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The Twenty-first Century Scholars Program is an early-intervention program intended to improve college enrollment among low-income students in Indiana. The Scholars program provides support services--plus a guarantee of grant aid equivalent to public college tuition--to students who pledge in eighth grade to meet five criteria: (1) complete high school (2) maintain at least a C average (3) remain drug- and crime-free; (4) apply for college and student financial aid; and (5) enroll in an Indiana college within two years of high school. This study traces the 1999 cohort of Twenty-first Century Scholars. It examines the impact that a Scholars award had on students' attainment status four years after enrollment in a public college (i.e., at the end of the 2002-03 academic year). Among low-income students, those who took the Scholars pledge and enrolled in college had equal or better odds of academic success than did their non-Scholar peers. Thus, the program has had a limited but positive effect on persistence and attainment. The following are appended: (1) The 1999 cohort: database design; (2) Attainment analyses for the entire cohort; and (3) Attainment analyses for low-income students. (Contains 10 endnotes.)

Although substantial attention has been given to federal strategies for improving college access, too little attention has been given to the impact of state finance strategies on academic preparation and access for prepared students. This report provides the following: (1) a review of prior access studies; (2) a new conceptual model for assessing the impact of state finance strategies; (3) an analysis of the impact of state finance strategies; and (4) simulations of alternative state and federal strategies. This report concludes that states must raise funding for need-based grants in order to maintain financial access for low-income students. If the federal government does not make any additional investment in grants, each state should maintain funding for need-based grants at least equal to one-quarter of the average tuition charge. Appended are: (1) State indicators for demographic and financial variables; (2) The impact of state financial strategies on high school graduation rates; and (3) Ordinary least squares regressions.

This report provides an overview of Indiana's Twenty-first Century Scholars Program and analyzes a state database to assess the impact of the program on college enrollment and persistence. The Twenty-first Century Scholars Program asks low-income eighth graders to make a commitment to take the necessary steps to prepare for college. In return, the state of Indiana provides support to students and their parents to help these teens prepare for college. The state also ensures that students in the program receive financial aid sufficient to cover tuition in-state tuition at an Indiana university or its equivalent at a private college. Overall, 65,599 students have been fully enrolled in the program since 1995. This study focused on the programs impact on students in the high school graduating class of 1999, about 2,590 students. Findings show that Scholars were more likely than non-Scholars to enroll in Indiana public and private colleges. Scholars and non-Scholars who received financial aid were more likely to persist during the freshman year than those who did not receive aid. Participation in the Scholars Program improved postsecondary opportunity for low-income students, playing a substantial role in college access in the 1990s in Indiana. (Contains 15 tables, 26 endnotes, and 41 references.) (SLD)

An increasing number of public research universities have turned to incentive-based budgeting systems (IBBS) as a means of managing change. It is appropriate to view IBBS as a new attempt to introduce rational systems into university administrative structures that are largely political in nature. This study examined the influence an IBBS has on planning processes in a university 10 years after its implementation. Based on a review of the evaluation of IBBS for public universities and its linkages to planning process, the authors introduce the use of organizational frames as a basis for studying the impact of IBBS systems. Interviews were conducted with 13 senior faculty administrators who had substantial experience in university governance. The findings show that IBBS constrained bureaucratic and political tendencies and improved planning, but created new ambiguities that should be addressed if IBBS is to continue to evolve. The IBBS was characterized in terms that indicated it was viewed as a new rational model that was not laden with the bureaucratic nuances more traditionally associated with structural descriptions of university governance. (Contains 30 references.) (Author/SLD)

Since 1980, the gap in college participation rates between low-income and high-income students and between minorities and whites has widened substantially, creating new inequality in college access. During this period, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducted numerous studies of the impact of academic participation on access to higher education, but the NCES overlooked the impact of reductions in federal need-based grants on the widening gap in postsecondary opportunity. This paper reviews trends related to financial access, develops a conceptual model that incorporates both the academic and economic explanations for access, and uses the model to reexamine the NCES analyses of enrollment behavior by college-qualified students in the high school class of 1992. The reexamination reveals that finances exerted a much more substantial influence on creating the new inequality. NCES ignored the effects of finances when analyzing the cause of disparity in college access. More than one million college-qualified, low-income students were denied financial access in the 1990s. Restoring federal need-based grants to their 1980 level is a necessary first step toward equalizing the opportunity for college-qualified high school graduates. (Contains 4 tables, 8 figures, and 69 references.) (Author/SLD)

This study used qualitative methods to examine the influence of a privately funded scholarship program (PFSP) on strategic adaptations within urban public and private schools in a major metropolitan area. Interviews were conducted with principals during the base year before the introduction of the PFSP and in the first year of the scholarship program. Results revealed that public schools moved rapidly to develop distinctive school missions that provided market niches and choice for parents. Private schools worked to recruit low-income students and to influence program donors to give scholarships to low-income students already enrolled in private schools. Private schools began to explore ways of adapting curricula and services to meet the learning needs of more diverse students. However, public school administrators were caught in the middle, between the mandates of boards and central administrators and the resistance of teachers and the bureaucratic nature of the education system. This tension impeded their capacity to adapt to the new market-oriented environment. (Contains 28 references.) (SM)

