Making a Difference?: The Effects of Teach for America in High School

Uses longitudinal data from North Carolina to estimate the effectiveness, in terms of gains in student test scores, of TFA teachers relative to traditional teachers. Focuses on math and science teachers in the first study of TFA effects in high schools

Contracting as a Mechanism for Managing Education Services

Contracting with for-profit firms is one of the new organizational arrangements to emerge in public education in the nineties. Fueled by millions of new investment dollars and by demand for education management services from the burgeoning charter school movement, education contracting is growing. The Edison Project, for example, opened its first four schools in 1995 and now operates 77 schools serving approximately 37,000 students in twelve states. Contracting, like vouchers and charter schools, is a market-based reform presumed to promote improved performance through new accountability mechanisms and exploiting competition. School districts have long contracted for building maintenance, transportation, and food services. Districts have even contracted for educational services, but typically only for specialized services for a small number of children with handicaps or other special needs. What is happening now is different: school districts are contracting for regular educational services, the very services they are organized to provide. This issue of CPRE Policy Briefs describes key features of education services contracts between school districts and forprofit firms and discusses some management issues raised by these contracts. The information is based on the terms of 11 contracts and interviews with the officials who shaped these contracts. The contracts were intentionally selected to be diverse. They include contracts from 1990 to 1998 and contracts with school districts as well as with charter boards. One contract established external management control of an entire school district; other contracts focused on school-level management; while still others provided a limited set of educational services. A few of the contracts ended contentiously; others have been in force for some years without dispute. This Policy Brief does not evaluate particular contracts from an educational or legal perspective, but uses the set of contracts to analyze contracting as a management tool in education

Translations of the Self: A.E. Housman and Anne Carson, Between Scholarship and Creativity

In my PhD thesis I have explored some aspects of the interface between classical scholarship and creativity, through the work and careers of two scholar-poets, Anne Carson (1950 - ) and A.E. Housman (1859-1936). I have shown how, within their social and cultural contexts, they attempted to craft their careers by using both genres of their work to help them construct carefully-crafted public profiles, and how these self-translations within their careers relate to received versions of their work by different readerships. By connecting explorations of their social and cultural contexts with their biographies and with close readings of their scholarly and creative work, I explore the shifting relationship between creative and scholarly ‘cultural fields’, as well as the recent social, cultural, and institutional changes which have turned these fields from ‘homogeneous poles’ to ‘heterogeneous poles’ (to use Pierre Bourdieu’s terms). I examine the surprising similarities in the unusual personalities of Carson and Housman, who both have, or had, a tendency to use their reputations for independence and reclusiveness to help them navigate around important issues and conflicts which could have threatened their success. I show how they have constructed versions of themselves, both within and beyond their writings, which have enabled them to make grand assertions of the self in the teeth of social and cultural necessities

Chemical composition and yield of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) as influenced by nitrogen and potassium fertilization

Two one-year experiments were conducted to determine the effects of fertilization and season on the chemical composition of Kentucky 31 tall fescue. Samples were taken monthly for determination of K, Ca, Mg, P, crude protein and yield. Freeze-dried samples were used in determining malic acid, citric acid, and total ash alkalinity concentration. Nitro-gen fertilization rates were 0 and 112 kg N/ha for the first experiment and 56, 112, and 168 kg N/ha for the second experiment. Potassium fertilization levels were employed only in the second experiment; the rates were 0 and 168 kg K/ha. The soil was Etowah silt loam. Nitrogen fertilization generally increased the concentration of K. Increases in the concentration of Ca and Mg due to N fertilization were noted in some months. Nitrogen fertilization had little affect on the P concentration. Crude protein and dry matter yield were increased with N fertilization. Malic acid and total ash alkalinity concentrations were increased with N fertilization, while citric acid concentration was decreased. Potassium fertilization increased the K concentration on all harvest dates. Decreases in Ca and Mg were associated with K fertilization. The P concentration was not affected by K fertilization. Crude protein values were increased in some months due to K fertilization. Dry matter yields were slightly increased in some months due to K fertilization. Malic acid and total ash alkalinity concentrations were decreased by K fertilization, while citric acid concentration was increased. Seasonal variation resulted in highest concentrations of K and organic acids in the cooler months, while highest Ca, Mg, and P concen-trations were observed in the warmer months. Little forage material was produced during January and February, but production was possible the remainder of the year with split applications of N fertilization. It is suggested that K fertilization be applied after the spring growth period

Value Added of Teachers in High-Poverty Schools and Lower-Poverty Schools

This paper examines whether teachers in schools serving students from high-poverty backgrounds are as effective as teachers in schools with more advantaged students. The question is important. Teachers are recognized as the most important school factor affecting student achievement, and the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and their better off peers is large and persistent. Using student-level microdata from 2000-2001 to 2004-2005 from Florida and North Carolina, the authors compare the effectiveness of teachers in high-poverty elementary schools (>70% FRL students) with that of teachers in lower-poverty elementary schools