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K–12 Science Education in the United States: A Landscape Study for Improving the Field

May 16, 2023

This report assesses progress toward the vision of science instruction provided a decade ago by the National Research Council with support from the Corporation. In order to elevate the status of science education in the U.S. and to broaden the involvement of underrepresented groups in ongoing reform efforts, a field-level agenda for change is necessary. To that end, the report includes recommendations to inform improvements over the next 10 years in service of making science education a priority for all.

Across the Aisle: Bridging the Education Divide

November 2, 2022

Last year, as states and districts across the country grappled with academic and social and emotional learning loss, states and districts were still in a state of triage, learning about the full impacts of school closures while supporting students and educators with safely returning to school. Furthermore, parents were anxious about when and how things would return to a state of normalcy. This context laid the groundwork for The Hunt Institute's 2021 Emerging Priorities for Education Leaders Report to better understand the educational challenges and issues that are top of mind among the public.One year later, how have public priorities changed?America's ever-changing educational landscape inspired The Hunt Institute to explore whether parent and voter priorities had shifted since our last report was published. In partnership with Lake Research Partners, we conducted an updated nationwide survey of parents and voters to hear their concerns, gauge their priorities, and establish a path forward for transforming our education system for the better. 

National Standards for Family-School Partnerships

October 31, 2022

PTA's National Standards for Family-School Partnerships set the bar for how schools and parent organizations should work together to support student success. We know that families are essential partners to providing a high-quality education for every student. Decades of research shows that family engagement matters for student success, students whose families are engaged are more likely to attend school, avoid discipline problems, achieve at higher levels and graduate. Family engagement also helps schools, research suggests it is equally as important as school leadership or a rigorous curriculum to predict school improvement.The Standards are one of few recognizable and concrete guideposts for family engagement across the education system, complementing important work such as the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School-Community Partnerships. The National Standards for Family-School Partnerships have been used by PTAs, schools, districts, state education agencies, and the U.S. Department of Education for accountability and support for strong family engagement, including as the foundation for PTA's own Schools of Excellence program which supports over 300 local PTAs and their schools annually.

Challenges in Moving Toward a More Inclusive Democracy: Findings from the 2022 American Values Survey

October 27, 2022

Approximately three-quarters of Americans agree that the country is heading in the wrong direction, but there is considerable division over whether the country needs to move backward — toward an idealized, homogeneous past — or forward, toward a more diverse future. Though most Americans favor moving forward, a sizable minority yearn for a country reminiscent of the 1950s, embrace the idea that God created America to be a new promised land for European Christians, view newcomers as a threat to American culture, and believe that society has become too soft and feminine. This minority is composed primarily of self-identified Republicans, white evangelical Protestants, and white Americans without a college degree. The majority of Americans, however, especially younger Americans, the religiously unaffiliated, and Democrats, are more likely to embrace a competing vision for the future of America that is more inclusive.

Social Science Research in the Arab World and Beyond

October 12, 2022

This book presents and discusses the logic and method of social science research adapted mainly for instruction at Arab universities and for research in Arab countries, but with applicability beyond the region. It illustrates major concepts and methods pertaining to research with examples of previous studies carried out in the Arab world and with exercises using Arab Barometer and other datasets. The book situates itself between a regular methods textbook and an annotated list of major concepts and methods, and includes an introduction, three chapters, and four appendices.

Curriculum-Based Professional Learning: The State of the Field

September 12, 2022

In recent years, open-source, high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) have presented exciting opportunities to enhance students' engagement and agency in their learning, expand access to grade-level content, and narrow the boundaries between home and school. However, research suggests that curricula, on their own, can only do so much to advance student learning; curriculum-based professional learning is an essential ingredient. Yet, to build the field of curriculum-based professional learning, a field of diverse, interdisciplinary actors from across the education sector must work together to collectively co-produce improved professional learning that strengthens educational experiences and outcomes for students. With support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Columbia University's Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) researched the state of the field of curriculum-based professional learning, identifying its areas of strength and opportunities to grow, scale, and strengthen the effort. Building on an analysis of information provided by 146 people over the course of 122 interviews, as well as an extensive review of secondary sources, the research reveals that the field of curriculum-based professional learning is emerging. While its impact is not yet consistently felt across the education ecosystem, its infrastructure and field-level agenda are fairly well-developed. Its actors, knowledge base, and resources are still in more nascent stages and require focused attention for the field to reach its potential for impact.

The Consequences of Remote and Hybrid Instruction During the Pandemic

September 1, 2022

Using testing data from 2.1 million students in 10,000 schools in 49 states (plus D.C.), we investigate the role of remote and hybrid instruction in widening gaps in achievement by race and school poverty. We find that remote instruction was a primary driver of widening achievement gaps. Math gaps did not widen in areas that remained in-person (although there was some widening in reading gaps in those areas). We estimate that high-poverty districts that went remote in 2020-21 will need to spend nearly all their federal aid on academic recovery to help students recover from pandemic-related achievement losses.

