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College of Education

Archived Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

The Center for the Study of Educational Finance and the Center for the Study of Higher Education was once housed in the Department of Education Administration and Foundations (EAF). These merged and are now the Center for the Study of Education Policy. The archived files contain monographs on education issues related to:

  • K-12 Finance
  • Community College Finance
  • University Finance
  • MacArthur/Spencer Special Series on Educational Finance (related to finance issues in the 1980s and 1990s)

In July 1986 the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Lyle Spencer Foundation jointly funded a five-year investigation into educational finance in the State of Illinois. The MacArthur-Spencer Special Series in Illinois Educational Finance focused on three central concepts in the study of educational finance: equity, adequacy, and efficiency. These concepts were explored by traditional philosophical and historical inquiry and by operational definitions, complete with empirical and statistical inquiry.

This series of investigations was conducted on the campuses of Illinois State University and at the University of Illinois at Urbana. The co-directors of the project were Distinguished Professor George Alan Karnes Wallis Hickrod at Illinois State University and Associate Professor James Gordon Ward at the University of Illinois. Dr. Hickrod passed away December 27, 2006.

Collected Essays 2000-2005

The contents below are provided purely for archival purposes, no attempt has been made to edit the various studies into some consistent narrative.

  • Assessment of Educational Equity (related to campus climate studies in the 1980s and 1990s)

In the Spring of 1984 the Illinois Senate Committee on Higher Education established a Subcommittee on Minority Concerns tasked with assessing and enhancing the educational progress of historically disadvantaged groups in Illinois. This legislative initiative was the impetus for the conceptualization of a process and strategies that would accomplish the task of the Subcommittee. Subsequently, in 1987 a committee of members of the Illinois Committee on Black Concerns in Higher Education (ICBCHE) developed a proposal for a project titled "Assessment of Educational Equity (AEE)” which was submitted under the aegis of the Center for Higher Education at Illinois State University and funded by the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE). Dr. Charles E. Morris has served as the AEE Project Director since its inception.

Based on the assumption that successful participation in postsecondary education depends upon "supportive and nurturing" campus climates, the AEE Project staff developed survey instruments, designed to measure perceptions of campus climate by undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff, and for the assessment of institutional programs and services. Data collected using AEE survey instruments have provided a rich resource for dissertations, theses and reports which address issues and questions related to the educational progress of the target groups cited by the legislative committees.

Collected documents and publications 1989-1996

The contents below are provided purely for archival purposes, no attempt has been made to edit the various studies, reports, and publications into some consistent narrative.

  • The Illinois Best Practice School Study

The Illinois Best Practice School Study: 2003-2006 (related to best practices of schools considered to be consistent high performers despite significant poverty levels.

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