ISER researchers Matt Berman and Dayna DeFeo have released a new report updating their previous analyses of Alaska’s current per-pupil education spending. The report is available here: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/15717
Read More
In this new ISER report (https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/handle/11122/14906), ISER economist Matthew Berman and CAEPR director Dayna DeFeo explore how Alaska teacher salaries compare to the national average, adjusted for cost of living differences. They also examined trends in salaries of Alaska and US teachers adjusted for inflation over the past several decades, and how the salary differentials have changed over time.
Read More
The public is invited to an education policy forum titled: “Funding Education in Alaska: Lessons and Insights from Local and National Research” on February 8, 2024, at 5:00 pm in the Egan Lecture Hall room 112 on the UAS campus in Juneau. This free event, co-sponsored by the UAS School of Education and the UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), features Dr.
Read More
This is a list of recent publications and reports by CAEPR and ISER focused on school finance, teacher workforce issues (recruitment, retention, and turnover),and related topics. This represents only a small portion of the education-related products from CAEPR and ISER. All CAEPR/ISER reports are available on the web at Scholarworks@UA, and you can see many of our peer-reviewed journal publications on journal websites or via the UAA/APU Consortium Library.
Read More
The public is invited to an education policy forum titled: “Funding Education in Alaska: Lessons and Insights from Local and National Research” on February 8, 2024, at 5:00 pm in the Egan Lecture Hall room 112 on the UAS campus in Juneau. This free event, co-sponsored by the UAS School of Education and the UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), features Dr.
Read More
On Thursday, December 7th, ISER hosted a Helen and Edward Gorsuch Public Policy Forum titled "Public Education Funding in Alaska: What we know, what we don't and how other states do it".
Read More
A new generation of ISER researchers discuss the questions that fascinate them and the challenges of conducting social science and policy research in Alaska. Lee Gorsuch, ISER director between 1976 and 1994, joined to provide a perspective from the past.
Read More
This 2022 update to a 2019 report analyzes Alaska’s per-pupil spending compared to that of other U.S. states, using 2019 and 2017 figures respectively. After adjusting for Alaska’s higher living costs, and accounting for differing per-pupil spending costs across the state, the figures show that Alaska’s 2019 per student spending was only 93% of the national average, compared to 98% in 2017.
Read More
"We are in a perfect storm where we don't have enough teachers," said Dayna DeFeo, director of the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR). DeFeo and ISER director Diane Hirshberg discussed CAEPR's research on teacher turnover issues in rural Alaska with Steve Heimel, of KYUK Bethel.
Read More
New research from ISER’s Trang Tran and Dayna DeFeo examined how relationships influence rural Alaska students’ transitions from home communities to postsecondary institutions. Their analysis identified characteristics of the transition processes that seem particular to rural students—in navigating urban places and cultural norms, seeking institutional supports, advocating for self, and forming new social relationships. In all of these experiences, rural identities and community-oriented values emerged as a guiding force for students’ goal-setting, decision-making, interactions, and adjustment.