Information Gaps and Misinformation in the 2022 Elections

August 2, 2022

The problem of election misinformation is vast. Part of the problem occurs when there is high demand for information about a topic, but the supply of accurate and reliable information is inadequate to meet that demand. The resulting information gap creates opportunities for misinformation to emerge and spread.One major election information gap developed in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic drove many states to expand access to voting by mail. Inadequate public knowledge about the process left room for disinformation mongers to spread false claims that mail voting would lead to widespread fraud. Election officials could not fill information gaps with accurate information in time. As is now well known, no less than former President Trump promoted these false claims, among others, to deny the 2020 presidential election results and provoke the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.In 2022, false narratives about a stolen 2020 election persist, even as an unprecedented spate of restrictive voting law changes across the country has created fresh information gaps and, thus, fresh opportunities for misinformation. Since 2020, at least 18 states have shrunk voting access, often in ways that dramatically alter procedures voters might remember from the past. Meanwhile, lies and vitriol about the 2020 election have affected perceptions of election administration in ways that complicate work to defend against misinformation.This paper identifies some of the most significant information gaps around elections in 2022 and new developments in elections oversight that will make it harder to guard against misinformation. Ultimately, it recommends strategies that election officials, journalists, social media companies, civic groups, and individuals can and should use to prevent misinformation from filling gaps in public knowledge. Lessons from other subjects, such as Covid-19 vaccine ingredients and technologies, show how timely responses and proactive "prebunking" with accurate information help to mitigate misinformation.

Philanthropic Self-Reflection Tool for Equitable Parent Partnership

May 18, 2022

The journey towards authentic partnership and equitable collaboration with parents is an ongoing process and requires regular reflection, inquiry, and conversation to maximize your positive impact and avoid causing harm to parent leaders and the community. We are all doing our best, but consistent self-evaluation allows your organization to have the greatest impact. The Philanthropic Self-Reflection Tool for Equitable Parent Partnership provides a framework for these reflections and helps to process what your team learns. This tool is for funders and funder collaboratives who are committed to honestly reflecting and identifying themselves along a continuum of engagement and partnership with parents, determining which areas need improvement, identifying best practices and strategies they can begin to implement to advance along the continuum, facilitating necessary and important discussions internally to ensure that there is institutional support to implement these strategies, being in conversation with parents and other funders to receive coaching, mentorship, and technical assistance to center and partner with parents in an equitable, authentic, and meaningful way

Future Africa Early Career Research Leader Fellowship: A reflection on the early career research leaders for Africa's future

May 3, 2022

It is with great appreciation that the University recognises the support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY). Through the Early Career Research Leader Fellowship (ECRLF), it provided a nurturing opportunity to twelve promising early career researchers from ten tertiary institutions in six countries across East, West and Southern Africa, as well as the Indian Ocean island country of Mauritius, over the past three years.This publication showcases the success stories of each of these postdoctoral fellows, and subsequently the successful interventions of their UP mentors, facilitated through Future Africa, to fill a critical gap in the African research capacity development ecosystem.

Russians and Americans Sense a New Cold War

April 20, 2022

The current conflict in Ukraine is described by some as an inflection point in world history, and perhaps the end of the post-Cold War era. Russian President Vladimir Putin increasingly seems to make foreign policy decisions designed to upend the US-European security order and dominate the countries he considers to be in Russia's orbit. At the same time, US President Joe Biden has pitted the NATO struggle with Russia as well as the US competition with China as contests between democracies and autocracies. A recent public opinion survey from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Levada Center in Moscow shows that Russians and Americans view global divisions along Cold War lines. And in what may be the most alarming throwback to those days, large majorities in both countries fear an escalation to nuclear war.

Americans Support Ukraine--but Not with US Troops or a No-Fly Zone

April 15, 2022

A new poll reveals that Americans see Russia as a significant threat to US interests and support military and economic assistance to Ukraine.In response to Russia's aggression toward Ukraine, the United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on Russia that are striking in their scope and severity and represent a broad effort to impose serious economic costs on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. For their part, a March 25-28 Chicago Council survey finds that Americans support all measures to help Ukraine and pressure Russia short of direct US involvement in a military conflict. And while the public views the broad sanctions imposed on Russia as generally effective at punishing, weakening, and deterring Russia from further aggression, they doubt that sanctions will be enough to persuade Moscow to withdraw troops from Ukraine—the key condition Americans identify as necessary for lifting sanctions.