The department focuses on how governments, markets and societal conditions combine to shape schooling and educational opportunities at all levels, and on the creation of an informed population that has the skills to critically analyze its own areas of need and interest and work in concert toward creating a better world. This year:

Henry M. Levin and TC's Center for Benefit- Cost Studies in Education were federally funded to train researchers in cost effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses of education interventions.

The Inter- American Development Bank funded Sharon Lynn Kagan to compare the delivery of quality, equitable early childhood services in five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Kagan, who became a Fulbright Senior Scholar, coedited the forthcoming International Handbook of Early Childhood Research and compared 10 states' early learning standards -'" the basis for developing kindergarten entry assessments.

Kevin J. Dougherty and colleagues completed a Lumina Foundation-funded study in three states on performance funding for higher education institutions based on student persistence, credits accrued and college completion rather than enrollments. One finding: performance funding may affect institutional behavior more than student outcomes.

The Wallace Foundation funded Jeffrey Henig, Carolyn Riehl and Michael Rebell to study whether and how urban community institutions can jointly tackle local social and educational challenges.

A $10 million federal grant to TC's Community College Research Center created the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness. Launched at a White House Ceremony, the Center, co-directed by Thomas Bailey, evaluates new remedial assessment, placement and instruction approaches.

Amy Stuart Wells and Douglas Ready reported that small suburban districts are most vulnerable to resegregation. They spoke at a Brown v. Board of Education 60th anniversary conference cosponsored by the Rauch Foundation, led by TC Trustee Nancy Rauch Douzinas. Wells and Ready found that Nassau County's non-Hispanic white population share has declined nearly 25 percent since 1980, yet school racial/ ethnic segregation has barely budged. The Brown decision, handed down by the Supreme Court in 1954, outlawed segregation in public schools.

Published Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2015