Education Center
Strengthening Mathematics Skills at the Postsecondary Level:
Literature Review and Analysis
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education asked CNAC and its partners to identify promising strategies within community colleges, businesses, organized labor, and the military that enable adult learners to improve their math skills and transition to higher level math courses or jobs requiring higher level mathematical abilities. For the first part of the project, researchers gathered information on existing postsecondary developmental math programs, with a particular focus on the following issues:
- What is the definition, or skill threshold, of adequate student preparation in postsecondary level math?
- What institutions provide developmental math education, and how does instruction differ across these institutions?
- What strategies appear to hold promise for helping adult learners strengthen their math skills and move to college level math courses or work assignments requiring higher level math?
The second phase of the project, due out in early 2006, will identify successful math programs in the institutions surveyed in phase one.
Overview and Synthesis of the Regional Advisory Committee (RAC)
Reports on Educational Challenges and Technical Assistance Needs
In 2004, the U.S. Secretary of Education appointed ten regional committees to assess the kinds of technical assistance that states need in order to successfully implement the 2002 No Child Left Behind law. The congressionally mandated committees, which counted among its members state and local education leaders, practitioners, parents, business representatives, and researchers, identified several areas that would benefit the most from funding and technical assistance.
The overview report, produced by CNAC researchers who facilitated the work of the committees and studied the regions they represented, will be used to help define the scope and mission of 20 new technical assistance centers to be created around the United States.
Is National Board Certification An Effective Signal of Teacher Quality?
Many states and districts are moving toward more targeted compensation policies as a way to attract higher quality candidates into the teaching profession and to encourage increases in productivity among current teachers. Rather than align pay increases only to level of education and years of experience, for example, many school systems have started to tie pay increases or bonuses to National Board Certification (NBC). But the practice has been questioned, in part because of a lack of empirical evidence that NBC is an effective signal of teaching quality. The present study uses data from a large urban school district to examine the association between student gains in mathematics in the ninth and tenth grades, NBC, and other indicators of teacher quality. Based on a variety of different specifications and student subsamples, we find robust evidence that NBC is an effective indicator of teacher quality.
Organizational Models for Online Education
Online education, done well, has the potential to expand the reach of high-quality K-12 education. CNAC Analyst, Linda Cavalluzzo reviews a range of organizational models for the production, delivery, and financing of K-12 "virtual schools" and assesses the strengths and challenges of each.
Establishing a High School on a College Campus: A Planning Tool
Education leaders have long sought creative strategies for motivating high school students to invest more time and effort in learning, to explore career and higher education options, and to formulate meaningful personal goals for the future. To this end, many innovative educational programs have been developed, some designed to stretch the capacity of the most able and motivated students (e.g., gifted and talented programs) and others to intervene with students at risk of dropping out or underachieving. High school programs that are located on college campuses, including college-based dual enrollment programs and middle college high schools, may address either of these purposes, or both of them simultaneously (National Dropout Prevention Center, n.d.). Policymakers, researchers, and foundations are expressing increased interest in these programs for their potential as effective interventions and as strategies for transitioning students from secondary to postsecondary education.
The purpose of this planning tool is to provide educators with a road map for developing a high school/college collaborative program on a college campus. The tool is designed to guide the user through decisions about building a high school/ postsecondary education partnership, developing a planning team, building a program of study, developing a budget, and planning for strong public relations. This tool is based on findings from five case studies of high schools located on college campuses.
Research on Critical Issues in Recruiting and Retaining High Quality Teachers
CNAC is conducting studies to determine the set of teacher characteristics that most correlate with student achievement and devising compensation packages that are specifically tailored to attract and retain teachers with those characteristics.
Evaluation of the National Science Foundation's Theory of Systemic Reform
CNAC has evaluated evidence from three urban school districts on whether implementation of the National Science Foundation's reform components improves student achievement.
Examination of Key Issues in Funding Virtual High Schools
CNAC has examined the pros and cons of who should bear the cost of funding virtual high schools: states, school districts, or students.
