This report provides an annual update on performance metrics for the Maricopa County Community Colleges District (MCCCD), including progress toward MCCCD Governing Board Outcomes. Three key areas are analyzed to determine student and organizational performance as follows: (1) Leading Indicators of Student Success; (2) Completion Outcomes; and (3)…

While the link between childhood abuse and future victimization has been developed, the effects of other negative events in childhood on future victimization, and whether protective factors may guard against it, remains unclear. To address this topic, the relationships between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), protective factors, and violent…

Although studies have identified risk factors for adolescent handgun carrying, previous research on risk factors for carrying a handgun to school specifically is sparse. This study examines self-report data from 122,840 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students from 426 schools across Arizona, from three survey administrations (2014, 2016, and 2018). In…

We report findings of a convergent validity study examining the internalizing subscale (SRSS-I5) of the newly adapted Student Risk Screening Scale for Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE12) with the internalizing subscale of the Teacher Report Form (TRF; Achenbach, 1991) conducted in 13 schools across three states with 195 kindergarten…

One of the most fundamental drivers of change at the nation's community colleges is enrollment. This paper examines the enrollment patterns of community colleges across five different regions of the country. It illustrates how changing populations will affect the demographic make-up of the student body for each state.

Do students really enroll in Introductory Geology because they think it is "rocks for jocks"? In this study, we examine the widely held assumption that students view geology as a qualitative and remedial option for fulfilling a general education requirement. We present the first quantitative characterization of a large number of…

This study examines the use of Internet online polling at a suburban junior high school as a means for decision makers to systematically acquire student perceptions about local conditions of learning. Federal and state mandates result in curricular, instructional, evaluative, and organizational changes that affect students' conditions of learning.…

This report presents data from the Arizona Indicators Panel, a statewide representative sample of Arizonans conducted in May and July 2008. Most survey respondents named crime and public safety as among the top issues their officials should address, and nearly half said they thought crime was getting worse. Yet, despite strong concerns about…

This brief, the third issue in the "Criminal Justice Issues for Arizona" series, reveals that Pinal County's specialized court for domestic-violence cases offers some promising results for dealing with this common and complex offense. This report contains an analysis of data collected in the Pinal County Domestic Violence Database, which…

In four Morrison Institute reports between 1997 and 2004, Phoenix area residents said their quality of life (QOL) was generally good. Some of the same questions were asked of the statewide Arizona Indicators Panel and are reported in this newsletter. In general, results mirror the positive levels of quality of life reported in the "Greater…

This pretest report on the National Head Start Evaluation Project gives data on ethnicity and ages of children enrolled in four Head Start centers in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona, and describes the present status of evaluation at these centers. Completed pretests, proposed evaluation instruments, and available pretest data are presented.…

The tables presented in this document show the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) results for the past two years. Twenty-four tables show results as percent at each performance level and percent passing, as well as percent of students tested. The tables shown in this document include: (1) Mathematics Grade 3; (2) Reading Grade 3; (3)…

This document, from the Arizona Minority Education Policy Analysis Center (AMEPAC), reports the educational achievement of minority students in Arizona, from kindergarten through college. As a snapshot it is simply a description of what is, and the data are, thus, open to interpretation. How the numbers look and what they mean may be two different…

This study reports on CHAMPS, a youth tobacco and prevention program intervention that focused on peer-led educational activities. Nineteen schools implemented a CHAMPS tobacco prevention program in grades 5, 6, and 7. Six schools served as nonintervention comparison sites. Baseline and follow-up questionnaires were completed by 1,412 students.…