Utah Foundation's Research for the Classroom Program

Sign up for email notification of new Resarch Reports and lesson plans

Lesson Plans are available for each of the reports listed below. If you would like electronic copies of graphs and tables for overheads, please ask by email, mentioning the report number.

• June 2004: Utah's Tax Situation
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• March 2004: The 2004 Utah Priorities Poll: The Top Issues and concerns of Utahns for the 2004 Gubernatorial Election
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• February 2004: Economic Recovery? A Comparison of Indicators for Utah and the United States Since March 2001
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• January 2004: Peak Load Growth Along the Wasatch Front: What's Driving Electricity Demand in Utah?
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• December 2003: State Government Debt in Utah: Rapid Growth in Recent Years
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• October 2003: Utah State Government Growth: 1991 to 2002
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• September 2003: Charter Schools: Can They Survive in Utah?
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• August 2003: Utah’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP): How Well Are We Doing?
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• July 2003: Utah Statewide School Testing Results: 2002, Including an Analysis of Technology in Utah Schools
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• May 2003: Redistributing Utah's Tax Resources: Burdens and Benefits Around the State
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• February 2003: The National Recession: Its Impacts on Utah and the Mountain West
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• January 2003: School Choice: Experiences with Vouchers and Tuition Tax Credits in Other States
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• December 2002: Utah's Regional Competitiveness for Non-Resident Higher Education Students
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• September 2002: Utah at the Crossroads: Challenges for K-12 Education in the Coming Ten Years
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• July 2002: Welfare in Utah: What Programs are Available and How Have Federal Reforms Affected Them?
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• May 2002: The Status of Private Schools in Utah
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
     
• April 2002: Creating an Oasis, Part Two: Water Consumption, Pricing and Conservation in Utah
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
  • Overheads (Print these on transparencies or use a computer-based projector for classroom use)
     
• March 2002: Utah Statewide School Testing Results: 2001
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
  • Overheads (Print these on transparencies or use a computer-based projector for classroom use)
     
• February 2002: Economic Recessions, Taxes, and Utah: Lessons Learned From the Past
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
  • Overheads (Print these on transparencies or use a computer-based projector for classroom use)
     
• February 2002: Creating an Oasis: Water Development and Funding in Utah
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
  • Overheads (Print these on transparencies or use a computer-based projector for classroom use)

• November 2001: Setting the Price of Higher Education in Utah
  • Research Report
  • Lesson Plan
  • Overheads (Print these on transparencies or use a computer-based projector for classroom use

Now Free for Teachers!

Thanks to generous grants from the George S. and Delores Dore Eccles Foundation and the Union Pacific Foundation, these reports and lesson plans are available free on our website for social studies teachers. A few years ago, we charged a significant subscription for this service.

Many teachers find that lessons based on Utah Foundation research are an excellent way to bring Utah-specific issues into the classroom, providing a relevant, locally interesting way for students to learn and apply broader social studies concepts.

Any Utah teacher of social studies, economics, political science, or related subjects can receive each report and lesson plan by email as soon as it is published. This library of reports and lesson plans is also available here on our website so you can choose from past topics.

By signing up for our free email list, you will receive the following benefits from this program:

• Research Reports: Roughly six issues per year delivered by email, covering a wide range of topics on Utah's governments, economy and public policy issues. See the reports at left for samples of the topics we've recently covered.
   
• Lesson Plans: Each report will come with a related lesson plan that provides quiz questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking activities. The lesson plan identifies where the lesson fits into Utah's Social Studies core curriculum and provides a list of related internet resources.
   
• Overhead Masters: Many of the graphs and charts in our Research Reports make great overheads for use in class discussions. You can request by email (mentioning the report number), and we will create a PDF file with these graphs in a full-page electronic format, so you can print them in color on transparencies or use them with a computer and LCD projector.

Although you can find these materials here at any time, we would like to add your name to our email list so that you will receive notice whenever a new Research Report is published and a new lesson plan is posted online. Including you on our email list also helps us to know how widely our lesson plans are used, which is useful in securing the ongoing grant funding we will need to keep the program running.

Your email address and other information will not be shared with any other organization or individual, and you will only receive information related to this program from Utah Foundation.

Click here for instructions on joining our free Research for the Classroom email list.

If you have any comments or suggestions on how this program could be improved to better meet your needs, please don't hesitate to contact Steve Kroes by phone (801-355-1400) or email at steve@utahfoundation.org.