This article is the second of a three-part series based on the book "Basic Guide to Financial Aid." The contents within are adapted from the publication, with additional emphasis on the impact federal student aid administration has on non-financial aid professionals in higher education today. It should be noted that this information is…

Across the international higher education sector, existing studies highlight that student evaluations of courses and teaching are biased and prejudiced towards academics and can cause mental distress. Yet student evaluation data is often used as part of faculty hiring, firing, promotion, award and grant decisions. That a data source known to be…

It has been well documented that children's development is enhanced within the context of supportive parent-child relationships (Mortensen & Mastergeorge, 2014). Research also indicates that any daily activity of a child holds the potential for multiple learning opportunities if parents and other caregivers are supported in their capacity to…

The federal government has collected data from colleges and universities for more than a century. However, how and what data are collected has evolved over time, as has the purposes for collecting those data. The most systematic collection of data happens through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which is required to be…

Purpose: This article presents a definition and rationale for evidence-based reform in education, and a discussion of the current state of evidence-based research, focusing on China, the U.S., and the UK. Design/Approach/Methods: The article contrasts the state of educational research in the U.S., the UK, and China, world leaders in evidence-based…

As states consider non-academic measures of school quality for their accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act, few are choosing to focus on the school climate in which students learn. That's not a surprise, given concerns about the validity and usefulness of existing climate surveys. However, the authors argue, a recent study…

When COVID-19 forced a hiatus in federally mandated assessments in spring 2020, it interrupted a quarter century of effort to track, disaggregate, and publicize achievement levels at the school level. The aborted school year put a big data gap where 2020 scores should have been. Combined with the already raging assaults on testing, state education…

When done reliably and efficiently, measuring school climate can help improve schools' vital signs and help state boards of education realize their goals and objectives for the system as a whole. Moreover, because it is as consequential to schools as checking heart rates and blood pressure are to humans, schools should always use climate measures…

Primarily drawing from the works of Edin and Shaefer (2016) and Eubanks (2017), this essay uses their descriptions of the realities of people living in poverty as well as the structural and technological fortifications that are used to sort and confine them to a status of second-class citizen to show that poverty is a condition that limits the…

Present data collection efforts to identify and address intimate partner violence on college campuses and universities are flawed. Traditional methods utilized to report on intimate partner violence on campus, including Campus Climate Surveys and Clery Act reporting guidelines, are insufficient in that they do not capture the full scope of…

This contribution takes a critical perspective on digital school performance platforms (SPP), which today play a key role in US state education monitoring and accountability. Using examples from two different US state education agencies, I provide an analytical disentanglement of some key dimensions of such platforms' enactment and materiality. I…

State databases offer researchers the opportunity to conduct research using data collected by states. These databases contain financial, demographic, and accountability data. Accessing and acquiring data from these repositories, though, can offer challenges to scholars interested in conducting research. This brief describes the type of data…

The "Every Student Succeeds Act" requires that student's test scores be disaggregated by racial characteristics. Nevertheless, the author's recent study suggests that K-12 school principals may not intentionally think about race when they collect, interpret, analyze, and make decisions about data. By not disaggregating data by race,…

Research reliably demonstrates that teachers are the most important in-school factor affecting students' learning and lives. Yet on myriad measures of teacher quality, students from low-income families and students of color are less likely to have equitable access to excellent teachers. States set forth their plans to address any existing…

Purpose: Universities are an example of institutions that aggregate people around work/study who consume water, energy and produce waste daily in their activities, generating an impact on the environment. The purpose of this study is to determine the quantity, composition and recycling potential of waste generated at the Faculdade UnB Planaltina…