Report on the Condition of Education 2023. NCES 2023-144

The "Report on the Condition of Education" is a congressionally mandated annual report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Using the most recent data available (at the time this report was written) from NCES and other sources, the report contains key indicators on the condition of education in the United States at all levels, from prekindergarten through postsecondary, as well as labor force outcomes and international comparisons. There are core indicators that are updated every year and spotlight indicators that provide in-depth analyses on topics of interest to education agencies, policymakers, researchers, and the public. At the broadest level, the Condition of Education Indicator System is organized into five sections: family characteristics;preprimary, elementary, and secondary education;postsecondary education;population characteristics and economic outcomes;and international comparisons. The Report on the "Condition of Education 2023" encompasses key findings from the Condition of Education Indicator System. The full contents of the Indicator System can be accessed online through the website or by downloading PDFs for the individual indicators. [For "The Condition of Education 2023": At a Glance, see ED628291. For the "Report on the Condition of Education 2022. NCES 2022-144," see ED619870.]

Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: FY 21. Finance Tables. NCES 2023-301

This set of tables introduces new data for national and state-level public elementary and secondary revenues and expenditures for fiscal year (FY) 2021. Specifically, these tables include the following school finance data: (1) revenue and expenditure totals;(2) revenues by source;(3) expenditures by function and object;(4) current expenditures;(5) revenues and current expenditures per pupil;(6) expenditures from Title I funds;and (7) revenues and expenditures from COVID-19 Federal Assistance Funds. The tables chosen for this report demonstrate the range of information available when using the National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS). [For "Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: FY 20. Finance Tables. NCES 2022-301," see ED619372.]

Linking Adult Education to Workforce Development in 2018-19: Early Implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act at the Local Level. Evaluation Report. NCEE 2023-001r

For more than 70 years, the federal government has supported efforts to improve adult literacy and other basic skills. Many adults need help with basic skills like reading, writing, mathematics, and English proficiency to succeed in the American workforce. Congress has long provided resources to help individuals address these educational challenges, most recently through Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014. But WIOA includes new requirements and incentives to strengthen the link between adult education and the overall workforce development system, to move adults into and along a career pathway. This report from a national evaluation of Title II examines the extent to which local adult education providers' instructional approaches and coordination with other agencies reflect this link and highlights the challenges providers experience in collecting related performance data. The report describes providers' reported experiences in program year 2018-19, the first year when the more than 1,600 providers receiving federal Title II funds were expected to operate under WIOA's rules and before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted provider operations. [For the appendices to this report, see ED626772. For the supplemental compendium, see ED626773.]

The Policy Blame Game: How Polarization Distorts Democratic Accountability across the Local, State, and Federal Level

Democratic accountability relies on voters to punish their representatives for policies they dislike. Yet, a separation-of-powers system can make it hard to know who is to blame, and partisan biases further distort voters' evaluations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, precautionary policies were put into place sometimes by governors, sometimes by mayors, and sometimes by no one at all, allowing us to identify when voters hold out-party versus in-party politicians responsible for policies. With a survey spanning 48 states, we test our theory that attitudes toward policies and parties intersect to determine when selective attribution takes place. We find that as individuals increasingly oppose a policy, they are more likely to blame whichever level of government is led by the out-party. This is most pronounced among partisans with strong in-party biases. We provide important insight into the mechanisms that drive selective attribution and the conditions under which democratic accountability is at risk.

The Rising Tide That Lifts All Boats: Investing Stimulus Dollars with an Equity Focus

The recent federal American Rescue Plan (ARP), passed into law by Congress, provides an unprecedented investment in education, giving schools and districts access to funds to address the needs of students more holistically. "The Rising Tide that Lifts All Boats: Investing Stimulus Dollars with an Equity Focus," provides several specific strategies that districts, schools, and educators should consider to optimize the positive impact of stimulus dollars on students, especially those with disabilities. This resource encourages decision-makers to be mindful of the need to pace the allocation of resources over the entire authorized period to optimize the impact of all efforts in a comprehensive way.

Pods in Action: Southern Nevada Urban Micro Academy. A Microschool Offered Personalized Learning for Students, Support for Educators--and a Glimpse into Gaps in Policy

In response to concerns about the children of first responders needing a safe, supervised place to learn in the midst of COVID-19 school closures, the City of North Las Vegas funded education nonprofit Nevada Action to set up a microschool. Students left the school district to learn at the microschool, which received from the city facilities, funding for personnel, support from city employees, and marketing support. The microschool created small, personalized learning environments for children in grades 1-6, with a curriculum that provides individualized support and a focus on creating strong relationships with parents and families (grades 7-8 were added in 2021). It was open to all North Las Vegas residents and children of first responders--healthcare workers, police, and firefighters--throughout the greater Las Vegas Valley (which includes areas outside of North Las Vegas). This report offers a glimpse into the Southern Nevada Urban Micro Academy (SNUMA). This program presented a unique example of how local governments can use technology to create new learning options outside of local school districts that meet the needs of their communities.

