This report provides comprehensive data about the tuition and fees prices published by public higher education institutions in the West for academic year 2021-22, including changes in tuition and fee rates over the past one-, five-, and 10-year periods. Key takeaways from this year's report include: (1) Average resident undergraduate tuition and…

This edition of "WICHE Insights" discusses the most recent results of WICHE's annual survey, "Tuition and Fees in the West," as well as the recent trends in state appropriations and state financial aid. Overall, the most recent data highlights a positive trend in state higher education finance as most states reported minimal…

Background: Significant health disparities exist for sexual minority youth (SMY). While supportive adults in schools have been shown to improve mental wellbeing and academic outcomes for students, most teachers do not receive training specific to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) students. Methods: The project…

We study the impact of a bonus policy implemented by Hawai'i Public Schools starting in fall 2020 that raised the salaries of all special education teachers in the state by $10,000. We estimate that the introduction of this policy reduced the proportion of vacant special education teaching positions by 32%, or 1.2 percentage points, and the…

The most recent data on tuition, appropriations, and state grant aid present an economic outlook that appears favorable in the West. Tuition rates remained relatively flat for the past decade, total state funding to higher education increased across the region in the past year, and state grant aid continued to increase since 2010-11. Despite these…

This report outlines key data elements related to the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE), Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP), and Professional Student Exchange Program (PSEP) for the 2021-22 academic year and is a core resource for policymakers, institutional leaders, counselors and other stakeholders across the region. This report…

This report provides comprehensive data about the tuition and fees prices published by public higher education institutions in the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) region for 2020-21, including changes in tuition and fee rates over the past one-, five-, and 10-year periods. Key takeaways from this year's report include:…

Although Hawai'i suffers from a chronic teacher shortage similar to the rest of the country, there are variables that make Hawai'i's dilemma unique. Between 2015-2020, there were over 1,000 teaching positions unfilled, with more than a third of positions being specific to special education (HIDOE Employment Reports, 2015-2020). In 2019, the…

This report provides comprehensive data about the tuition and fee prices published by public higher education institutions in the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) region for 2019-2020, including changes in tuition and fee rates over the past one-, five-, and 10-year periods. In addition to total tuition and fees, the…

To curb the negative impact that rural Hawaii's qualified special education teacher (SET) shortage has on students with disabilities, a professional development (PD) course was developed to examine the effect the program had on mentoring beginning SETs. Course programming was aligned to SET preparation coursework, targeted at the ongoing PD needs…

The most effective way to improve the performance of students is to improve the practice of their teachers (McLeskey & Brownell, 2015). Teachers must provide highly effective, research-based instruction responsive to the unique needs of students with disabilities for quality outcomes to occur. High-Leverage Practices (HLPs) were developed by…

Effective evidence-based action requires getting the right data into the right hands at the right time to help make decisions. The Data Quality Campaign (2011) has provided suggestions to state education agencies for effectively using data within state longitudinal data systems. One suggestion is to identify "the variety of ways available…

The author has been working for over four decades in the field of early childhood education (ECE). She is currently entering her fifth year as an early childhood teacher educator with the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM) College of Education. In her role, the author is teaching future professionals in a dual degree program with a preschool…

A recent survey of 41 different state boards of education revealed that officials from 28 states indicate that they are experiencing teacher shortages. The shortages in some states are significant. While the teacher shortage in many states is tied to different factors, one frequently cited reason for leaving the teaching profession is low pay.…

The purpose of this study was to examine how Hawaiian music teachers describe their uses of Hawaiian culture-based educational approaches in the music classroom. The theoretical lens of culture-based education framed the study in that it emphasizes increased attention to questions of cultural restoration within Indigenous communities. A collective…