Pre-conference Workshops 2012

AEFP has developed a variety of issue- and methods-based pre-conference workshops for Thursday morning March 15, 2012. The workshops provide in-depth opportunities to explore education finance and policy topics, including K-12 and higher education federal data sets, and school finance litigation. Ample time will be allotted for comments, questions and discussion with participants in the workshop. Cost is $100.

  1. WORKSHOP 1 - The Role Of The Courts In Ensuring Adequate Education In Hard Economic Times
     
  2. WORKSHOP 2 - Accessing and Exploring NCES Postsecondary Education Data: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS),National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS), and the Baccalaureate and Beyond Study (B&B)
     
  3. WORKSHOP 3 - Accessing and Exploring NCES K–12 Data: Common Core of Data (CCD), Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), National Household Education Surveys (NHES), Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of1998–99 (ECLS-K), Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), American Community Survey (ACS), National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and International Assessments

 

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WORKSHOP 1 - The Role Of The Courts In Ensuring Adequate Education In Hard Economic Times

10am -12:30pm

Extensive reductions in state and local funding for public education since the economic downturn that began in 2008 have resulted in severe cutbacks in educational services and, in many cases, put in jeopardy students' constitutional right to the opportunity for an adequate education. Courts have repeatedly held that constitutional rights are not conditional and do not evaporate because of fiscal constraints. Nevertheless, the unprecedented extent, depth and durability of the current state budget difficulties may generate a heightened degree of judicial resistance to challenging the appropriations authority of the executive and legislative branches.

Michael A. Rebell, Executive Director of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University and formerly co-counsel for plaintiffs in CFE v. State of New York,will present an extensive paper that analyzes all of the recent and current court decisions dealing with budget cuts, and that proposes a strategy for plaintiffs and advocates in future cases that emphasizes a) articulating an "operational" definition of adequate education that can be enforced in difficult economic times; b) taking a pro-active stance on issues of cost efficiency; and c) requiring states to demonstrate that the essential services required to provide students an adequate education can actually be provided at the reduced funding level that the state is now providing.

Al Lindseth, an attorney who has represented a number of states and school districts in education adequacy cases and David Long who has represented numerous plaintiff groups in educational equity and educational adequacy cases for the past 40 years, will respond to Rebell's thesis and will offer their own insights on the role that courts should play in regard to education finance issues at the present time. James R. Tallon, Jr., member of the New York State Board of Regents and former member and majority leader of the New York State Assembly, will discuss judicial intervention in current budgetary decision making from the perspective of state policy making and state funding realities.

WORKSHOP 2 - Accessing and Exploring NCES Postsecondary Education Data: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS),National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS), and the Baccalaureate and Beyond Study (B&B)

8:30am -12:00pm

Colleen Lenihan and Sean Simone, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics

The National Center for Education Statistics has been working to create user-friendly web tools to make our postsecondary education data more accessible. The first part of this session will provide an overview of the information available from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and include a demonstration on how to use the IPEDS Data Center. IPEDS includes data on institutional characteristics, enrollment, graduation rates, completions, human resources, student financial aid and institutional finances for every postsecondary institution that receives Title IV aid. The demonstration will focus on the finance data and show users how to view a single institution's data, compare institutions' data, view trend data for a variable, and also show a longitudinal database derived from IPEDS data.

The second half of this session will provide an overview of NCES's postsecondary sample survey studies including the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) and longitudinal surveys derived from NPSAS. The main purpose of the NSPAS study is to understand how students finance their postsecondary education. Data from NPSAS is used to inform public policy on federal financial aid programs such as the Pell grant program and the William D. Ford Direct Lending program (e.g. Stafford loans, PLUS loans, etc.). The presentation also includes a demonstration of PowerStats and QuickStats which are online data tools used to access the data in these studies.

WORKSHOP 3 - Accessing and Exploring NCES K–12 Data: Common Core of Data (CCD), Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), National Household Education Surveys (NHES), Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of1998–99 (ECLS-K), Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), American Community Survey (ACS), National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and International Assessments

8:30am -12:00pm

Stephen Cornman, US Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Mark Dixon, US Census Bureau

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has recently unveiled several state-of-the-art data tools to easily access and use data. The first half of this session provides guidance and advice on using these tools to navigate several NCES data sets. The Common Core of Data (CCD) is the primary annual database on public elementary and secondary education in the United States. CCD includes the Local Education Agency Finance Survey (F-33) and the National Public Education Financial Survey (NPEFS). The session covers the Educational Data Analysis Tool featuring the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), National Household Education Surveys (NHES), the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), and the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002). This session will also introduce American Community Survey (ACS) data on the School District Demographics System (SDDS). CCD can be accessed by Build-a-Table (BAT) or the Elementary/Secondary Information System (ELSI). The Education Data Analysis Tool (EDAT) facilitates the download of NCES survey datasets to your computer. Currently, the EDAT application contains SASS, ECLS-K, ELS: 2002, NELS (National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988), and NHES datasets.

The second half of this session will provide an overview of the National Assessment of Educational Progress Data Explorer (NDE) and the International Data Explorer (IDE).The data explorers are online tools that allow users to create custom statistical tables and graphics. The NDE is a rich and dynamic database of all NAEP data. The IDE includes data from Program for International Student Assessment (PISA); Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS); and Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).