Addressing the Impact of COVID-19 on the Early Care and Education Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated challenges in the early care and education (ECE) sector, including: preexisting structural flaws, insufficient funding mechanisms, sector fragmentation, inadequate support for the workforce, and inequalities, such as the lack of access to high-quality care among low-income, rural populations, and communities of color. Addressing the impacts of the pandemic and the resulting economic recession on the ECE sector will require that state, local, and tribal decision makers use available COVID-19 relief funds to mitigate those impacts while also laying the foundation for longer-term solutions. This rapid expert consultation identifies mitigation strategies that could be implemented to achieve these goals. These strategies include: (1) Reduce the rate of closures, (2) Assist the ECE workforce, (3) Modify subsidy reimbursement and payment policies, (4) Improve coordination of the ECE sector and funding systems, and (5) Integrate data systems across provider and funding types.

"Not Your Model Minority": An Inquiry on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965

The realities of COVID-19 have clearly revealed the myth of the model minority, a stereotype in which Asian Americans are seen as successful and high achieving in contrast to other Communities of Color. An ever-present, but sometimes seemingly dormant, anti-Asian racism in the United States is reflective of patterns in U.S. immigration history. Yet, neither is often taught in PK-12 education. In this article, the authors briefly outline the history of two major policies in Asian American immigration history and share an inquiry designed to help students explore the institutionalized racism that has defined who is a "good" immigrant.

Tech Tools in Pandemic-Transformed Information Literacy Instruction: Pushing for Digital Accessibility

Inspired by pandemic-transformed instruction, this paper examines the digital accessibility of five tech tools used in information literacy sessions, specifically for students who use assistive technologies such as screen readers. The tools are Kahoot!, Mentimeter, Padlet, Jamboard, and Poll Everywhere. First, we provide an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and digital accessibility definitions, descriptions of screen reading assistive technology, and the current use of tech tools in information literacy instruction for student engagement. Second, we examine accessibility testing assessments of the five tech tools selected for this paper. Our data show that the tools had severe, significant, and minor levels of digital accessibility problems, and while there were some shared issues, most problems were unique to the individual tools. We explore the implications of tech tools' unique environments as well as the importance of best practices and shared vocabularies. We also argue that digital accessibility benefits all users. Finally, we provide recommendations for teaching librarians to collaborate with campus offices to assess and advance the use of accessible tech tools in information literacy instruction, thereby enhancing an equitable learning environment for all students.

Introduction: 2021 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Advanced Analytics and Operations Research

The judges for the 2021 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in the Practice of Advanced Analytics and Operations Research selected the five finalist papers featured in this special issue of the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics. The prestigious Wagner Prize-awarded for achievement in implemented operations research, management science, and advanced analytics-emphasizes the quality and originality of mathematical models along with clarity of written and oral exposition. This year's winning application describes the design and deployment of Eva, the Greek COVID-19 testing system used as Greece was opening up for tourism in 2020. The remaining four papers describe the stochastic modeling and mixed-integer programming system used to optimize the Atlanta police patrol zones for better police balance and reduced response time to emergency calls;Lyft's new priority dispatch system, which solves the ride-sharing productivity paradox whereby increases in efficiency do not benefit the drivers;the application of advanced analytics to assist local and federal law enforcement organizations in their efforts to disrupt sex-trafficking networks;and the development of a new after-sales service concept, which increases chip availability for ASML's customers.

Were the US workers in “essential” sectors well paid?

Purpose>When the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic seriously hit the USA, a lot of cities/states announced their lockdowns, in some cases forbidding employees to go to work. But workers in the so called “essential sectors” were exempt from the order, and on the contrary were required to remain on the job in order to maintain the services and functions considered vital to the community. If they have not been paid well in comparison to those in the other sectors, there would be a stronger case for granting them a special hazard pay during the pandemic. This paper aims to design a way to measure the “importance” or being “essential” of the different sectors in the economy, and then investigates whether the actual pay of the workers in these sectors is consistent with the measured importance.Design/methodology/approach>At least two policy issues emerged from such an arrangement: (1) How can one define the “essential sectors” objectively instead of the authorities preparing a list according to their administrative procedure? (2) How well have been the workers in the essential sectors paid before the pandemic strike? The concept of a revised Leontief forward linkage effect will be used in an input–output model to gauge the relative “importance” of the different sectors in the US economy. Then the measured importance will be compared with the average compensation of the employees in these sectors.Findings>It is found that for some sectors such as agriculture, retail trade, and repair and installation of machinery and equipment the ratio of workers' compensation relative to the national average is substantially lower than the relative importance of the sectors employing them. That is, many of them have been substantially underpaid in spite of their importance.Research limitations/implications>The scope of this study is limited to one country, the USA, but the methodology can be applied to other countries as well.Originality/value>This study is an original research that contributes to an improved understanding of the importance of the workers engaged in different sectors in the USA during COVID-19.

