Guidelines
- Must be clearly related to proposing, implementing, evaluating, critiquing, informing, shaping, or changing an education policy or program. Papers on early childhood, PK-12, postsecondary, and out-of-classroom educational contexts/settings are welcome. The papers can be studies of the U.S., other countries, or cross-countries and can be quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods.
- Can be no longer than 60 pages double-spaced. Appendices can be as long as needed when submitting for publication. Papers must be 12 point font, have one inch margins, and have page numbers.
- Must be a full paper, with all the appropriate sections for a journal submission, ready to send for review.
- Must have the provided template, below, filled out. The template has the Steinhardt logo and includes author’s name(s), affiliation (Steinhardt department, Center, Lab etc.), best way to contact author(s), a statement if received funding and from whom, and a statement of 50 words or less on how the paper connects with education policy. The statement on connection to education policy could indicate how the paper could inform education policy in the long run, or help evaluate an education program in the short run, for example.
- Here are some examples of studies that evaluate or inform education policies or programs:
- An investigation of how implementing a school suspension ban affects special education placement and student outcomes
- A study on the effects of English learner reclassification policies on student achievement and course access
- An examination of school factors related to racial disproportionality in special education identification to inform which factors policymakers should be more attuned to as potential policy levers
- A study examining whether students from diverse linguistic backgrounds improve their achievement scores more in heterogeneous or homogenous groups
- A study assessing the impacts of a large-scale expansion of early childhood care and education services on young children’s pre-academic skills and development.
- A study on the organizational factors affecting educator retention or how a policy change affects educator outcomes (e.g., teaching quality, retention)
- A study examining the effects of the Child Tax Credit program on child development outcomes, with a focus on implications for education policy.
- A study on the implementation of a climate impact curriculum pilot in a school district.
- A qualitative examination of teacher responses to a district mandated reading reform.
- A meta-analysis of literature on any education policy topic!
Submission Instructions
We ask that you submit your paper as a word document or google docs. In line with NYU’s accessibility guidelines, which are meant to make papers broadly available to as many people as possible, all documents published in a website must be accessible. There are two options: we can make your paper accessible for you or you can use the resources provided below to make it accessible yourself.
If you want us to make your paper accessible
Please use the following template for the Education Policy Working Paper series and submit your paper as either a word document or google doc.
You may include a brief description of any figures in your paper, explaining what each figure illustrates. This will assist users who rely on screen readers to interact with the figures more easily. Alternatively, we can provide this information, based on the text of your paper and you can edit what we write or leave as it.
If you want to make your paper accessible yourself
Please use the following template for the Education Policy Working Paper series. For full instructions on accessibility please check the digital accessibility checklist.
If you populate the above template your document should comply with the guidelines. However, we ask that you check that you are following the guidelines below to comply with NYU’s digital accessibility requirement:
1) Submit a Word or a Google Docs document
Having the original source document will allow us to finalize it for sharing.
2) Headings and Heading Order
More information about accessible headings
Headings provide the underlying structure of a webpage or document and help assistive technology users to navigate, understand, and quickly find information. For example, a screen reader user can pull up a list of all the headings on the page and use them to navigate quickly between page sections.
Make sure you have descriptive headings, and that these are included in the outline. Headings are hierarchical – they start with a Heading 1 (H1), typically the Title of the document, or web page. Then, our Heading 2 (H2) is used to indicate the Main Idea or major sections of our information. Then we nest other headings (H3, H4) that are Supporting information or complementary to that main idea. These follow a logical pattern. When nesting headings, remember not to skip levels when creating sub-sections. For example, the H2 heading can be followed by the H3 heading, but not the H4.
3) Color Contrast and Use of Color
More information about accessible color use
Color Contrast Checkers
You can use a color contrast checker to determine if the color combination is compliant. Color contrast checking tools can compare two color values and report on the contrast ratio between them. Some tools will allow you to adjust these values until the ratio is sufficient, helping you to choose a color scheme that avoids contrast problems.
Make sure that the contrast ratio between text color and background color is at least 4.5:1 (or 3:1 for large text).
Use a Checker
- Colour Contrast Analyser [TPGi]
- Contrast Checker [WebAIM]
4) Creating Accessible Images and Graphs
More information about accessible images and graphs
Images and graphs are great to help convey meaning in a quick way. However, unless a text equivalent is provided, information in images cannot be accessed or understood by users who cannot see them.
Alternative Text (alt text) is a description of an image. It is useful for screen reader users to understand or interact with content. It is also useful for those on slow connections or those who may have images turned off in emails.
5) Assign Headers and Rows to Your Tables
More information about accessible tables
Define Column and Row Headers
The first row and the first column of the table should be marked as headers.
In the example table, the contents of the first row (Date, Holiday, Building Availability) are marked as column headers. The contents of the first column (each row) are marked as row headers.
This will clearly define the information and allow screen reader users to navigate through the data table hearing column and row headers conveyed.
Example Table
| Date | Holiday | Building Availability |
|---|---|---|
| September 2 | Labor Day | Closed |
| October 14 | Fall Break | Open |
| November 27 | Thanksgiving Recess | Open Until 4 p.m. |
| November 28-29 | Thanksgiving Recess | Closed |
| December 23-31 | Winter Recess | Closed |