Practical solutions for improving higher education opportunities for disadvantaged students Too many disadvantaged college students in America do not complete their coursework or receive any college credential, while others earn degrees or certificates with little labor market value. Large numbers of these students also struggle to pay for college, and some incur debts that they have difficulty repaying. The authors provide a new review of the causes of these problems and offer promising policy solutions. The circumstances affecting disadvantaged students stem both from issues on the individual side, such as weak academic preparation and financial pressures, and from institutional failures. Low-income students disproportionately attend schools that are underfunded and have weak performance incentives, contributing to unsatisfactory outcomes for many students. Some solutions, including better financial aid or academic supports, target individual students. Other solutions, such as stronger linkages between coursework and the labor market and more structured paths through the curriculum, are aimed at institutional reforms. All students, and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, also need better and varied pathways both to college and directly to the job market, beginning in high school. We can improve college outcomes, but must also acknowledge that we must make hard choices and face difficult tradeoffs in the process. While no single policy is guaranteed to greatly improve college and career outcomes, implementing a number of evidence-based policies and programs together has the potential to improve these outcomes substantially.

Educational policy-makers around the world constantly make decisions about how to use scarce resources to improve the education of children. Unfortunately, their decisions are rarely informed by evidence on the consequences of these initiatives in other settings. Nor are decisions typically accompanied by well-formulated plans to evaluate their causal impacts. As a result, knowledge about what works in different situations has been very slow to accumulate. Over the last several decades, advances in research methodology, administrative record keeping, and statistical software have dramatically increased the potential for researchers to conduct compelling evaluations of the causal impacts of educational interventions, and the number of well-designed studies is growing. Written in clear, concise prose, Methods Matter: Improving Causal Inference in Educational and Social Science Research offers essential guidance for those who evaluate educational policies. Using numerous examples of high-quality studies that have evaluated the causal impacts of important educational interventions, the authors go beyond the simple presentation of new analytical methods to discuss the controversies surrounding each study, and provide heuristic explanations that are also broadly accessible. Murnane and Willett offer strong methodological insights on causal inference, while also examining the consequences of a wide variety of educational policies implemented in the U.S. and abroad. Representing a unique contribution to the literature surrounding educational research, this landmark text will be invaluable for students and researchers in education and public policy, as well as those interested in social science.

Disposable Youth has the power to change America. Seventy percent of the 2.4 million prisoners in America today are high school dropouts. Half of all African American and Hispanic urban high school students drop out. Forty percent of all urban high school students drop out. This continuum of dropping out of high school and into crime and then prison does not have to persist. Disposable Youth offers a new way of organizing American high schools. This educational innovation is called a Career Academy, which graduates 90 percent of their students. By implementing Career Academies on a national scale, the number of prisoners incarcerated in America could be reduced by one million. The implications of connecting school dropout rates to criminal behavior and incarceration is critical to the future of America. Author James C. Wilson has his Doctorate in Education from the University of Southern California and is a past manager of Career Technical Education programs in a large urban school district. Disposable Youth is intended to contribute to our thinking about how our society treats non-college-bound youth. Wilson grew up in a military family that was stationed in various places around the country. He now lives and writes in Scripps Ranch, San Diego, California. Publisher's website: http: //www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/DisposableYouth.html

The research and debates surrounding curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are ever-growing and are of constant importance around the globe. With two volumes - containing chapters from highly respected researchers, whose work has been critical to understanding and building expertise in the field – The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment focuses on examining how curriculum is treated and developed, and its impact on pedagogy and assessment worldwide. The Handbook is organised into five thematic sections, considering: · The epistemology and methodology of curriculum · Curriculum and pedagogy · Curriculum subjects · Areas of the curriculum · Assessment and the curriculum · The curriculum and educational policy The SAGE Handbook of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment’s breadth and rigour will make it essential reading for researchers and postgraduate students around the world.

Through students' own voices and perspectives, this book reveals how and why some racial minorities achieve academic success, despite limited opportunity. Based on the experiences of Black, Latino, and Vietnamese urban high school students, the author provides a revealing comparative analysis that offers insight into how schools can provide opportunities and safe learning environments where youth acquire real goals, expectations, and tangible pathways for success. Offering alternatives to current practices and structures of inequality that plague educational systems throughout the nation, this sociologically informed book: takes a rare look at urban school success stories, instead of those depicting failure; explores the social processes that enable racial minority youth to escape the unequal structures of urban schooling to perform well in school; and focuses on youth's interpretations and reactions to the schooling process to determine how schools can empower youth and promote the social mobility of low-income urban populations.