Reflecting on Health Inequities in a Global Pandemic: The Need for Disability-Conscious Public Health Strategies

"Because I was on a ventilator, I couldn't speak up to explain that I was born with cerebral palsy." Family friends relayed additional concerns about their children who have autism and other sensory needs. Because these children were unable to wear masks for extended periods, their perceived "noncompliance" frequently prevented them from accessing public spaces. Thirty years after the passage ofthe Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the National Council of Disability's 2021 report revealed the persistent scarcity and utilization of accessible medical diagnostic equipment.6 The scope and severity of these issues are alarming, especially in the context ofthe aging nation and increasing prevalence of "long COVID," now recognized as a disability under the ADA.7 Without accessible health care clinics, screenings, and services, health care disparities will continue to worsen. The COVID-19 pandemic accentuated the necessity for public health leaders to address inequities by employing a disability-conscious approach. [...]the ongoing dialogue between health care students around the country, amplified by the testimony of the disability community, represents a critical moment.

Crossing (Conceptual) Boundaries of Transnational Environmental Law

The case comment reflects on the 2019 decision of the Constitutional Court of Basel-Stadt, which ruled that citizens should be allowed to vote on whether to ‘expand the circle of rights holders beyond the anthropological barrier’,23 and the subsequent decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court to uphold the validity of the citizens’ initiative.24 Blattner and Fasel explain why including rights for non-human primates in a cantonal constitution could add value to their protection in comparison with the traditional animal welfare protection measures.25 While acknowledging that the change of law advocated by the initiative might have limited practical implications, they posit that the mere symbolism of the initiative is worthwhile.26 These two decisions form part of a recent judicial trend of challenging the absence of basic rights for non-human beings.27 However, it emerges from the case comment that these decisions are particularly original in three ways. [...]the courts addressed, possibly for the first time, the relationship between animal rights and federalism in order to evaluate whether the primate rights initiative would be inconsistent with federal law. The courts responded in the negative, finding that while the Swiss Civil Code precludes animals from having fundamental rights, the initiative sought to reform Swiss public law to alter the relationship between individuals and the state: as a result, cantons were free to extend rights to non-human animals.28 Secondly, the decision of the Federal Supreme Court departed from existing animal rights scholarship, which concentrates on the overlaps between human and animal rights. [...]it declared that the initiative ‘does not aim to extend existing human constitutional rights to animals, but instead seeks to create special fundamental rights for non-human primates’.29 Thirdly, the case resulted in an important opportunity for citizens to participate in lawmaking processes as it paved the way for ‘the first ever direct democratic vote on whether some non-human animals should be granted basic rights to life and to bodily and mental integrity’.30 While the two contributions adopt a different starting point – one grounded in a theoretical exercise, the other in the commentary of a judicial decision – they nevertheless converge in their claims that our legal systems need to be reconceptualized to better account for the non-human in our worlds. 3.

The K-12 Pandemic Budget and Staffing Crises Have Not Panned Out - Yet: Selected Findings from the Third American School District Panel Survey. Data Note: Insights from the American Educator Panels. Research Report. RR-A956-3

This report presents school district leaders' views about staff turnover, hiring, and districts' financial outlooks at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. Based on the survey responses of 292 district leaders from the American School District Panel (ASDP), the authors found that teacher and principal turnover had not increased substantially beyond pre-pandemic rates in most districts. They also found that a majority of school districts have increased or are trying to increase their number of staff--especially for substitute teachers and mental health staff--for the 2021-2022 school year. District leaders also reported budget concerns. Four in ten district leaders anticipate a fiscal cliff around the time coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) federal aid expires in September 2024, and over half of the districts that anticipate a funding increase from federal stimulus funds are concerned about their ability to spend the money, even though virtually all district leaders said that they have some level of discretion in how to spend those funds. Although districts' reported impacts have not led to much-feared budget and staffing crises for their school districts, these survey findings suggest systemic problems that could outlast the COVID-19 pandemic. [For a related report, "Technical Documentation for the Third American School District Panel Survey. Research Report. RR-A956-6," see ED615291.]

