University of Arkansas

Since 2001, over 2 million children in this country have experienced the military deployment of a parent. Military families tend to be resilient, but deployment-related stress (DRS) can take a significant toll. DRS can negatively affect family life during every phase of the deployment cycle. With lengthy deployments and limited time between deployments, spouses and other relatives must learn to manage households for long periods of time on their own. One-third to one-half of military familie...

CALDER-R&R examines policies addressing teacher shortages and their impact on teachers, student learning, and equity. Two important perspectives undergird the Center's work. First is the understanding that teacher shortages are not a single phenomenon. Instead, they exist in specific subject areas (for example, science and mathematics), among teachers from specific backgrounds (for example, teachers from historically marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds), in specific schools (for e...

 The goal of this project is to conduct validity research on a new measure intended for students in grades 2-8, the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT): Spatial Assessment, which was developed in collaboration with Riverside Insights and the digital design company Digital Artefacts. This assessment measures students' spatial reasoning skills and is used to inform instructional planning and evaluation. Spatial reasoning is critical to student achievement, particularly in early math skills. At l...

In 2004, Congress established the first federally-funded private school voucher program, with annual funding of about $14 million. The program provided scholarships of up to $7,500 for low-income residents of the District of Columbia to send their children to participating local private schools, with students from "schools in need of improvement" under the Elementary and Secondary School Act receiving the highest priority for admission. This study is in response to the law mandating that the U