Recently in Education Category

Source: Ann Mari May, Elizabeth A. Moorhouse, and Jennifer A. Petersen, Industrial & Labor Relations Review, Vol. 63, No. 4, July 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
The authors investigate the impact of unionization on the representation of women faculty at public Carnegie Doctoral/Research-Extensive institutions in the United States from 1993-94 through 2004-05. Using institutional-level data from the American Association of University Professors and controlling for institutional characteristics that influence the gender composition of faculty, the authors find that significant differences exist in the proportion of women faculty in total and by rank in unionized versus non-unionized settings. Specifically, unionized public research universities have a higher proportion of women faculty overall and more women at the ranks of associate and full professor than do non-unionized schools. The authors suggest that this issue is better understood using a segmented labor market approach since previous studies conducted on the subject may have obscured differences by rank. This study reflects the historical priorities of the faculty union in formalizing tenure and promotion procedures, especially important for women faculty.

Source: Nancy Kober, Center on Education Policy, July 15, 2010

From the summary:
In the spring of 2010, CEP surveyed a nationally representative sample of school districts to learn about their fiscal situation and how the funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) have impacted them over the last year. CEP found that the federal funds helped districts save or create teaching jobs and stabilize budgets, but that most districts expected to layoff teachers in the 2010-11 school year. The report also addresses districts' efforts to carryout ARRA's four reform areas, district uses of State Fiscal Stabilization Funds and supplemental Title I and IDEA funds, and problems faced by districts in implementing ARRA.
See also:
- Press release
- Appendix

Source: Delta Cost Project, July 2010

From the press release:
A national trends report and cost-comparison tool released today by the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity, and Accountability provide significant insight into how thousands of the nation's colleges and universities are spending their resources, with implications for what that means for ―the new normal in college spending.

The report - Trends in College Spending 1998-2008: Where Does the Money Come From? Where Does It Go? What Does It Buy? - examines national college spending and resource trends in the years leading up to the current recession. Focusing on the period from 1998 to 2008 (the most recent year for which data is available), the report highlights several ongoing patterns in how institutions get and spend their money. TCS Online, a new web-based application of the Delta project database, complements the national trends report with easy access to institution and state-level details.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, June 2010

Education finance data include revenues, expenditures, debt, and assets (cash and security holdings) of elementary and secondary public school systems. Statistics cover school systems in all states, and include the District of Columbia. Data are available in viewable tables and downloadable files.

Viewable Data:
* Public Education Finances Report

Downloadable Data:
* State-level Tables - State-level tables containing selected revenue, expenditure, debt, and asset (cash and securities) data items available in Excel format.

* Individual Unit Tables - Individual unit tables containing data for selected revenue, expenditure, and debt data items for all school systems. Excel, .txt

* All Data Items - Files containing data for all items on the F-33 survey form, as well as unit identifiers, descriptive variables, and summary data items. Each file contains data for all school systems. Excel, .txt

* Data Item Flags - Beginning with fiscal year 1999, the F-33 school system finance files include data item flags to indicate whether a data item was reported by the state education agency or adjusted by the Census Bureau. Excel, .txt

Source: Jennifer Cohen, New America Foundation, Ed Money Watch, June 22, 2010

Congress Passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 almost a year and a half ago, providing nearly $50 billion for education programs like Title I, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and Pell Grants. Additionally, the law included $48.6 billion for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, a new program meant to help states shore up education budget shortfalls. Since then, state budget shortfalls have continued to grow, causing lawmakers and interest groups to call for additional money to help support state education funding. But little discussion has focused on how much of the ARRA funds first made available to states in 2009 have actually been dispersed on a state by state basis. As would be expected, states with the highest expected budget gaps, for the most part, have dispersed the highest percentage of their ARRA funds. Similarly, some states with the smallest gaps have dispersed less of their ARRA funds. And of course, there are some notable exceptions to both of these trends.

Source: Inside Higher Ed, June 9, 2010

...The library will be "recycling" much of its print collection, and storing other books offsite; faculty and students will be able to send away for the hard copies via snail mail -- like Netflix.

The model Roderer and her staff are pursuing is distributed not only in the sense that every researcher's computer can access the library's website and its vaults of electronic journal articles and e-books, but in that library personnel are embedded in various departments to work with researchers on their own turf. These staffers are no longer called librarians; they are "informationists." (Roderer did not invent the term, but she prefers it to "librarian," which she says evokes envoys from a faraway building rather than information experts whose skills are applicable anywhere.) ...

...Different sorts of libraries serve different sorts of patrons, and for that reason, Schonfeld cautions against holding up the Welch as an example that can be replicated across many institutions. "Any library specialized around a certain field or discipline has the increased flexibility to serve the needs of that field only," he says, "whereas a general library has a broader constituency that it has to balance its resources across."

Source: Pre-K Now, 2010

* Governors propose a slight increase to state pre-k investments. Should these budgets pass, state early education funding would rise by $8.2 million.
* Nine governors increase pre-k investments. These proposals would increase funding for early learning in these states by a total of $78.5 million.
* Three other states and the District of Columbia anticipate an increase for pre-k through their school funding formulas. In nine states and the District, early education budgets are supported through school funding formulas and grow with enrollment. The other six states do not yet have projections for FY11.
* Ten governors propose to flat fund pre-k. These proposals maintain funding for early learning in these states at FY10 levels and include Alaska and Rhode Island, which both started new programs in FY10.
* Twelve governors are proposing to decrease pre-k funding. In these states, early learning investments would decline by a total of $100.6 million.
* Ten states provide no state-funded pre-k.

Source: Jamie P. Merisotis and Stan Jones, Washington Monthly, Vol. 42 nos. 5, 6, May-June 2010

Millions of unemployed Americans need to upgrade their skills, fast. Community colleges aren't up to the task, but with help from Washington, they could be.

Source: W. Steven Barnett, Dale J. Epstein, Allison H. Friedman, Rachel Sansanelli, Jason T. Hustedt, National Institute for Early Education Research, May 2010

From the summary:
The 2009 State Preschool Yearbook is the seventh in a series of annual reports profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. This latest Yearbook presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2008-2009 school year. The first report in this series focused on programs for the 2001-2002 school year and established a baseline against which we may now measure progress over eight years. Tracking these trends is essential, since changes in states' policies on preschool education will influence how successfully America's next generation will compete in the knowledge economy.
See also:
- Executive Summary
- Table of Contents
- State Data
- Interactive Database
- Charts

Related:
2009 Snapshot of Preschool Programs, State by State, Shows Losses and Gains
Source: Lisa Guernsey, New America Foundation,, Early Ed Watch, May 5, 2010

Source: Eileen Ahearn, Project Forum, April 2010

The cost of educating students with disabilities and how to fund their services have been the subject of a number of studies since 1982 that were conducted by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) and/or projects conducted by the American Institutes for Research's (AIR) Center for Special Education Finance (CSEF). CSEF was funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education, from 1992 to 2004.

This study is an update of the 1999-2000 CSEF survey of state special education funding formulas. Current information on this topic was gathered through a survey of state special education directors conducted by Project Forum at NASDSE in conjunction with Tom Parrish and Jenifer Harr-Robins of AIR. The current survey and this document address only mechanisms for distributing state dollars to local districts under state law and policy. Project Forum at NASDSE completed this document as part of its cooperative agreement with OSEP.