrating by example how the results from a large-scale assessment can and will be used to make inferences about student growth and the value-added attributable to teachers or schools. Two key differences between growth models and value-added models are discussed: the unit of analysis (growth models focus first and foremost on students; value-added models focus on teachers or schools) and inferential intent (growth models are primarily descriptive, value-added models are meant to support causal inferences). The point is made that all growth models can be used to make value-added inferences, but value-added models almost never lead to student-specific inferences about growth. The focus of the second half of this paper is on design issues that will need to be considered by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium such that test scores can be used for either growth or value-added inferences. It is shown that vertically scaled test scores are "not" prerequisite for value-added modeling. Vertical scales are most desirable in support of student-level growth interpretations, but certain conditions must be met before their creation would be defensible. In particular, the case is made that vertical scales will be most compatible with a learning progression perspective on construct and item development. The second half of the paper also discusses design factors that would minimize the role that measurement error will play in distorting inferences about growth and value-added. Finally, the paper concludes with the some recommendations for the PARCC consortia.

Preparing future citizens for postsecondary education and careers that span a continuum of sophistication is not a new topic in education. However, the rapid changes in technology and increased competition from industrialized nations have changed the landscape and meaning of college and career readiness. As part of a strategy to better prepare students, since 2005, 31 states have implemented college- and career-readiness standards (CCRS), with 20 states also requiring that students complete high school graduation requirements that will make them college and career ready (Howard & Madison-Harris, 2011). This briefing paper provides details on the meaning of college- and career-readiness standards, effective implementation of these standards, next steps in the implementation process, and progress being made by state departments of education (SDEs) in the southeast region toward this crucial objective.

Teacher selection, retention, and evaluation form a contentious policy knot. This paper: (1) reviews the recent history of teacher labor markets; (2) describes the teacher selection, preparation and retention policies of three countries that successfully reformed their systems; (3) proposes a different theoretical guide; and (4) reviews key teacher survey data and a large, current experiment in teacher evaluation. Based on this evidence, it then proposes a more promising experiment in teacher selection, preparation, and assignment. This proposed experiment offers an opportunity to overcome some cultural and institutional character flaws. It would systematically select, train, and place our most capable teachers with our highest-need children and families. It deliberately limits turnover and limits costs in several ways.

Smaller, private, independent institutions of higher education across the United States are facing challenging times. This white paper by Edwin H. Welch, president of the University of Charleston, shares lessons gleaned from the institution's innovative efforts over almost 30 years. Welch's hope is that the experiences at the University of Charleston will help other colleges and universities innovate more quickly. While confronting the headwinds of today's higher education environment, many small, private colleges and universities are held back by their own culture and history. Nevertheless, each institution has the option to change its condition, actions, and operational course. Changing the culture, Welch notes, is the biggest hurdle for any institution seeking to adjust, grow, and innovate.

This publication outlines the outcomes of forums held in 2005 to introduce the consortium research program which has investigated ways of building vocational education and training (VET) provider capability. It found a range of issues were of concern to participants as they considered how registered training organisations might position themselves to meet the demands of their various clients in the future. In particular, they noted that in a continually changing VET environment, attention would have to be given to new structures and ways of working as well as renewing the VET workforce. Specifically, it was found that changes in the sector have offered new opportunities for improving client focus and responding to both community and industry needs. Nevertheless, the ongoing changes in the sector have caused turbulence. Many of those providers and staff who are trying to be more flexible feel themselves constrained by the operational environment. New structures and ways of working need to be fostered, including enhancing industry connections, having registered training organisations collaborate rather than compete, and increasing flexibility both at the whole-of-organisation and work-team levels. Collaboration needs to be encouraged, despite the push towards increased contestability of funding. A more strategic approach is needed to VET workforce planning. This includes recruiting staff with relevant skills and attributes, maintaining and building the skills of staff, and finding better ways to make registered training organisations employers of choice. Invitation to participants; and participant lists are included. [This work has been produced under the National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation (NVETRE) Program, which is coordinated and managed by National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) on behalf of the Australian Government and state and territory governments. Funding is provided through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.]

In this paper, the authors discuss the issue of academic equivalence as it applies to international transfer of credit. They describe the history of the problem, list factors that encourage diversity and those that promote uniformity, and review and evaluate possible solutions, which may involve either turning over equivalence to outside certified experts, or directly negotiating differences between institutions. The authors then review the basic building blocks of a negotiated equivalence agreement--credits, courses and course distribution, grades and GPA, and degrees--and present steps for designing an academic equivalence program.