In recent years there has been an increased interest in developing the basic reading and writing skills of primary students at risk for academic failure. Problems associated with typical evaluations of programmatic impact on students' literacy skills include the amount of testing time, sensitivity to smaller levels of growth, or, as in the case of the ISTEP+, the Indiana state-wide accountability program, the short time interval between the program intervention and the subsequent ISTEP+ testing. This report describes the use of the Basic Academic Skills Sample (BASS) in the evaluation of two literacy intervention programs. A total of 618 students in 2 Indiana elementary schools participated in this first year of a pilot study. Results suggest that the BASS provides useful information about progress associated with early literacy interventions both for students as a whole and in comparing trends for students of differing ability levels. (Contains 7 tables and 21 figures of data.) (Author/RS)

Educational reforms are advocated based on rationales that emerge from the research literature. However, evaluation studies seldom examine whether the rationales used to argue for a reform actually hold up when empirical evidence is examined after the reform has been implemented. This paper examines survey data from 3 years of analyses of early reading interventions to examine 3 of the rationales that were used to argue for the program. First, there was evidence to support the argument that teachers need time to collaborate about improving educational outcomes. This study found that 2 years of funding for early reading reforms (Reading Recovery, Success for All, Literacy Collaborative, full day kindergarten, First Steps, Even Start, Accelerated Schools Project, and Four Blocks) provided a margin of difference for collaborative efforts among teachers to promote reading related outcomes. Second, the argument that comprehensive reform strategies promote gains in student outcomes was supported, but not all reform models had their intended effects. Finally, there was no evidence from this study that the direct/explicit approach to reading instruction improved student outcomes, although this claim merits more systematic study in the future. (Contains 56 references, 7 notes, and 6 tables of data.) (Author/RS)

Summarizes prior studies with a focus on untangling how changes in student financial aid policy have influenced changes in opportunity. Also recommends new strategies for lowering student loan debt, increasing federal and state cooperation in providing adequate need-based grant aid, and developing policies that target debt forgiveness for mid-skilled workers and middle-class professionals. (EV)

With the passage of the Reading Excellence Act, states and their schools have increasingly emphasized the implementation of research-based literacy interventions, and both parties are eager to know the effectiveness of their efforts. However, the evaluation of the impact of any reform is complicated by the presence of other types of interventions that concurrently exist in schools. Using two sequential OLS regression models, this study examined the impact of literacy programs funded by Indiana's Early Literacy Grant Intervention Program (ELIGP) on schools' standardized test scores and rates of retention and special education referral. In each model, blocks of variables pertaining to school characteristics, professional development, parent involvement, and instructional program features (extracted using factor analysis) were added sequentially, and their effects on the three outcome variables were estimated. The two models differed in that the first included categories of ELIGP funding, whereas the second included the type of research-based intervention without regard to source of funding. The final models were similar in terms of coefficient values as well as predicted variance, with some exceptions. The presence of Literacy Collaborative, First Steps, and Success for All in schools, regardless of funding source, were all associated with lower special education referral rates,and Success for All was, in addition, negatively associated with retention rates. Although the impact of Reading Recovery was more complicated, it appeared to be associated with lower retention rates when the program was sustained over time. These findings suggest that research-based literacy programs, including those funded by ELIGP and other sources, enhance student outcomes even after controlling for effects of other interventions. Contains 1 figure, 7 tables of data, 16 references, and an appendix of supplementary analysis. (Author/SR)

The Early Literacy Intervention Grant Program (ELIGP) supports training in Reading Recovery and provides grants for Other Early Literacy Interventions (OELI) in Indiana's elementary schools. This study examined the impact of funding on urban elementary schools, using surveys of funded and comparison schools in 1997-98, 1998-99, and 1999-2000. When the effects of types of funding were examined in regression analyses, the findings were: Reading Recovery funding and OELI funding were associated with lower retention rates in urban schools in Indiana; Connected-Text Approaches to literacy instruction, which are integral to Reading Recovery and other interventions, were also associated with lower retention rates; having Certified Specialists (i.e., trained Reading Recovery teachers) was associated with lower special education referral in urban schools; and book distribution to parents and paired reading between parents and children were associated with lower special education referral in urban schools. When the effects of the types of interventions that schools implemented were examined in a regression analysis, the findings were: Literacy Collaborative (a program that combines Reading Recovery with classwide reform) was associated with lower retention rates (grades 1-3) in urban schools; and Certified Specialists (i.e., Reading Recovery) were associated with lower special education referral rates and retention rates in urban schools. These findings indicate that the ELIGP has had a significant, measurable impact on educational outcomes in urban schools in Indiana. They indicate that ELIGP has contributed to the effectiveness and efficiency of urban education in the state. Contains 3 tables of data and 35 references. (Author/SR)

