I received the last Annual Report by Nicholas Felton. It is his 10th report in a series that began with a thin volume in 2005. I hesitate to say that I’ve “finally” received the report because I was not anticipating the conclusion of the series in any way. Instead, I had always looked forward to these […]
Before leaving the Iowa Department of Education, I had the pleasure of working with Andrew Ryder on his dissertation, which studied the pathway from the GED to community college in Iowa. Andrew spent a considerable amount of time looking for a dissertation topic. After some serious contemplation and some dead-ends, he eventually settled on the […]
My new publication in November’s IR Applications, which is published by the Association for Institutional Research: This paper explores the relationship between student major and industry of employment and its application to higher education accountability. Data provided by statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) have enabled state educational agencies and colleges to follow students into the workforce. While most studies have […]
U.S. Census Bureau released poverty and income estimates for small areas, including counties and school districts, in an interactive map. Here is a picture of poverty estimates for children (between 5 and 17 years-old) by Iowa school district. Darker areas represent a higher proportion of kids in poverty. Pockets of high poverty, 30%+, are predominately […]
A new project is going to send me into map-making mode for awhile, here is the first bit (click for full size):
Every year, every state projects upcoming state tax revenues. It matters a lot. These estimates are used by legislators, technocrats, and the governor to determine spending for schools, health care, and agency or program in government. Sometimes, when states are on a biannual budget, spending must determine spending for two years. Imagine trying to estimate […]
Found here. It is based on the visualizing transitions into the workforce project that I have been working on and you can see to the left.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has put together an interactive chart showing tuition and fees at Iowa community colleges. Play through the timeline and you can see tuition and fees becoming a larger share of revenue for the 15 colleges, while state funding declined. There are a couple of notes along the way to highlight […]
Mason City Globe-Gazette is discussing the future of the Iowa Core Curriculum, a statewide standard-based curriculum, and quotes the new director of the Iowa Department of Education: “I honor and appreciate the effort and work that has been put into it up to this point. There are a lot of people who have poured [sic] […]
As expected, the Iowa Revenue Estimating Conference are estimating higher state tax revenues for the current and next year than previously thought. Last year, I predicted these revenue estimates would be underestimated. These models tend not to predict changes in the economy, so they tend to overestimate revenues during recessions and underestimate revenues during economic […]