Researchers with ISER study a number of important topics related to education, including what the state spends per pupil and how it invests in school facilities. Two legislative briefs from 2021 analyzed the cost for school districts in providing basic but critical needs: internet access and energy.
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Ever wondered if you are the only one who goes to the Alaska State Fair for some amazing Fair food? According to findings from the 2018 Alaska State Fair Exit survey, 67% of fairgoers surveyed said their main reason for attending the Fair was for the food!
Volunteers and staff of the Alaska State Fair surveyed 398 fairgoers during the 2018 Alaska State Fair; the survey instrument was based on one administered at the 2013 Fair by McDowell Group. Alaska State Fair, Inc. management asked ISER to assist in using the data they collected to prepare a 2018 Exit Survey report and to compare findings to past years (2005, 2010, and 2013).
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The Alaska Association for Career & Technical Education (ACTE) held their annual professional development conference, Growing Stronger Together 2019, this week at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage.
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ISER Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR) Director Dayna DeFeo and Research Professionals Jessica Passini and Trang Tran provided findings from two separate evaluation projects at a statewide meeting of educators and education administrators.
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Jessica Passini, ISER researcher, shared work being done at ISER and its Center for Behavioral Health Research at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting in San Diego. Passini presented a poster developed with co-authors Rosyland Frasier and Diane King, on how health care practitioners’ use of data in Electronic Health Records is important to the successful implementation of SBIRT - an evidence-based practice to identify patients who misuse alcohol and help them reduce their drinking.
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ISER’s Dayna DeFeo, director of the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR), and Research Associates Jessica Passini and Trang Tran provided current research to educators, administrators and policymakers on student transitions from high school to post-secondary education, including college and technical schools.
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All Americans spend a lot to get health care—but Alaskans spend the most per resident, face the highest insurance premiums, and have seen overall spending grow much faster. Jessica Passini, Rosyland Frazier, and Mouhcine Guettabi of ISER have compiled a chart book of publically available information on health-care spending in Alaska and nationwide since the 1990s and highlight some trends in a new publication, “Trends in Alaska’s Health-Care Spending.”The chart book, available online, synthesizes a wide range of data and present it as an objective, easy-to-use resource. The authors hope this broad information on trends in health-care spending will help Alaskans better understand what happened, consider possible reasons why, and think about potential ways to change the upward spiral.
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The Alaska Division of Elections asked ISER to survey voters in three southwest Alaska census areas, to ask what methods they'd like to use for voting in the future. More than 400 registered voters took the survey: 49% wanted to keep voting as they do now, at polling places; 36% preferred to get ballots in the mail and have options for returning them; and 14% wanted to get ballots in the mail and mail them back.
The division is interested in what voters prefer for the future, because it will soon need to replace state voting equipment that's outdated and expensive to repair. Interviewers called voters in the Bethel, Dillingham, and Kusilvak census areas and got a 70% response rate.
Download the report, Perceptions of Universal Ballot Delivery Systems, by Virgene Hanna and Jessica Passini. If you have questions about the survey, get in touch with Virgene Hanna, ISER's survey director, at mhanna7@alaska.edu.
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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been at the top of the news lately, with Congress considering but then dropping proposed changes. Congress will try again to change the ACA—but it’s uncertain how or when. A new overview by Linda Leask, Rosyland Frazier, and Jessica Passini of ISER brings together information from many sources to describe health-care coverage Alaskans have now, and how ACA provisions have changed that coverage.
The Harold E. Pomeroy Public Policy Endowment supported their research. Download the summary, How Do Alaskans Cover Their Medical Bills? (PDF, 663.8KB)
If you have questions, call Linda Leask, ISER's editor, at 907-786-5425.
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Research Matters No. 95. Assessing Repeat Child Maltreatment in Alaska December 15, 2015 Statistics from the federal Children’s Bureau show that the rate of repeat child abuse and neglect in Alaska is among the highest in the country. But a new study by ISER researchers Diwakar Vadapalli and Jessica Passini finds that even those grim numbers may underestimate how many children in Alaska are repeatedly abused or neglected.