This report summarizes a study of the impact of Indiana's Early Literacy Intervention Grant Program (ELIGP) on schools in the third year of funding, 1999-2000. This impact study replicates the study completed in the first 2 years of ELIGP funding (1997-98, 1998-99) and includes the following: an analysis of the impact of ELIGP, focusing on changes in early reading and literacy programs that resulted from ELIGP funding; an analysis of the impact of funding on the numbers of students completing Reading Recovery, or referred to special education, or retained; and a summary of findings and recommendations for enhancement of ongoing efforts to improve early reading and literacy in Indiana. Appendix A contains a list of funded projects, 1998-99; Appendix B contains a list and description of program features by category; and Appendix C contains the early literacy intervention survey. Includes extensive figures and tables. (NKA)

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has administered the Early Literacy Intervention Grant Program (ELIGP) since 1997. During the first 3 years of the program, about half of the state's elementary schools received funding through ELIGP, either through Reading Recovery or Other Early Literacy Interventions (OELI). This report summarizes the evaluation study of the impact of the ELIGP during those 3 years. The study reveals that Indiana's elementary schools have a balanced approach to early reading. The report cites specific findings and states that early literacy programs that are appropriately selected to serve student needs appear to improve student outcomes regardless of poverty levels. It finds that several types of funded programs (e.g., Success for All, Literacy Collaborative, First Steps, Reading Recovery, Even Start) and program features influenced literacy outcomes when the effects of other school characteristics that influence early reading were taken into account. The study identified common patterns of practice among the instructional and organizational features of early reading programs in Indiana's elementary schools, and the effect of these patterns of practice on early literacy outcomes was also examined. On the basis of findings, the report recommends that: the ELIGP should be continued with an emphasis on Reading Recovery and on comprehensive restructuring methods; continuing evaluation research on early literacy interventions can help improve efforts by the IDOE, school corporations, and schools to design better approaches to literacy improvement; and the IDOE should facilitate collaboration between schools and universities on teacher preparation and professional development. (NKA)

In 1997, the Indiana Department of Education began implementing the Early Literacy Intervention Grant Program (ELIGP), designed to assist schools in their efforts to raise the reading proficiency of students most at risk for reading failures. This report summarizes a study of the impact of ELIGP on schools in the second year of funding, 1998-99. This impact study replicates the study completed in the first year of ELIGP funding (1997-98) and includes: an analysis of the impact of ELIGP, focusing on changes in early reading and literacy programs that resulted from the ELIGP funding; a select group of case studies that illustrate the role of ELIGP in the school improvement process; an analysis of the impact of funding on the numbers of students completing Reading Recovery, referred to special education, and retained; and a summary of findings (which were consistent with the first year impact study) and recommendations for enhancement of ongoing efforts to improve early reading and literacy in Indiana. The report notes that approximately $3.3 million was allocated in 1998-99 through competitive grants to districts or elementary schools and that funds supported early literacy programs in 289 schools across the state of Indiana. Appendixes list funded projects for 1998-99, present the survey instrument, and describe features of early literacy intervention. (Contains 19 references, 25 tables, and 5 figures.) (NKA)

This paper develops and tests a new logical model for assessing the impact of early reading interventions. The analyses use a survey of Indiana's elementary schools, including schools funded for Reading Recovery and classwide interventions, as well as a group of control schools. The findings indicate that state-funded Reading Recovery was associated with fewer referrals for special education after the influences of general classroom practices were controlled for in a regression analysis. Further, classwide early reading interventions were associated with lower rates of retention in grade level. In addition, these outcomes--the rates for retention and special education referral--were also influenced by program features related to family involvement and instructional practices. Contains 23 references, 13 notes, and 5 tables. (Author/RS)

The early literacy challenge in Indiana is to increase the literacy skills of students in Grades K-3 who are at risk for school failure. In 1997 the Indiana Department of Education began implementing the Early Literacy Intervention Grant Program (ELIGP)--close to half the ELIGP funding supported professional development for teachers and teacher trainers involved in Reading Recovery. The remaining schools had projects referred to in this impact study as Other Early Literacy Interventions (OELI). Examples of OELI projects funded included Four Blocks, Literacy Collaborative, Success for All, and other locally developed interventions. This impact study includes: a summary of the implementation study; an analysis of the impact of ELIGP, focusing on changes in early reading and literacy programs that resulted from ELIGP funding; an examination of a select group of case studies that illustrate the role of ELIGP in the school improvement process; an analysis of the impact of funding on the number of students completing Reading Recovery, special education referrals, and retention; and recommendations for enhancement of ongoing efforts to improve early reading and literacy in Indiana. Contains multiple tables of data and figures and 33 references. Appendices contain the survey instrument; outlined features of early literacy programs; lists of funded programs; summaries of early literacy intervention programs; policy news; and notes. (NKA)