Wildlife crossing structures (WCSs), underpasses, and overpasses are widely used for the safe travel of larger wildlife species across roads and highways, reducing wildlife-related vehicle collisions to drivers. WCSs are often expensive to build and maintain, and therefore determining a cost-effective, optimal design is a challenge faced by departments of transportation across the United States and elsewhere. Although much research has been conducted on the variables affecting the usage of WCSs by wildlife, few attempts have been made to correlate cost-diminishing returns in relation to the success rates and optimal sizing of WCS.
The U.S. test-based accountability model holds schools and teachers accountable for student outcomes with little attention to school improvement processes. Many other countries enact more school-centered accountability efforts, such as school self-evaluation followed by inspection (SSE/I) to examine school quality, as in similar systems in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Netherlands. Accountability models from other countries cannot be naively imported to the U.S. given the vital distinctions in socio political contexts. That being said, a look at some of the purposes or principles behind SSE/I--especially its emphasis on quality improvement--can nevertheless inform efforts to redesign and improve the U.S. accountability model. The purpose of this brief is to take just such a look at this model.
For decades, politicians have struggled to make educational opportunity more widely avail able and less tied to where a child's parents can afford to live. The reviewed Bellwether Education Partners' recent report attempts to examine the availability of low-income rental units in school districts to understand whether districts in the largest 200 metropolitan areas are accessible to families in poverty. While the report's focus on the intersection of housing and education policy for students' opportunities is commendable, it suffers from significant methodological shortcomings. These concerns and others severely limit the report's utility for informing social policy.
Summit Public Schools, a charter school organization operating schools in California and Oregon, published Pathways to Success: Exploring the Long-Term Outcomes of Alumni from Summit Public Schools in September 2021. The report claims that Summit alumni graduated from college at nearly double the national average and self-reported high levels of well-being, fulfillment, and workplace satisfaction. It also reports that alumni from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds now make more than $60,000 per year on average working full time. However, although the study may provide some information useful to Summit's internal decision-making, its serious methodological issues (e.g., survey research methods, response rates, sample bias, sample representativeness, and uses of comparative data) prevent it from having any implications for practice or policymaking in general.
Although macroeconomic indicators point to a broad economic recovery in Colorado, these indicators mask persistent challenges. One primary challenge is that the overall labor market has yet to fully recover to its pre-pandemic levels. The state's unemployment rate remains elevated and the overall number jobs in the state has not recovered to its pre-pandemic level. Further, some industries and populations have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and are still struggling with the pandemic's effects.
Research suggests that public schools serving advantaged students are more likely than other public schools to benefit from private fundraising. The reviewed report fails to conclusively demonstrate two key claims: that schools serving wealthy student bodies are more likely to have private fundraising groups, and that larger shares of white students are associated with increased private spending. Nonetheless, the report's approach of calculating per-pupil spending to estimate the magnitude of spending by private undraising organizations could be useful to scholars and policymakers interested in understanding the potential impact of school-specific fundraising organizations. These groups could also find report's recommendations helpful, especially those concerning tracking and equalizing funds raised.
This issue brief provides an overview of Colorado laws related to the retail sale of alcohol, including beer, wine, and spirits, in original sealed containers for off-premises consumption.
Research shows that emerging adults share many of the same characteristics of their younger peers, with "risk-taking" being a hallmark. But during this distinct developmental period, youth are particularly malleable and responsive to positive relationships and experiences. The vast majority of emerging adults will mature and desist from crime, irrespective of the level of the offense. This report focuses on ways that YOS can support this maturation process and avoid the major harms caused to youth convicted and sentenced in the adult criminal legal system. As the report notes, some of the current features of YOS are ineffective, harmful, and run counter to research.
This publication offers over forty different themes and lessons to help our colleagues, our organizations, and most of all ourselves to go from knowing that there are inequities to being proactive and doing something about it. It's a difficult topic, one that is complex, demanding, and controversial. This guidebook offers a foundation so that Colorado local government professionals need not walk in blind, can learn enough of the ins and outs to more confidently and competently move the needle.
This memorandum provides information about irrigation districts in Colorado. Specifically, it discusses the current irrigation districts, the powers and duties of irrigation districts, and how those powers and duties compare to those of special districts.
The memorandum provides a summary of the laws and regulations regarding the hours of operation for licensed liquor, marijuana, and limited gaming businesses.
The purpose of this publication is to help readers understand how Colorado finances its public elementary and secondary schools. The major focus is an explanation of the funding formula included in the Public School Finance Act of 1994, including amendments made to the act in 2021. Several illustrations are provided to help readers calculate funding under the formula.
In January 2022, the Affordable Housing Transformational Task Force reached near unanimous agreement on a set of transformational recommendations that will reshape Colorado's affordable housing system. The Task Force was created to ensure that this once-in-a-generation, one-time investment of $400 million, made possible by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), will allow Colorado to better meet the growing challenge of affordable housing, ranging from addressing homelessness to supporting housing Colorado's workforce.
