In the past few years, Seattle has been doing okay with digging out of the pandemic with the job market increasing and transit recovering, however, new state test results are showing that learning loss is something that Washington is still recovering from. According to the Seattle Times article, “New test scores show WA schools aren’t over COVID. They could be,” standardized test scores show that about 9% more students are testing below grade level than they did before the pandemic. The tests also found that only 50.3% of students are reading at or above their grade level. How does this get fixed? CSDE Affiliate Dan Goldhaber provided some insight on the matter. In a study that he co-authored this summer, he stated that, “federal spending on extra tutoring, summer school, and other catch-up efforts has helped.” However, to recover from the remaining learning losses, he estimates that schools need to spend between $9,000 and $13,000 in additional funds per student. Read the rest of the article to learn how COVID is still affecting Washington students and schools today.
UW Royalty Research Fund Applications Due Soon! (9/30/24)
Each fall and spring, the UW’s Royalty Research Fund reviews proposals from UW researchers from across all three campuses. The next deadline for applications is 5:00pm on September 30, 2024. However, your college or unit may have different internal deadlines. If you are a CSDE affiliate, CSDE is happy to help with submitting and administering your RRF application. Please submit a proposal planning form to CSDE to let us know you’d like our help with preparing the budget and submitting the grant. Additionally, if you would like to request matching funds or resources to accompany your RRF application, please let us know via CSDE’s matching support application form. For all these requests to CSDE for support, please provide us with as much lead time as possible. Several CSDE faculty have received RRF funding, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to Steven Goodreau for examples. Let CSDE know how we can help you prepare.
Notably, RRF funding priorities are to first, and foremost, advance new directions in research and to support faculty and researchers:
- who are junior in rank.
- where funding may provide unique opportunities to increase applicants’ competitiveness for subsequent funding.
- in disciplines for which external funding opportunities are minimal.
For those interested, the College of Arts and Sciences is hosting a session to go over applying for RRF funding for anyone who may wish to apply or is in the midst of working on their application but is unsure of the benefits of applying or the specifics of the process. This session will take place over Zoom on Wednesday, September 11th, at 3:00 PM. The Zoom link is https://washington.zoom.us/j/99639607802
Call for Abstracts – 24th EWC International Graduate Student Conference on the Asia-Pacific, February 13-16, 2025, Honolulu, Hawai’i (Submission Due 9/30/24)
24th Annual International Graduate Student Conference
East-West Center
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi | February 13-16, 2025
Call for Abstracts
The East-West Center International Graduate Student Conference (IGSC) is accepting abstracts from current graduate students, as well as from young professionals and scholars, who have completed a graduate degree within the past three years. One of the largest student conferences focused on the Asia Pacific region, we are looking for submissions from all fields of study. This year’s theme is Our Unique Planet: Navigating Our Shared Future.
Abstract submissions
All abstract submissions must be made through the secure Submittable online platform. The deadline to submit abstracts is September 30th, 2024, 23:59 hrs (Hawaiʻi Standard Time). Please see the conference website for Frequently Asked Questions on abstract guidelines, conference registration, and other logistics. For any other questions not covered in Frequently Asked Questions, please send your inquiry to the IGSC team at igsc@eastwestcenter.org.
Hall and von Geldern Receive Research Grant from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
CSDE Affiliate Crystal Hall and former CSDE Trainee and Evans PhD Student Will von Geldern recently received a research grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families. This grant will go towards their project No Right to Counsel: Barriers to the Take-up of Legal Aid for Evicted Tenants. This grant from the Behavioral Interventions Scholars program will support Will’s dissertation research on the individual and structural barriers that low-income tenants face when trying to access eviction-related legal aid.
Allard Publishes Blog Post with Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
CSDE Affiliate Scott Allard is a visiting scholar with the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank and has been working with their Community Development Team. Dr. Allard recently published a blog post with Elizabeth Kneebone of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco titled, “The Shifting Landscape of Job Proximity: A Conversation with Visiting Scholar Scott Allard.” Kneebone sat down with Dr. Allard to discuss the poverty and employment issues in the U.S. and to discuss the research collaboration they are undertaking to examine the changing nature of job access for low-income workers and communities across the United States. Visit the link to read the entire interview.
*New* The Journal of Population Sustainability (JP&S) Welcomes Submissions Dealing with any Aspect of Environmental Sustainability with a Demographic Dimension
The Journal of Population and Sustainability (JP&S) welcomes submissions (research/review articles, commentaries, book reviews etc.) dealing with any aspect of environmental sustainability with a demographic dimension.
They are the only “diamond” open access publication in the field – meaning that we make no charges to authors or readers.
The JP&S’ scope extends well beyond human population growth and sustainability, and they welcome submissions examining issues such as the following:
- the relationships between wider population dynamics (such as migration, urbanization and local population decline) and environmental change.
- (un)sustainability considered in terms of the interconnections between demographic dynamics and wider factors such as: social values/norms; local/global social and economic inequality; environmental ethics/justice; political and economic power/systems; technological change etc.
- the effect of the expansion of the human enterprise on the populations and welfare of other species including livestock.
Please see their website to view the journal’s full aims and objectives.
Call for Papers on Immigration and Families: Examining the Causes, Processes, and Consequences of Migration
IES Announces Education Research Grants Competition (LOIs due 6/27, Full application due 9/12/24)
Williams Receives NSF Ethical and Responsible Research Grant
CSDE Affiliate Nathalie Williams recently received an Ethical and Responsible Research Grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). There is much research and data collection on population health in areas and territories that are affected by conflict. Different countries and institutions have different practices and guidelines when it comes to conducting this research, which can cause challenges like data quality and access, risks of re-traumatizing research subjects, and the politicization of data and research findings. This project aims to compare and contrast the various practices of population and health research in conflict-affected areas to generate standardized guidelines and best practices for all those who work in this area.
Mathematica study seeking volunteers for project on reporting metrics for usage of federal assets: Data Usage Platform usability testing (9/9/24-9/16/24)
About the project: We are working on a project for the National Center on Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), a principal statistical agency within the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Our project aims to investigate how—and to what extent— various federal data assets like data files, tables, and tools are created and used in academic research, state program evaluations, data journalism, and other contexts. As part of this effort, we will be developing a prototype Data Usage Platform (DUP) to better understand the uses of federal data. The overall goal of the DUP project is to build a robust and sustainable shared service framework to enable the federal data ecosystem to better understand the uses of its federal data. The DUP will (1) search for references to federal datasets used in published research, articles, and other reports, (2) calculate usage statistics to help us better understand how—and to what extent—agency datasets are currently being leveraged, and (3) display this information through an interactive dashboard and other tools.
Request for input: The usability testing will be conducted by videoconference. The input you provide in this meeting will inform our decisions on a new Data Usage Platform solution. Participating in the usability testing will not require any preparation and we will ask you questions about the DUP platform wireframes that we will display. Your participation is voluntary, and you can decline to participate or to answer any questions. All information you provide will be kept confidential. We will record the usability testing for note-taking purposes, if given your permission. These recordings will be deleted once the session has been fully transcribed. The usability testing would happen within the next few weeks, at a time convenient for your schedule.
Interested parties can contact Aivo Kivi at AKivi@mathematica-mpr.com.