Despite frequent criticisms of small schools, evidence collected over the last decade indicates that smaller English primary schools offer a curriculum and maintain standards compatible with those offered by larger institutions. In recent years, informal clustering arrangements have enabled small schools to increase the range of subjects offered, improve resources, and end the isolation of both teachers and pupils. School clusters typically develop through a three-stage pattern consisting of initiation (early connections and limited involvement among schools), consolidation (implementation of cluster agreements but with minimal alterations to existing practices), and reorientation (staff "ownership" of the cluster leading to greater reflection on and innovation in teaching strategies). Targeted training approaches by both internal and external support persons facilitate the transition from one stage to the next. Recent developments such as devolved budgeting and the demands for increased specialization resulting from the National Curriculum may require more formal cluster arrangements, called federations or consortia, to deal with matters such as joint hiring, common purchasing policies, and shared timetables. Legislation will be required to allow individual schools to delegate some of their powers to the federation management committee. Government funding of pilot projects would allow existing clusters to experiment with management strategies. (Author/SV)

Over the past year, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have received a great deal of attention from the academic community and the media. The EUA Secretariat has followed the development of the MOOCs since the beginning of 2012, surveying discussion forums and publications, but also assessing the websites of MOOC providers and participating in several MOOCs in order to gain first-hand experience of this developing phenomenon. The EUA Board discussed this development during its meeting on 30 November 2012. The paper--slightly altered--was presented and discussed at the EUA Council in Istanbul on January 25, 2013. It provides an overview of the literature on this topic and identifies the key issues in order to inform the Council's discussion. A list of universities that partnered up with Coursera is provided in an annex.

This document is a collection of three papers prepared as a result of a mandate for a collaborative approach in preparing professionals for the public schools in New York State. In "Working through a Consortium," C. Michael Darcy, writing on the assumption that the consortium is the most desirable future state for the governance of teacher education, discusses some problems involved, organizational structure, and some affirmatives for using a consortium for solving governance problems. In "Consortia: Striving toward a Unified Profession," Robert E. Gabreys discusses the rationale for consortia, basic concerns in making consortia operational, and an effort to establish a consortium involving Syracuse University. "Collaboration: It's Worth All the Pain!" by Mary Mann includes a discussion on setting the stage for consortia, problems of collaborative decision making in education consortia, collaboration in performance-based teacher education, and guidelines. Two appendixes and a bibliography for shared decision making are included. (PD)

This position paper summarizes the views of the 12-member Day Care Task Force to the Child Development Associate (CDA) Consortium, following a series of colloquies held by the task force on topics related to staff training and assessment in the day care field. Topics covered are: (1) definition of day care for children, (2) specific competencies required of day care staff beyond the basic CDA certification, (3) assessment procedures, (4) credentialing procedures, (5) eligibility requirements, and (6) special problems. Day care is defined as a multidisciplinary, nonexclusionary extension of the family, operating in an extended time frame at the request of families who use it. The CDA performance criteria are judged adequate to meet primary needs in day care but lacking in the areas of human relations, individual differences, principles of learning, self-knowledge, objective observation, listening skills, and feeling tone. The task force consensus on the CDA assessment procedures for day care workers is that the additional competencies should be recognized, that procedures should be flexible enough to take account of artificial differences between full and part day staff, and that observations should be extended from 3 hours to a full day session. It is urged that the credentialing system remain independent cf existing licensing or credentialing processes and remain regionalized for flexibility. (GO)

The Michigan Library Consortium (MLC) is studying the problems and possibilities of networking, with the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC) as a model and possible data base for the MLC. Standards on an international scale must be developed, and the need for constantly improving technology, particularly computers, must be recognized. Since the needs of individuals, institutions, and consortia may differ from one another, and from those of the makers of the data base, administrative and communication structures must be created to provide interface between the various network components. As the scope and range of networks increase, library and information network personnel will need to devote increasingly larger portions of their time to such communication. (LS)

Since the formal organization of the Michigan Library Consortium, its financial support has come through membership fees and a grant from the Michigan State Library from Title III funds. The financing of the consortium is already a complex operation and will become even more complex as new programs are undertaken, since funds have been accepted for specific purposes which must be respected. Another method of financing the consortium is proposed here with the specific example of participation in the Ohio College Library Center (OCLC). OCLC in its financing arrangement has set up an organization to reduce overhead costs and to avoid cash flow problems. The former must be assumed by the consortium. The consortium should follow the wisdom of OCLC in the latter. (Author/SL)