Equity and English Learners Post-Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, immigrant and linguistically diverse families have both borne the brunt of America's job losses and are overrepresented in professions that are considered essential to the country's response and recovery. Children in these households have experienced increased economic and food insecurity, instability in their child care, and trauma. Moreover, language barriers, poor digital literacy skills among parents, inequitable access to appropriate digital devices and robust internet, and lack of digital instructional resources for English learners (ELs) affected the quality of students' home learning environments during remote learning. Predictably, ELs have experienced setbacks in their English language development, academic learning, and social and emotional health due to more than a year of interrupted learning. As the pandemic recedes, schools approach normalcy, and a historic investment of federal education dollars flows to states and school districts, state education leaders face the exceptional responsibility of charting a new course for public schools and the ELs whom they serve. In this article, Julie Sugarman begins by emphasizing the need for states to provide technical assistance to schools on the use of state and federal funds and monitor whether schools used equitable shares of those funds on resources specifically tailored to EL needs. She goes on to discuss: sources of data that policymakers can access for useful information about how well schools serve ELs;ways state and school systems can ensure teacher training and professional learning for EL specialists and general classroom teachers;and strategies school districts found themselves experimenting with to inform and support ELs and their families during the pandemic.

HEERF Today, Gone Tomorrow: In the Rush to Spend HEERF Dollars, Colleges Expand Financial Support for Students

The three pandemic relief bills passed by Congress since March 2020 collectively provide about $75 billion for U.S. colleges--as well as the students they serve. The legislation has brought three waves of funding to community colleges, known as Higher Education Emergency Relief Funding (HEERF) I, HEERF II, and HEERF III. Colleges must spend a certain portion of the money on emergency financial aid grants to students, and the remainder can be used for institutional priorities related to the pandemic. Colleges must spend the money within one year of receiving it. The funding gives colleges a unique opportunity to make a significant investment in their community. This article discusses the various ways in which colleges are spending HEERF funding.

Reshaping Assessment and Accountability in 2021 and Beyond

COVID-19 gave the country a crash course in public health data. It underscored the value of data that can support well-informed, timely action in a crisis. Good data are just as important for education systems in crisis. Schools and districts have been struggling to reach and educate students safely. Students who were disproportionately underserved before the pandemic--including low-income students, students of color, English learners, and students with disabilities--are experiencing more severe educational setbacks now. The education crisis is unlikely to end anytime soon. This article presents a short history of accountability, followed by a new vision of accountability and assessment, along with information on the role of state boards in reshaping assessment and accountability.

Identifying Institutional Best Practices: Supporting Undocumented Student Success in a Time of COVID-19

Due to the sensitive nature of identifying undocumented status, it is difficult to examine the impact of immigration status in the context of higher education and factors crucial to postsecondary and career success. What we do know is that prior to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and for students ineligible for these programs, the biggest structural barriers hindering college success were centered around prohibitive laws restricting access to critical financial resources such as federally-funded supports or any form of work study. Additional research is necessary to address the impact of relatively new and crucial supports in facilitating college success among undocumented youth -- especially during a period of uncertainty for programs like DACA,TPS, and the unprecedented impact of COVID-19. TheDream.US is an organization that partners with colleges in 19 states and Washington D.C. to provide approximately 6,500 undocumented students with private scholarships and tailored programming to complete an associate and/or bachelor's degree. This best practices paper draws from TheDream.US's latest survey data of 2,681 undocumented students to identify their specific needs for college completion and career readiness, and institutional supports for equitable access to social mobility.

Navigating the ADA Accessibility Requirements and Legal Pitfalls in Online Education

In November of 2019, the National Association of the Deaf and Harvard University entered into a landmark settlement ending four years of legal battles regarding captioning in online content. In that settlement, Harvard agreed to caption new video files consistent with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA and to provide text-only transcripts of new audio-only files created on or after December 1, 2019. The settlement has important legal ramifications to those educational institutions that are increasingly developing and delivering online content to their students. In March of 2020, educational institutions across the United States en masse moved in-person course content online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The significant increase in online course offerings continues. The combinations of the Harvard settlement, Federal Statutes, court cases and increasing use of online course delivery highlights the importance of providing accessible content to all involved and avoiding the legal pitfalls for failures to do so. This article explores the nature of accessibility related to ADA laws and regulations in the context of online instruction for students with disabilities.

Addressing College Food Insecurity: An Assessment of Federal Legislation Before and During Coronavirus Disease-2019.

Research conducted before coronavirus disease-2019 illustrated high rates of food insecurity among college students. The pandemic has likely increased student food insecurity because of factors like unemployment and closure of campus resources, and many students cannot access federal food assistance because of long-standing student restrictions. This perspective reviews federal legislation on college food insecurity introduced in the 116th legislative session (2019-2020) immediately before coronavirus disease-2019 in the US, as well as pandemic-related stimulus bills and their implications for future policies and practice. Food insecurity promises to become more pressing as colleges try to reopen and the country grapples with economic recovery.