Career Technical Education (CTE) policies and programs have increasingly focused on supporting the needs of historically marginalized learners and closing access and performance gaps among learner groups. Perkins V, the latest iteration of federal CTE legislation known as the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, is part of this…

Great teachers recognize great assessments. As policy and education leaders work to make sure state tests are measuring the problem-solving, writing, and critical-thinking skills students need for success, they should convene and rely on teachers to review test quality and help answer the question: Do the questions on our state test reflect…

The report contains real-world, proven school climate strategies to guide policymakers in building a comprehensive and coherent state-wide approach for improving school climate. It features 12 recommendations linked to existing state policy examples policymakers can use to build a comprehensive, coherent state-wide approach for improving school…

This document is the fourth and final installment of this Forum series of guides on longitudinal data systems (LDS). One goal of the National Forum on Education Statistics (the Forum) is to improve the quality of education data gathered for use by policymakers and program decisionmakers. An approach to furthering this goal has been to pool the…

This paper examines the politics of special education finance reform in three states (Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont) that have enacted substantial legislative change within the past 5 years. These case studies were extracted from presentations made by the three state directors of special education at a 1994 conference. Each case study includes…

This report describes the process and outcomes of implementing Oregon state legislation (Senate Bill 814 in 1991), which restructured the state's special education funding system. The new system provides districts with grants that are twice the regular per student allocation for every identified special education student up to 11 percent of the…

Focusing on law enforcement agents and taxpayers at the local level, this two-part report examines facts about crime in the United States and reports results of a survey conducted to determine attitudes about crime and police protection. Part One presents facts and issues related to types of crime, crime statistics, the extent of crime, trends in…

In order to achieve the expectations for children's learning stipulated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, greater attention needs to be given to child care policy and funding. This report details a study examining strategies in seven states that have integrated early education program standards in child care, by directly tying standards to…

This report of a 2-year study on public university responsiveness to academic and vocational reforms in public K-12 schools and community colleges focuses on: (1) how state universities respond to curricular experiments, and (2) the difficulties reformers encounter with universities. The report presents a brief summary of previous progressive…

In their 2004 State of the State speeches, the nation's governors cited many issues competing for their attention and their states' resources, including health care, education, crime, and security (Nodine 2004). Among the most compelling challenges were those related to economic development and the ability of a state's workforce to meet the needs…

Intended for federal policymakers, this study examined four aspects of the Chapter 1 migrant education program: program administration, program services, students served, and program expenditures. Case studies were conducted in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Texas between November 1986 and March 1987. State agencies and…

In this theme issue of The "OSSC Bulletin" educators speak out about what they think their schools are doing right. The project goal was to select schools with varied socioeconomic backgrounds from different parts of the state, as well as to include at least one rural school and one innercity school. The two elementary schools, two…