Analysis of Homeschool Recruits
Starting in fiscal year 1999, the military was directed to treat graduates of homeschools as well as some students with GED certificates as high school graduates for purposes of enlistment. CNAC evaluated this policy initiative for the Department of the Navy.
Library and Lab Costs at Postsecondary Schools
CNAC used benchmarking as a tool to determine whether funding requests made by a particular school, in this case the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California, are broadly in line with what most other schools are spending to support the same activities. We find that this approach can provide perspective in support of funding requests.
Selected Papers and Presentations
- Linda Cavalluzzo, "Can Teachers with National Board Certification Help Reduce the Achievement Gap?" presented at the American Education Research Association annual meeting, Montreal, April 2005.
- BS Nelson, LT Goldsmith, G Johnson, KM Reed, and AK Hodari, "Thinking about mathematics instruction: A preliminary investigation of elementary and middle school principals' leadership content knowledge for mathematics," paper presented at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting, Montreal, April 2005.
- Linda Cavalluzzo, "Advancing Achievement for All Students," panel session hosted by The Business Coalition for Excellence, NJ Chamber of Commerce, Woodbridge, NJ, April 2005.
- Linda Cavalluzzo, "Is National Board Certification an Effective Signal of Teacher Quality?" presented at the American Education Finance Association conference, Louisville, March 2005.
- B Hufnagel, GL Deming, JM Landato, and AK Hodari, "The effect of stereotype threat on undergraduates in an introductory astronomy class," Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 2004.
- Linda Cavalluzzo and Daniel Burke, "Access, Attainment, and Achievement: Empirical Analysis of the Effects of District-wide Reform," presented at the American Education Research Association annual meeting, San Diego, 2004.
- Daniel Burke, "Making Better School Policy Decisions Using System Dynamics/Computer Modeling," presented at Eastern Evaluation Research Society, Absecon, NJ, 2004.
- MH Dancy, N Finkelstein, AK Hodari, L Lising, S Mahajan, and SA Rosenberg,"Teaching physics with purpose: Considering the social consequences of teaching," Announcer, 2004.
- Will Jordan, Linda Cavalluzzo, C. Corallo. "Community Colleges and High School Reform: Lessons from Five Case Studies," AEL Inc. and The CNA Corporation, 2004.
- Linda Cavalluzzo, "National Board Certification: A Look at How Their Students Stack Up," presented at the National Conference on Teacher Compensation and Evaluation, CPRE-UW, Chicago, November 2004.
- AK Hodari, "Race, culture and transfer: Factors that shape faculty attitudes and beliefs about race and inclusion," presented at the Physics Education Research conference, Sacramento, August 2004.
- AK Hodari, CH McGruder, and B Hufnagel, "Rejecting the smog of bias: Hands-on practice engaging diversity in your classroom," presented at Cosmos in the Classroom 2004, Boston, MA, July 2004.
- Apriel Hodari, et al, "The Effect of Stereotype Threat on Undergraduates in an Introductory Astronomy Class," Announcer, January 2004.
- Linda Cavalluzzo, "A Model of Teacher Retention," presented at the American Education Research Association conference, San Diego, April 2004.
- Don Cymrot, "Can School Districts Learn About Improving Teacher Assignments From an Innovative Navy Program?" Education Week, February 2004.
- Linda Cavalluzzo and Dan Burke, "Empirical Research on Critical Issues in Recruiting and Retaining the Mathematics and Science Teaching Workforce" presented at the National Conference on Teacher Compensation and Evaluation, November 2003.
- AK Hodari, "Crumbs from the Table of Joy: Special Talents and Challenges of HBCU Physics Students," presented at the 2003 Physics Education Research Conference, Madison, WI, August 2003.
- Dan Burke, "Making Better School Policy Decisions Using Computer Modeling," The Systems Thinker, April 2003.
- Linda Cavalluzzo, "Access, Achievement and Attainment in a CPMSA District," presented at the American Education Research Association Conference in Chicago, April 2003.
- Linda Cavalluzzo, "Contemplating a Public Virtual School in Your District" presented at the Virginia Society for Technology in Education, March 2003.
