Organizational evaluation policies describe how evaluation practices should be structured and implemented. As such, they provide key insights into organizational priorities and values regarding evaluation. However, the link between evaluation policies and how evaluation policies translate into concrete practices has seldom been explored until now.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand US federal government policy during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the connections to graduate education. Using the multiple streams framework, the paper outlines these actions through various streams (problems, policy and political) and perspectives (defining problems,…

Student records, and specifically academic transcripts, are the traditional record of a student's completed coursework and their earned credential at an educational institution. Transcripts can serve as proof and a signal to potential employers and other educational institutions that a student has engaged in certain learning activities and…

This research probed into women's challenges and biases in leadership positions within male-dominated federal government agencies in the United States. This qualitative Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology builds on Bishop's (2022) groundwork, "The Female Leadership Gap: Breaking Down the Biases and Barriers of Women in…

Research data services--support offerings which enable and improve data-intensive research--have garnered sustained attention from library research support service providers for nearly two decades. Because of the critical role they play in supporting research on college and university campuses across the country, particularly at research intensive…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) invited states to use multiple measures of "higher-order thinking skills and understanding," including "extended-performance tasks," to create state assessment systems that support teaching for deeper learning. However, few states have been able to navigate federal assessment requirements…

The federal government's ongoing adoption of cloud technology has been costly, time-consuming, fragmented, and challenging, due to mitigating issues and barriers across legal, technological, procurement, and organizational boundaries. Government-led research has examined such challenges and specifically identifies cultural change, or lack thereof,…

The National Security Agency (NSA) awards Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) designations to institutions that commit to producing cybersecurity professionals who will work in careers that reduce vulnerabilities in our national infrastructure. A review of the curricula in the 327 institutions and their degree programs reveal that only two…

In spring 2022, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology (OET) committed to advancing digital equity through the Digital Equity Education Roundtables (DEER) Initiative. Through DEER, OET hosted a series of national conversations with leaders from community-based organizations, as well as families and learners furthest…

There is a growing call to reconsider current approaches to national and state assessment system policies and practices. State and local education agency leaders, educators, community leaders, and advocates have voiced concerns that current state assessment systems--defined primarily by end-of-year multiple-choice tests--are unable to meet…

Student, family, and community engagement is an important ingredient to foster students' social, emotional, and academic development (SEAD). In this brief, the importance and impact of meaningful engagement--building personal relationships, trust, and mutual respect between students and their educators, families, and communities--is described, and…

Despite marked growth in evaluation use and capacity in the U.S. Federal Government over the last 50 years, the levers that have driven institutional change have not previously been identified. This ethnographic study mapped the process and factors that have led to the diffusion of value in evaluation in the U.S. Federal Government. Analyses of…

Amidst growing public concern in the United States over college access and affordability, federal policymakers have implemented many low-cost, behaviorally-informed strategies aimed at simplifying the college-going process and reducing informational barriers. Our paper reviews recent U.S. federal policies and interventions that draw on insights…

Today, free public kindergarten for five-year-old children is available in every state and community throughout the United States, and public education is routinely referred to as K-12. But kindergarten did not start out this way. Kindergartens in the United States once served children as young as three and four years old. In fact, today's…

In a prospective cohort study of Latinx adolescents living in an agricultural county in California, we examined perceptions of federal immigration policy and its effects on community and individual wellbeing. From May to December 2017, 565 youth responded to an open-ended item integrated into ongoing surveys. Median age was 14 (range 13-16 years),…