This paper, one of a series from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's project "Higher Education and the Economy of the West," describes 31 programs in 16 western states that illustrates higher education's contribution to the economy. Four school-university partnerships are described: the Pueblo School District 60/University of Southern Colorado Alliance, the California Academic Partnership program, the Puget Sound Educational Consortium, and the Bakersfield (California) College Tech Forestry program. State government-university initiatives include: the Center for the Advancement and Study of Tourism (South Dakota), the Morrison Institute for Public Policy (Arizona), the Utah Partnership for Educational and Economic Development, Total Quality Improvement in the North Dakota University system, and the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute. The small business outreach programs include: the South Dakota Business and Education Institute, the Center for Business and Economic Research (Nevada), the Idaho Small Business Development Center, the Small Business Development Center Network (Hawaii), Minnesota SURE Access, the Montana Entrepreneurship Center, and the Spokane Business Incubator. Technology transfer and workforce training programs listed include: the Engineering and Environmental Research Center (South Dakota), Optical Sciences Center (Arizona), Project S.U.C.C.E.S.S. (Hawaii), Labor Education and Research Center (Oregon), Public Utility Research and Training Institute (Wyoming), and Maricopa County (Arizona) Community Colleges. Outreach programs for rural and underserved populations are: the Alaska Native Health Center Program, the Regional Services Institute (Oregon), Area Health Education Centers (Arizona and New Mexico), the Central Oregon Consortium for Higher Education, and Electronic Distance Education (Utah). There are four regional initiatives: the WAMI (Washington, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho) medical education programs, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, NorthWestNet, and the Western Institute of Nursing. A list of all the programs recommended, by state, is appended. (Contains 20 references.) (CH)

This paper examines the emerging practice and issues surrounding consortia of educational institutions, formed in Scotland, in order to widen access to higher education for underrepresented groups, and suggests some key strategies for assuring quality in the interests of students. The paper describes the Scottish Wider Access Programme, its funding, future intentions, the East of Scotland Access Consortium, and inter-consortia contacts. Also, a summary of two studies is presented, concerning collaborative efforts from other fields of activity: the first one addressing the rapid growth of strategic alliances in the U.S. business world over the past 10 years; and the second one examining the experience of multi-agency partnerships in the United Kingdom social services area. Contains 21 references. (GLR)

This agenda highlights the Consortium on Chicago School Research' priorities for Chicago school research during the 2004 to 2008 period, including both the continuation of current research and new explorations. This proposed research intends to assist CPS leadership, local schools, and the education reform community with evidence-based results that inform long-term educational policies and practices. Tables I and II list all studies and the proposed time lines. (Contains 7 endnotes.)

This paper describes the rationale, direction, and progress of the Integrated System for Workforce Education Curricula (ISWEC), a project sponsored by a 25-state consortium that is designed to accomplish two primary objectives: (1) integration of academic and vocational education in a curriculum framework for grades 9-14 and (2) development of a process through which educators can elaborate upon the framework to adapt it to their schools' needs and strengths. The following topics are discussed: rationale for integration, consensus about education and work; pedagogical advantages to integration; role of standards in the ISWEC project; rationale for a comprehensive curriculum project; purpose and content of an integrated curriculum standard (ICS); process of grouping ICSs into clusters and career majors; role of assessment in the ICS framework; technique for using ICSs to develop curricula; process being used to develop the ICS framework; and relationship between integration and higher-order thinking skills. Contains 13 references. Appended are sample integrated curriculum standards and a list of steps toward integration using work force, academic, and occupational standards. (MN)

This working paper is an intermediary stage in the development of a new telecurriculum for the To Educate the People Consortium. Section 1 is an introduction to the process. Section 2 contains the outlines of 18 courses in the telecurriculum based on concept papers submitted by teams from the consortium. Each course is in the format of six 1-hour specials and three half-hour supplements for each special. Courses are Varieties of Man and Society; Individualization and Urbanization; Culture, Community, and Identity; The Ethnic Factor; Work and Society; Institutions and Organizations; Conflict; Domestic and International; Theory and Method in the Social Sciences; Quality of Life; Folk, Classical, and Mass Culture; Play and Leisure; The Lives of Dr. Faustus; Patterns of Rebirth; An American Mosaic; Creators of Change; Values, Technology, and Society; Energy, Technology, and Public Policy; Ecology and Environment; Birth to Death: The Natural Life Cycle; Systems and Analysis: Geology and Astronomy; and The Future of Science. Section 3 contains concept papers. Section 5 lists the existing courses and program titles. Section 7 discusses the evolution of a humanities-based curriculum for working adults. (Sections 4 and 6 are addressed specifically to concept paper authors.) (YLB)

This paper introduces a rationale and format for the introduction of microcomputers into the classrooms of British Columbia on a cost-effective basis. The three purposes of the paper are (1) to briefly present the activities of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC); (2) to describe in general terms how British Columbia might benefit from the MECC experience through a particular adaptation to provincial needs; and (3) to encourage discussion among, and reaction from, the educational community. Descriptions of the background, operations, and specifications of hardware and software of MECC are followed by suggestions for the development of a similar service in British Columbia. The suggestions include a small scale adaptation to meet ten presently identified needs. The paper concludes with a request for reader reactions to add to J.E.M. (Joint Educational Management) Projects information on the viability of the suggested J.E.M. involvement, specification of school/district needs, identification of individuals who would be willing to share in the project, and identification of school districts which would consider first stage involvement. (CHC)