An educational innovator who worked at Sesame Workshop and The George Lucas Educational Foundation offers a new vision for learning As a result of constant innovation, learning is no longer limited by traditional confines and we're moving beyond students tied to their chairs, desks, and textbooks-and teachers locked away in classrooms. In Education Nation author Milton Chen draws from extensive experience in media-from his work on Sesame Street in its nascent years to his role as executive director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation-to support a vision for a new world of learning. This book, in six chapters, explores the "edges" in education—the places where K-12 learning has already seen revolutionary changes through innovative reform and the use of technology. Examines ways in which learning can be revolutionized through innovative reform and the use of technology Explores the ever-expanding world of technology for breakthroughs in teaching and learning Includes many wonderful resources to support innovation in schools across the nation This important book offers a clear vision for tomorrow's classrooms that will enhance learning opportunities for all children.

Congressman Ro Khanna offers a revolutionary, “progressive” (James J. Heckman, Nobel Prize winner and professor of economics at the University of Chicago) roadmap to facing America’s digital divide, offering greater economic prosperity to all. In Khanna’s vision, “just as people can move to technology, technology can move to people” (from the foreword by Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in Economics) where “Khanna envisions redistributing opportunities from coastal cities to rural middle-America…An exciting vision, brilliantly rendered.” (Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of Strangers in Their Own Land). Unequal access to technology and the revenue it creates is one of the most pressing issues in the United States. An economic gulf exists between those who have struck gold in the tech industry and those left behind by the digital revolution; a geographic divide between those in the coastal tech industry and those in the heartland whose jobs have been automated; and existing inequalities in the technological access—students without computers, rural workers with spotty WiFi, and many workers without the luxury to work remotely. Congressman Ro Khanna’s Progressive Capitalism tackles these challenges head-on and imagines how the digital economy can create opportunities for people across the country without uprooting them. Anchored by an approach Khanna calls “progressive capitalism,” he shows how democratizing access to tech can strengthen every sector of economy and culture. By expanding technological jobs nationwide through public and private partnerships, we can close the wealth gap in America and begin to repair the fractured, distrusting relationships that have plagued our country for fall too long. Inspired by his own story born into an immigrant family, Khanna understands how economic opportunity can change the course of a person’s life. Moving deftly between storytelling, policy, and some of the country’s greatest thinkers in political philosophy and economics, Khanna presents a vision we can’t afford to ignore. Progressive Capitalism is a “practical and aspirational” (Kimberlé Crenshaw, professor of law at UCLA and Columbia University) roadmap to how we can seek dignity for every American in an era in which technology shapes every aspect of our lives.

Diverse needs, streamlined schedule—find out how with this all-in-one resource! How can each school day be inclusive for all learners, while making the most of limited time and resources? Help has arrived with this latest book from school-scheduling gurus Elliot Merenbloom and Barbara Kalina. You'll find: Best practices for program-specific scheduling, including RTI, credit recovery, special education, second language learning, career-technical education, work-study, Advanced Placement, and International Baccalaureate Guidance on scheduling that supports small learning communities, teacher collaboration, and other activities crucial to meeting diverse learning needs User-friendly templates and a professional development Q&A for every chapter

Every Ted Bundy/Charles Manson, Littleton, Rwanda/Kosovo inspires a renewed, desperate search for explanations & solutions. Hundreds of books wrestle w/ aspects of the problem: drugs, poverty, television, child abuse. Only a handful tackles violence on a broader scale. Called "a major contribution to violence theory" by the OMNI Center for Peace; a brilliant synthesis of all available models;" & the most comprehensive model of violence enabling yet to be developed;" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of the Pulitzer-nominated On Killing, Transcending Violence stands out in offering both explanations & pragmatic solutions Violence comes in many shapes & sizes. It grows in almost any soil. Ethnic warfare & school shootings, crimes of passion & murder-for-hire seem to have little in common. One specialist blames overblown self-esteem while another points to deep-rooted shame. Criminologists, sociologists, police, peace activists, military historians & forensic psychologists bring contrasting perspectives to the table. Each explanation carries a large grain of truth, but when applied across the board quickly falls apart. One error has been an obsession with finding only one factor that can carry the entire blame. Competing theories often throw light on specific incidents but not on others These various perspectives become considerably more valuable when interwoven. Specifically, their shared characteristics & concerns can be sorted into up to 5 steps & 10 primary reinforcers. Variations on these 5 steps produce individually tailored paths to violence. That tapestry is laid out in the first half of Transcending Violence. In part two, Transcending Violence takes this confluence model & turns it on its head. By identifying specific steps and reinforcers for violence, we become empowered to invert them. We can disassemble the steps & eliminate the reinforcers. These actions apply at all levels, from the individual to the global.